tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15087941.post-32770563442288017522007-06-22T18:09:00.000-04:002007-06-22T18:13:13.065-04:00<span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6-7</blockquote></span><br />The journey of the past year has not been easy. When God set me on this journey—and surely it has been His choosing, not mine—I often pondered the unanswerable question, “Why?” There never was a satisfactory reply forthcoming. I often said aloud, “God, what are You doing?” I sensed God telling me not to try to understand, just submit beneath His hand and simply trust that a higher purpose would be accomplished. That is a difficult lesson to learn and at times the pain seemed crushing to the point of insufferable. But in that crushing I have begun to find answers to my questions.<br /><br />Consider the spices that the Lord instructed Moses to have prepared for the sacred anointing oil and incense to be used in the temple worship. In Exodus 30:34-36 the Lord said, <span style="font-style: italic;">“Take sweet spices…and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you.”</span> Perhaps my life is like the spice, which has no value in and of itself until it is crushed. Once the pestle of God is used to crush the spice, then it releases what has been inside all along—the fragrance for which God is longing. Receiving the aroma, He is glorified and He blesses the fragrance through the execution of His perfect will.<br /><br />Submission is an aroma that pleases God. As I have yielded to God’s choosing, He has responded with gifts, which I might never have known were within me aside from the total surrender to His will. I need not enumerate those gifts here. In whatever form or fashion God wants to use me, I willingly give back to Him and pray my life is a sweet fragrance that testifies of His grace and glory.<br /><br /><blockquote>Submission<br /><br />The path that I have trod has brought me nearer God<br />Though oft it led thru sorrow’s gates<br />Though not the way I’d choose,<br />in my way I might lose<br />The joy that yet for me awaits.<br /><br />CHORUS<br />Not what I wish to be, nor where I wish to go<br />For who am I that I should choose my way<br />The Lord shall choose for me,<br />tis better far I know<br />So let Him bid me go, or stay.<br /><br />Submission to the will<br />of Him who guides me still<br />Is surety of His love revealed<br />My soul shall rise above<br />this world in which I move<br />I conquer only when I yield.<br /></blockquote>Carolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669424992608265029noreply@blogger.com