A Stirred Up Spirit

Today I started reading the book of Ezra.  In the first chapter a phrase jumped off the page at me.

              "the LORD stirred up the spirit" (Ezra 1:1) and 

                                      "everyone whose spirit God had stirred" (Ezra 1:5)

The idea of a "stirred spirit by God" is really big.  What would happen if everyone who said they were a Christian lived with a spirit that was continually being stirred by God?  

Here in Ezra, God stirred the spirits of the people to return to Him, to rebuild the temple and to worship Him as He had said.  I feel that the "church" today needs this same stirring. We desperately need to be more concerned about Kingdom affairs than we are. Church isn't about money, numbers, making an appearance, feeling better about yourself, and certainly not about feeling comfortable.  The God we serve is BIG and He asks something of His people - to live a life by His direction now our own.   

To live this way is scary and dangerous.  It requires trust and surrender.  To live a life that God says, we must be able to honestly say that even if we don't understand His plan, it is still a better plan that the one we've been dreaming up.  You have to give up something to be a Christian - Your life with your plans and dreams for His. 

No, I'm not always good at this but I want to be.  

I want to be the kind of person 

God knows will obey 

without question when

He stirs my spirit.



My husband showed me this video today and I thought it fit really well.

The Prayer Shawl - response

When I completed the prayer shawl, I thought I couldn't feel better but I was wrong.  After I gave the prayer shawl to its rightful owner, I received a note in the mail the next day. 

It said,

"Sarah - Thank you for the beautiful prayer shawl.  You don't know how much it means to me."

So simple but exactly what I needed to hear.  I had put a lot of work into the shawl and it was truly a journey but to know that it made a difference in the recipient's life was the best part of the project by far.  

The Prayer Shawl

Sometimes it is really hard to finish what we start.  Several months ago I started crocheting a prayer shawl for a woman who I had become very hardened too.  Of course, I had my reasons.  She had hurt me but when we allow our hurts to control us, we are often paralysed.  I felt this way around her - paralysed.  I was letting my fears of her reactions to control my life.  

I genuinely needed to forgive her.  Forgiveness is such a long process and I knew that if I didn't have some source of accountability, I was not going to deal with the problem, thus the start of the prayer shawl project.  You see, when you make a prayer shawl, the point is to pray for the person you are making it for the entire time you stitch.  Honestly, there were times when I was tired of praying for her.  There were times when I stitched just to get it done - in fact I had to restart the project more times than I care to mention.  I also went through a long spell of simply avoiding the project all together.  BUT today, I finished it and I feel like a huge weight is lifted.  

No, I don't think that my making this prayer shawl is going to make me best friends with this woman but I do know that through this, my heart has softened towards her in a way that only God can do.  

I strongly encourage you to take forgiveness seriously and not put things like this off.  Hurts can so easily turn to bitterness and unfortunately, bitterness was where my heart was leaning.  There is freedom in forgiveness. 

Circumstances

One of the things that is very difficult for me to share are things that deal with the emotional.  That may seem strange with my interest in counseling/people helping but to be honest, it is so much easier to look at the problems of other people with an open mind.  At least when the counseling session is over, you can separate yourself from the situation and move on.  But when the problem is your own, separation from it is avoidance or denial which will only make the situation worse in the long run.

Lately, there have been several situations that have felt me feeling emotionally drained.  So much so that I find I don't even know how to pray about them anymore. Today, I felt a glimmer of hope while reading in Philippians.  Paul is writing here to the Christians living in Philippi while he is in prison and he says, "Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel..." (Philippians 1:12 NASB)  This verse really spoke to me today.  Sometimes, we can feel like we are stuck in different situations, maybe even imprisoned emotionally but God is still able to use these things for the betterment of the gospel.  It may seem simple and elementary but I needed that today.  If God is able to use my current struggles, and I know that He is big enough to do so, these struggles are worth it.