Yesterday I drove my son to school. We were jumping topics to another; cracked up some jokes, providing best possible answers to number of random questions, and reviewing few bygone years. We seem to enjoy every bit of it but we failed to acknowledge at that very moment.
We met the teacher at his school, after a brief wait, who told us few donation opportunities. Here I won’t go into details of our meetings. Let’s put it for another day or maybe not. I wanted to talk about some other things today.
My five-year-old son spent the day at school. In his brief report, he told me it went well. Now let’s fast forward to our bedtime. They tucked in to get a needed night sleep. His bedtime prayer, I am so blessed to listening, every day, caught my attention. It comes from him.
He thanked God for me, driving him to his school, after a short hiatus. He prayed for my good health again and again. This time it was a little different; my son prayed for my complete healing without any use of medicine.
For those of you, my esteemed first time visitors let me remind you that I was on medication long time before the birth of my son. By now, I was very much used to taking pills every day. Before I could realize, there’s a problem of partial dependency on those medicines, mentally and physically.
Today, the prayer of my son instills a new hope and inspiration, that I could be free from my illness as well as shun medicines in a good way. Sometimes our much-needed encouragement from God could come through the voice of the people around us. And I am really thankful for that!
On many occasions, I’d asked my Heavenly Father to not let my sufferings and bad health, in any way, disturb the upbringing of my children. It is my hope that it would not cause them to feel inferior when they are among their friends. Rather, it could be eye-opening instances for them to witness the work of the living God.
In the Mud of Discouragement:
Let me go back a few days before this happened; I was mildly troubled by the pain and frequent dizzy spells. We missed going to church last Sunday too. It was difficult to enjoy the gatherings of people, during these few episodes.
When these episodes seized my time, it could be disheartening. It was not only me, I hope, who had witness such episodes in our life although the causal factors would vary from person to person. The causal factor could not be always health related issues; there are many more issues which negate our happy moods.
In those moments, we could get easily discouraged. We might not be able to get out of the muddy terrain by ourselves. Nothing could help much in those situations. Going to people for help sometimes deepen the mud. In the end, people are simply people with the some glorified understanding. Please note here that I am not downplaying the use of therapists and practitioners of any kind.
Now, those muddy moments could be use as a time, devoted to listening, the still small voice of our Creator; if you believe you are a created being, not some random being. In those moments, God can speak through any channel available into our heart.
Spend some time for stillness and then put it to work. I am telling you this as I’ve been through those muddy moments. There might be some more muddy moments, or sufferings, to come but if it is for witnessing the good side of the Lord, I won’t be belligerent.
Hearing the Master’s voice:
The other day, I came across Prophet Elijah fleeing for his life, as I read the Holy Bible. He was afraid of a death threat coming from Jezebel. After a day’s journey from Beersheba, into the wilderness, he prayed that he might die. (1 Kings 19:1-18)
“Take my life”, he said to the Lord. Although he was fed by the angels of God, he did not pay heed. He was there in the mud of discouragement. Did you notice here what he said? “Take my life I am no better than my ancestors!”
As commanded by the angel, he went to Mount Horeb where he heard the still small voice of God. In all the preceding strong winds, earthquake, and fire, the Lord was not there. But in the calmness of the place came the Lord’s voice.
We do not know in what form, or through whom, voices of comfort would come. How will the Lord remind us of His presence? We can say anything about that. Anyone could be His channelized of encouragement but everyone cannot hear.
In our loneliness, helplessness, and the feeling of brokenness, for at least a moment, if we remain calm and listen we will hear our Heavenly father speaking. He might be comforting us or may be instructing our next step.
Really lift the spirit, I know how valuable those still small voices could be when one is in the valley.
Yes. very well said, “it really lift my spirit”