I was blessed to be able to attend the Wellspring retreat in Chiang Mai at The Horizon Resort. It was a time to be renewed, refreshed, rest, relax, be recharged, and receive from God, I confess that I have spent very little time over the last 3 years just spending time listening to God, and that's what we did for an entire week at the retreat. This blog will be different from previous blog posts in that I want to share with you a few of the things that God spoke to my heart during that week in the hopes that it will encourage you to press on further with our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to seek Him in the quiet and stillness of your soul.
When we are still, God gets the glory. When we're still, we let God be God. When we're NOT still we bring dishonor to His Name. When we're NOT still, we're trying to wrest control of our lives from God.
God lets us drink from His rivers of delight. . Psalm 36:8
My spiritual life needs recharging like a fountain that keeps spewing water. God will continue to pour into me so that I can continue to pour into others. But when we're not still and silent before God, there's a plug somewhere in that fountain and the water (the Holy Spirit) doesn't pour out.
I am like this plant, bearing some beautiful fruit, some bare branches, but many times not bearing as much fruit as I could because I don't remain in the vine. God is constantly at work pruning me so that I bear even more fruit.
God is faithful and will lead me beside still waters. He is my oasis in the desert. He restores my soul.
He hides me in the cleft of the rock.
He shows me the path I should walk. He hems me in on the right and left. There is safety here on the path. "But for those who are righteous, the path is not steep and rough. You are a God of justice and you smooth out the road ahead of them." Isaiah 26:7
There are many twists and turns in our paths, and we don't always know the right way to take, and can't see ahead, but we trust in Him who has known us from the foundation of the world and for whom 1 day is like 1,000 years and 1,000 years are like 1 day.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything under the sun. There is a time for planting and a time for uprooting. We like it very much when God plants us, but when He uproots something in us or, it seems, everything in our lives, it's extremely painful. But God uproots to plant something new and even more beautiful. He is always at work in our lives. Let us rest in whatever He is doing in our lives at this moment.
Do you see the heart? God shows us His love in many small ways each day. Are we really seeing His love in these very tangible ways or are we so wrapped up in our own agenda that we forget how great the Father's love is for us.
Just as the roots go down deep in these rocks, our roots need to be buried in Christ and then we will stand firm no matter what happens around us.
God is the rock of my salvation. I will NOT be moved. It is a conscious decision to trust in God and to NOT be moved.
This is just the cutest thing! We all need someone to come alongside us and give us hugs and I experienced that in a big way with my fellow sisters at the retreat.
God is the fountain of life. Psalm 36:9
Where is our focus? Is it inward or is it on the God who loves us and gave us life? Is it on our problems or on God, who is the solution to everything?
This is so precious to me because I've never seen a manger before in life, just imagined one, and as I saw this, 2 things came to mind: 1) The deer is resting, not striving. 2) Jesus humbled Himself and was born in a manger. How can I NOT humble myself before Him?
Lighting lanterns the last night of the retreat
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
May we all learn to rest our souls in God alone.
