Will You?

Psalm 118:24 - This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I admit there are many times my will is my own! It's not God's. How I long for the day when every bit of my will is gone and only His will exists in me. This will be a long wait I think. There are times I let my will subside...many times to keep peace, other times because I defer to authority. But then, aren't we always to defer to authority? Think of yourself less than others? Oh, I know there are times when we do not want to defer to someone if what they do is not what we think is right...or in the will of God.

When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do.  This is a truth that Oswald Chambers spoke about in his My Utmost for His Highest devotion for July 8. God gave me a vision 11 years ago. It wasn't the kind of vision you might think. He just impressed upon me what I needed to do at that instant...receive Him, receive His grace and mercy, receive His love and eternal life. I chose to accept the challenge and am so grateful for it.

I have met the most wonderful people in the process. Some friends come, some go, but there are always those who will never leave because of the bond we have in Christ. There just is nothing like it...the red thread that binds us to Christ. It's amazing.

I met one such friend last week. On July 8. We'd known each other from our similar blogs and finally had a chance to meet. She lives in Indiana and I in Wisconsin. But isn't the Lord good? She and her husband have "Wisconsin friends" they visit every summer. So we worked out a plan. What a day.

So I awoke to the song, This is the Day the Lord has Made. It was quite the day. I had no expectations and was open to whatever might transpire, even if it meant walking away disappointed. I didn't know how to pray that morning so I committed everything into the Lord's hands! All I could say was, "Lord, this is your day. Do as you wish." It was all I could do! That meant, really, what He would do.


I was excited to say the least! I pushed all thoughts aside and decided it was up to God to be my eyes, my ears, my mouth and my heart. Then I read Jeremiah and took the words to heart with anticipation and added excitement that I would just be what God had called me to be...and be obedient.

Jeremiah 1:5, 9 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you...."Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth." 

I only had what God gave me to offer. The day was going to be special. I just knew it. How did I know? What was our connection? Basically our love of Christ. He's the bond in our lives. There's a special connection when He is the center. It's like you've known each other for so long.  God put the words in both our mouths because what God told Jeremiah was for each of us as well.

I chose Christ and as Chambers suggests, think back on that day when He first desired me to choose something new to know that He is in that new thing He is proposing. He never fails. Choosing the right thing is always a blessing if it's His will. You may think you're giving something up you cannot live without, but let me tell you, He replaces it to the point where you think back and wonder what the big deal was...like living without Him as Savior. Like meeting brothers and sisters in Christ and bonding in the most deep and intimate, godly, way. Nothing like it.

Choose this day whom you will serve. You choose to do it...now. And amazing things come as a result...especially the peace. There was peace in the day Shirley and I met for the first time. There was bonding. In the middle of it all, there was Christ.

I could have been wrought with insecurity or self-doubt upon meeting her, but as only God can do, we met, we shared, we bonded with that one common red thread. He was there in our midst. We both were who He made us to be, with that strong bond of loyalty to the One who created us and who joined us as sisters in Christ.

Matthew 18:20 - For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.