Well good evening to all of my babies out there! I realize that I have missed two months of postings, and it has been driving me nuts! I promise the full moon did not pass without my thinking of you and praying for you, but its also been a crazy busy two months, and I just never did get the pics posted. Here are November, December, and January, so you can see I did take the pictures! I always do. So look up!....and know that the God of all creation loves you and He knows your name!! Yes, He knows your name. He knows YOU. He loves YOU. I believe, no wait, I KNOW, that within every human heart, there is a desire to know this fact. Many people run from it. Many people deny it. Many people reject it. Many people refuse to embrace it. Yet there comes a point in every human life when one comes face to face with that moment of despair, or desperation, or just utter frustration with ones life when he or she wants so badly to just cry out to God for help. Some do, and eventually find their way out. Others do not. They seek other solutions and eventually find themselves right back in the same position of desperation. Weve all been there. I was actually there myself about a month ago, believe it or not. Some of you are probably saying, Not you, Mrs. West! Oh yes, me. Its part of the reason for my silence these past two months. I was slowly but surely being sucked into a dark fog that I couldnt seem to find my way out of. The reason? Well, it was a combination of several, but it was very real. I hated it. I had become way too busy with answering emails, preparing teams, taking care of needs in our village, going out on mobile medical clinics, working to get desperate individuals the medical attention they needed, the list could go on and on, but my point is, I had become so busy that I began to put my time with God on the back burner. I would sleep a little later, rush through my devotional time (sometimes skip it all together), start a million different projects and not finish a one, and suddenly every little road block, frustration, or irritation began to wear my spirit down. By the time December came along, I was utterly at my wits end. The enemy began to attack. He hit me with all sorts of things that he knew I was in no emotional state to handle well. I found myself crying at the drop of a hat. I could no longer minister to others because I was weary. I just wanted to go inside my house, close the curtains, and sleep. I was miserable. Then a few weeks ago, just before Christmas, I found myself staring at the dark ceiling in my bed one night, unable to sleep, so I began praying. At first it felt like my prayers were just floating around above my head as if the ceiling was blocking them from Gods ear. Then He gently reminded me that sin is like that ceiling that I felt was separating me from His ability to hear me. Isaiah 59:2 says, But your sins have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. I realized then that I needed to search my heart and find that sin that was separating me from my Father. I cried out to Him and asked that He reveal it to me because I really had no idea. Then I recalled Jeremiah 17:5-6 that says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. This is exactly how I felt. I was exhausted and felt like a withering shrub in the desert, and I realized that I had begun to rely on my own strength instead of Gods, and I was failing miserably. I was desperate. Jeremiah 29:13 says,“When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” Thats the MSG version. The ESV version says it like this: You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. So I had reached a point of seeking Him with all my heart, and guess what. I found Him. He gently reminded me that His Word is like food for my soul and now that I recognized my sin of neglecting my relationship with Him, I needed to get back to nourishing my soul with His Word. I needed to realize that I cant save the world, and I cant provide everything that everyone needs, and I cant do it all myself, or I will just mess it all up! I realized that I needed to stop being so self-centered and turn my focus back to God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings ever greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (NCV). In other words, real change happens when we turn our eyes away from ourselves and turn our attention to God. It doesnt happen over night. For most of us, it takes a lifetime of growing closer and closer to God and recognizing when we are moving in the wrong direction and turning back to Him. But it has to start somewhere. It starts with that moment of desperation when youve said, not just with your mouth but with your heart, Ive had enough! Ive made a mess of things! I admit that I am stubborned and cant do it alone. I need You, God, to guide my life. Then you pick up His Word, read it daily, let Him speak to you in prayer, reject anything that distracts you from Him, and look for reasons to praise Him. One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. If you make a conscious effort to think in this way, you will find your way out of the fog. If today you find yourself in a dark fog, not knowing which way to turn, feeling like you have made a total mess of things, and absolutely exhausted with the way your life has been going round and round in circles, making the same mistakes over and over again, let me give you a little advice. Try God. Cry out to Him, ask Him to show you your sin, face your sin and turn from it, get in His Word daily, and find things to praise Him for. Slowly but surely He will lead you out of the fog, and it will be the best decision you ever made in your entire life. I love you all! Until next full moon..... I will be praying for you! ~Mrs. West
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:42:06 +0000
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