The Storms, Part 1

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

look full in His wonderful face

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim

in the light of His glory and grace.

This song has been on my mind the last couple of days.  I feel like it is God gently calling me to come to Him.

You don’t have to have anything “major” going on in your life to be struggling.  Sometimes we struggle no matter how good things are in our lives.  We struggle against the lies of the enemy even when we know the truth of God’s Word in our minds.  The enemy is often there waiting to distort whatever little thing he can to get you believe one of his lies and cause you to be upset, depressed, and/or stuck where you are at emotionally.  These things happen sometimes whether we are dealing with a so called “big” or “major” traumatic event in our lives or everything is “normal” and “good” from an outside stance.  The words of this song have been gently spoken to my heart several times in the last few days, a gentle calling and reminder to keep my eyes on Him and not the struggle, on Him and not the battle, on Him and not the lies that I am tempted to believe and that Satan wants me to believe so that I become ineffective for the kingdom.

Whether you are in a major storm of life right now or everything seems calm around you, but you are still struggling inside, I encourage you to hear the words of this song.  Jesus is sweetly, gently, lovingly calling you to turn your eyes upon Him.  Look into His eyes and walk through whatever storm you are in as He guides you through.

I have given birth to five children, the last three of which were completely natural births—no pain meds, no epidural, nothing.  Many people think I am crazy for doing it, but it was something I prayed about for a long time and asked for God’s grace to do, and He gave it to me.  The pain of childbirth, at least for me, becomes increasingly intense as you move along in the labor.  In fact, it gets downright unbearable.  I learned from my experiences in labor that there was a certain point when the pain got to be too much and I couldn’t go on UNLESS every time a contraction started coming, I stopped all other thoughts, shut out all other things, and turned and looked completely and fully into my husband’s eyes until the contraction passed.  If I stopped focusing on looking into my husband’s eyes, I was unable to bear the pain, unable to keep going.  If I stopped focusing my eyes on his eyes, I became distraught, frantic, and confused from the intensity of the pain, but if I kept my eyes trained on his, I was able to make it through.  We will have to go through storms in this life.  They are going to come—outward struggles and those inward struggles we don’t let many, if anyone, ever see.  Turning our eyes upon Jesus, looking full into His wonderful face, letting Him take care of the storms we face while we keep our eyes and hearts trained on Him is what will get us through those storms.

Let yourself experience His goodness and faithfulness to bring you through the storm as you look full into His wonderful face and keep your eyes on His.

Thank You, Lord, for working in my heart and gently leading me forward in the storms of life.

Keeping my eyes on Him,

Julie

P.S.-Remember this:  The Lord is my shepherd.  He pursues me and searches for me when I am lost.  He carries me when I am hurt.  He gently leads me through to peace, to the other side of the storm where the sun begins to come out from behind the clouds while I keep my eyes trained upon His.