The Walk Continues

With the encouragement of the hubby, I am again walking the walk...down the drive, up a very steep hill, and down the road and back.  We both need this for the cardio, our health.  This evening for the first time, I finally began to enjoy this endeavor to exercise.  I just do not enjoy sweating, pushing muscles to their max.  Yes, I would rather be blogging, reading!

As I type this, though, I am reminding myself of the another reason I began this walk (thus, this blog) last summer...to pray, to meditate, to have time with my Lord.  Even though I am walking with the hubby, time still abounds for that...during all that time when I am breathing, quite quickly breathing.  I am amazed at how many people, homes, families that God has placed right here on this walk...just for me to pray for!

I encourage you...yes, YOU...to walk and pray.  The Lord will place those who need your prayers in your walk. Try it out!

Concerning another walk...

I am attempting to read the Bible through this year (three days behind...my mother eased into Heaven last week...just got behind during her final days and the following few days).

As I read this year, I am praying, asking the Lord to speak to me directly through His word.  What is it that I need to internalize for myself?

• I appreciate Joseph's 20/20 vision when he can honestly, spiritually say to his brothers when he reveals his true identity to them:  "And now, do not  be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you...So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God." - Genesis 45:5, 8
• Now, let's slow these events down...into slow-motion:  Joseph probably did not have this perfect vision, this perfect understanding of God's will while in the cistern, when sold for twenty shekels, then sold to Potiphar, when falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, then later when he spent years in jail...all that time without his family.  I suspect he had many "human" days, don't you?  Yet the revelation came.  All this happened because God allowed it to happen so that Joseph would be in just the right place, so that Joseph would be placed in charge of Egypt to save all these people during the years of famine to come.
• Personal Insight:  When things do not go the way  I want them to (all those unanswered prayers...), yes, that is God saying, "Tammy, all these circumstances are not the fault of you or others.  I am delaying because the time is not right."  
• That's right, I should not get mad or disappointed in others or discouraged, mad, sad, depressed with myself when my career does not progress as I had planned and worked so hard to obtain.  God has a plan.
• I also appreciate Moses' faith and his continued verbal support of the children of Israel when they were terrified as Pharaoh and Egyptians gained on them.  Listen to these words:  "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." - Exodus 14:14.
• Beautiful words...especially the first part. "The Lord will fight for you." They had just witnessed all the plagues that God brought upon Pharaoh and his people.
• Hard-to-accomplish words...the last part.  "...you need only be still."  The enemy was coming!
• Personal Insight:  Being still is soooo hard, especially for a hard-headed, very verbal red-head (myself!).  That lesson took me nearly six years to learn!  I really thought I was more intelligent than that, but obviously not.  This year, I am trying to sit still.  I still fail at this, but I am trying.

I encourage you to take this walk also...read your Bible and ask the Lord to speak to you through His own words.  Get ready to listen...the Lord is ready to speak.

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BTW:  Richard Paul Evan's next installment in his The Walk series (The Walk, Miles to Go, and now The Road to Grace) will be released on May 8, 2012.  Awesome series...awesome!    Get started!  You have three months to read the first two novels...you will be blessed!