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Joy In The Morning... A Testimony Of God's Love

[Published with permission at IndyChristian.com ... @LindaLMartin is a friend you'd love to have. Friend-up!]



This morning joy means being able to go outside in a beautiful yard that was tenderly planted years ago. It was planted by someone else’s hand, while I was learning to find joy in one of the darkest times of my life.

This morning Joy meant planting giant sunflowers for the birds and marigolds to keep the bugs down. This morning Joy meant having a little cart to carry water jugs to the places in the yard the yard that the leaky hose doesn’t reach. This morning Joy meant being able to walk with a cane and a cell phone that clips to my shirt, so that If I fell there was a way to call someone to rescue me. This morning Joy meant tenderly watering all the things, my assistant, Mary, planted, with such love for my birthday, so I would have fresh food this summer when the money runs out.

This morning Joy is restoration of many things that have been stolen or that I had to relinquish in my life. God Knew, just like he knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He knew that this house and this yard with all these plants and these friends and even Mary were exactly what I needed, because he made this need in me for his Glory.

He knew what horses, what cats, what dogs, what child, what experiences. He even knew how I needed to see the two doves that appeared on my deck this morning as I was standing there. So beautiful , so gentle, those two doves are so representative of his grace too.

Twenty-two years ago I had to grasp at life lines trying to find some sort of joy. As time went forward, I never thought I would be alive now. Another amazing grace! Joy then was very different. Joy was for once being safe from the brutality of everyday life. Joy was having enough food for my baby. Joy was getting up early enough after being up with grandma till 3am, to keep her from walking the half mile, down the mountain and out to the main road so she could hitch-hike to town, while I slept. I never did understand why people with Alzheimer’s always wanted to go, it didn’t matter where, just someplace.

Joy was new baby kittens. Joy was song birds everywhere. Joy was the first night my daughter called me momma. Joy was learning to love solitude because the alternative is just lonely. Joy was 4:30 every afternoon when I went outside and looked out over the valley and just prayed for everyone and everything and listened to God. Joy was the continuous hope that one day when everyone came home from work that just one person might recognize that what I did was valuable and contributed, and that they might spend a little time really just talking with me.

Tomorrow I am 54. What a surprise! That doctor, that told my family I would be long dead by now, was just WRONG! And I am counting it all joy! Because everything I went through just equips me for the next 50 years. I have learned to understand a lot about poverty. Not just money poverty, but poverty of spirit. God took me, this selfish ambitious woman and filled me with eyes to see the way he does.

People I would have judged by my own religious spirit, I am now beginning to see, not as those who fall short of the glory of the standard of men’s own faith, but as people loved by God just as they are. They are so loved by God that he cuts them all sorts of slack, to get them where he wants them to be. Where he wants them is in close relationship to him, really knowing him, personally knowing him and so totally in love with him that they hear, really hear and cling to his voice. That they understand that the Bible is not a book of historical mythology or, weapons of oppressive laws and rules, but it is a love letter to everyone who ever lived of how patient and loving and tolerant is the All Powerful Creator of the Universe towards people he loves.

I don’t think I ever, in all my life ever, led any one to Christ. I thought I was just a big fraud. After all that is what evangelists are suppose to do isn’t it? Not really. An evangelist is just suppose ask God what he wants him to say or not say, and then say it, exactly the way God tells him to. God does it all! He is the only one who can love us enough to change our hearts and our minds. He is the only one powerful enough to change our circumstances, release favor upon us, bring us healing of all sorts, restore our fortunes, pour out blessings, and bring us Joy! He is the only one who can bring us out of turmoil and fear and into comfort, and safety. He is the only one.

There is a song. “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.” Because there really is no greater proof of love that someone lay down his life as a sacrifice for others. And Jesus did this for all of us. He paid for our arrogance and rebellion and interceded for us generations before were even thought of by any earthly being.

If we could be our own salvation; If we could work ourselves into God’s Grace, If we could just institute social programs and feed people to douse our guilt and work ourselves into a frenzy, until we were exhausted, then it would be just another form of arrogance. Because we would not say “see what God did for us”.. but we would say “see what we did for God!”

There will be many who say “Look, God , I spoke healing and people were healed, I proclaimed victory and people had victory, I led prayers, I helped with fundraising, I fed the poor, I showed mercy to the homeless, I was in church every Sunday. I was good person. I read the bible through every single year. I learned Greek. I went on mission trips. I worked with the children, I was a leader, I was a volunteer, I pointed out everyone’s flaws in not following the law. I criticized all those false teachers and pointed out their flaws. I stood for you God. I prayed for people. I was in praise band. I condemned sinners. I gave medicine to the sick, I bound wounds, I help single moms, I gave out free food, I comforted those in mourning, I befriended the lonely, I put money in the ministry, I never broke the commandments. I fought the murder of innocent children and babies. I stood against corruption and evil of every sort. I hated perversions. I fought your enemies. I was good and faithful member of my church and supporter of my denomination.
And God will say” I never knew you”.

We dont understand that God is God and we are not.He isnt interested so much is what we do, but what he is and does through us. The only thing that he wants is to have a relationship with you and me. He wants a relationship where the most important thing is that we hear his voice, and love his voice and obey his voice! We cannot do that, if we are busy thinking up things to do for God. We can’t hear him if we are listening to people, who don’t listen to him and they tell us all the things we need to do that take time away from knowing him.

We cannot pray down his will, and cannot speak the words of his heart, unless we know him personally. The only way to know him personally is to spend time with him, reading his love letter, loving on him and most important: letting him pour out his love on us. He alone knows if this is the true desire of your heart. You might hide it from everyone else but you cannot hide it from him.

All the great men and women of the Bible had two things in common. 1. They made a lot of big mistakes and sinned big sins. 2. Their hearts desire was relationship to God.. to be in the presence of God, to be loved by God and love God, to obey him, to be taught by him, to walk with him, to receive every good thing by God’s hand ,to God’s own Glory, not their own.

And every great man and women of today has two things in common 1. They made a lot of big mistakes and sinned big sins. 2. Their hearts desire is relationship to God, to be in the presence of God, to be loved by God and love God , to obey him , to be taught by him, to walk with him, to receive every good thing by God’s hand, to God’s own Glory, not their own.

I am only alive today to see the joy in little things, because he loves me so very much. A love I took for grant it, a love I didn’t recognize, a love that words cannot describe and that for most of my life I never knew existed, because someone in my life never took the time to learn God’s voice, and love him and pray down his will, and then tell me exactly what God wanted me to know. It took a little longer, but in the end, it was God that did it himself. He was merciful to me when others refused to come to him. How can I ever, ever, think for a moment that I am worthy to say “look at what I did for you, God”.. when it was that Jesus paid it all as part of God’s own plan, open to every person that every lived to receive it or reject it. And it was by God’s hand, by no other, that I am his and he is mine. And even though I am not worthy, that I have made big mistakes and sinned big sins, my heart’s desire is to be in relationship with God, to be in God’s presence, to be loved by God, to obey him, to be taught by him, to walk with him, to receive every good thing by God’s own hand, to God’s own Glory and not my own. And that is my ultimate Joy in this morning!

Oh Lord, I thank you that you have spoken your love into the heart and mind of every person that has read this. I thank you that you have made a way possible for them to be restored to you and in relationship to you, through Christ. I thank you that each person who reads this has now seen what you are really all about and has repented of their arrogance. I thank you that they now desire a new relationship based on your will, your love and relationship to you. I thank you, that you, in your mercy have poured out your unlimited anointing of love upon them, renewing t heir hearts and minds, breaking off every yoke of the past, because they are already forgiven. I thank you Lord, also for teaching them now, to love you, by your Holy Spirit. I Thank you also for those who have read this that already have received this relationship with you and I ask that you protect that relationship and increase it in them. In Jesus Holy Mighty name, Amen.

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LLMartin©2009 All North and South American and World and Electronic Rights Reserved. Written permission of use may be obtained by emailing: practicalcomfort@yahoo.com

posted by IndyChristian @ 4:29 AM