Being Content With God's "Back"

The Lord said to Moses: "Here is the place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen." Exodus 33: 21-23 Don't we all want to hear from God? I mean, everywhere I go, it excites me to see those who are beginning or renewing a relationship with God and are so passionately trying to "hear from Him". I have shared with you before that even though I have been a Christian for over 26 years, I have only learned to "hear" God in the past 5 years. I realized that He had been speaking for the whole 26 but because I didn't know Him intimately, I had no clue what His voice sounded like. How do you hear from God? That is the popular question. For me, God's speaks on many levels. I have recently found that being content with God's voice is crucial to hearing Him again. What good is it for Him to speak to us when we ignore what He says? When I read this passage of scripture with Moses, I can hardly breath. To think what it must have been like to hear God give specific instruction in order to see His glory pass by! But tonight, I realized that God still does this today! But we often do not "hear" Him, nor do we see His glory, because we are not willing to be content with seeing His 'back'. God tells Moses to stand on a particular place in a rock (the crevice) and He will cover Moses with His hand as His glory passes by. Then God says He will move His hand, allowing Moses to see His back. How often have I felt that God has left me or is distant from me only to find that He has carefully hidden me in the crevice of a rock to protect me. I never realized I was seeing "His back". I was so focused and demanding to have it my way. How thankful I am to have seen His back because it meant that He was shielding me. He was standing in front of me. I have begun to focus on being content with details...the details in God's voice. When we pray for direction, God answers and tells us exactly where to stand to see His glory. But if we are not content in just hearing Him or seeing Him in whatever way He chooses, then we miss Him...and the glory. I hope that you will join me in being content with God's voice and with whatever and where ever He leads you and I. And I have found that the crevice of a rock can be a very good view. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for wanting to have a relationship with me. Forgive me for ignoring your commands sometimes because I was not content with seeing your "back". You hang on my every word and catch every tear that falls from my face. Help me to be still and trust you when you have me safe in the crevice of the rock...

The Two Baskets of Figs

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24:7 I was very amazed how God spoke to me through this passage in Jeremiah and wanted to share it with you. During the exile from Babylon, The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and showed him two baskets of figs. One basket was filled with good, early ripened figs (which were considered to be a delicacy). The other basket was filled with bad figs, which were rotten and of no use. God then uses the figs to symbolize what is to come for Israel and His love for them. God promises to watch over them, to bring them back, and to build them up and not tear them down. And then God says this: “I will give them a heart to know me.” That is my favorite part. Over the past few years, God has shown me that we all were created with a hole in our lives that was deliberately designed by Him. This hole can never be filled with anything or anyone but God himself. I have seen people search and search only to find who was there at the beginning-God. The only thing that will fill this gap in our lives is the relationship with God. He wants the relationship so bad with us that He gives us a head start…a heart to know Him. He knows that if we begin to know Him, we will eventually know and love Him wholeheartedly. I am learning to love Him with my whole heart. To Jeremiah, the basket of good figs represents those who God loved and wanted to be near. To me, it represents the same thing today. God’s promise in Jeremiah is so moving and shows the depth He is willing to go just to have a relationship with His children… those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior of their lives and actually open the door to that relationship. My ministry is solely dedicated to helping others know God the way He wants to be known. We must ask God to help us to love Him with our whole hearts. To give everything to Him…our time, devotion, love, honor, worship, tithes. I want to be in the basket of figs that God considers valuable. I have spent years knowing about God and of God, and I have returned because I now know God and am learning what loving Him whole heartily is really about. It is about faith in my Lord that takes my breath away; it is about sacrificing my health if it brings Him glory; it is forgiving and being humble even when it hurts. I have so much more to learn. If you have invited Christ into your life but are struggling to know who God really is, begin by asking Him to help you love Him whole heartily…and believe me…He will. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, help me to love you with my whole heart. I desire to be close to you…to feel your very breath. You are so holy and I am so unworthy. Yet, you continue to want me…even when I fail. Thank you for loving me.

Update

Hey everyone! Just a note to request your prayers. I have had a bad case of the stomach virus over the past few days. I am better but still feel very weak. Because of the virus, I was unable to take my medicine for the past 3 days or so. Please pray that this will not cause a relapse of my disease. I am going to try to take my shots Sunday. Thank you all so much for your comments and emails on the posts for the blog. You encourage me to keep listening to God to continue writing. I hope you know that I don’t just “sling the posts” up on the blog, but spend much time in prayer to find out what God wants to say to those who read it. Also, my ministry website (designed by Adam Hyche–who is awesome and who I love very much!!!) now has my blog and website combined. We will eventually be using this only. So please take a look at it and sign in. The address is www.fillingthegapministries.com (or .net). Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers for this ministry… Love, Corrie

The Women of Bethel

“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:1-2

What an honor and privilege it was to speak at Spa Day at Bethel Baptist Church! The Women of Bethel put much time and effort in creating a day of relaxation and pampering for the ladies of that community and beyond. But I must say that I was humbled to see such servant hood among them. As I drove home from the conference, I cried when I thought about what had taken place that day. I thought back to seeing women sitting or standing for hours just to serve others. I noticed that every manicure, haircut, facial, or massage, allowed the Women of Bethel to minister by listening, laughing, and just conversing with women who needed to be lifted up. I ,too, was one of those women who were ministered to. Tears filled my eyes when a lady knelt beside me just to rub lotion on my arms and put something under my feet to relax. I saw Jesus in those women. I saw the ultimate call God has for us as His children…to serve. This perhaps is the most difficult characteristic we are asked to do in order to mirror Christ. Spa Day showed me that becoming a servant is not solely about doing for others, but it begins in the heart so that you can do for others. That Spa Day would have been time wasted had those women not prepared their hearts first. I want God to give me the heart of a servant. I want to be humble and loving to those who are not loved or who lash out to hurt me. I want to see them the way God does. I believe that the reason this is difficult at times is because we want recognition of our service or to be apologized to by those who hurt us. None of this is owed to us. To take on the identity of Christ, we must go where we do not want to go, be silent when we want to scream, and love those who make us cry. This is His heart. This is why He came. The scripture says that ‘those who have been given a trust must prove faithful’. I value someone’s trust very much and when I read this scripture, I realized how very little I valued the trust God has placed in me to prove faithful. I fall so short. But today, I have set my eyes upon Him to help me to be the very servant He designed me to be. Again, I am so thankful for the opportunity to speak at Spa Day and for bringing servant hood to my heart’s attention. I will never forget that day because I saw my Lord in the Women of Bethel.

Love, Corrie

My prayer for today: Lord, I ask that you forgive me for taking what you have entrusted me to do for granted. Help me to have the heart of a servant. Help me to continue what you came to do on earth. Use me to minister to those who need you. Remove my pride and burden my heart for those who are crying inside and feel empty. Love them through me.

Expecting or Wondering

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the evidence of the Scriptures we might have hope." Romans 15:4 "...And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:5 To me, the book of Romans is such an encouraging book for the Christian. Paul is ever so fearlessly trying to tell us how rewarding it will be if we will place our hope and faith in Christ. I think my favorite chapter in Romans is chapter 5. Here, hope is the focus. By definition, hope means, 'a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.' I believe that many people, including myself, rarely look at God as a God of fulfillment and expectation. I think we look at him as a God of perhaps and maybe. I can remember being alone in my bedroom the night after I came home from the hospital in 2006. I had just been told I had this terrible disease and I noticed that not one of my doctors seemed really confident as to how they would treat me. I had so many questions and there were so few answers. I remember telling God that I hoped he would take care of me...I hoped he would let me live to carry out this ministry...I hoped I would live to see Canaan grow up...I hope...I hope. God spoke to me that night through Romans chapter 5. God showed me that my hope needed to be in what had already taken place at Calvary. I realized that instead of believing and expecting God to fulfill his promises to me, I was really wondering if he would or not. That is not hope. That is doubt. We say that we have prayed and ask God for something to be taken care of for us, yet we act like we have just rolled dice and there is a chance he will not come through. There is only one reason for this lack of expectation...not knowing who God really is. I believe that if we really took time to get to know God, we would find our anxiety and fears would diminish. We would find a peace that we didn't know existed. We would not be as quick tempered and ill at our spouses or children when a bill came that we didn't see coming. Do we really expect God to come through? Do we really expect God to do the things he says he will do? I feel that I am at a place in my life that if I don't believe God, I will not live. I have to expect that what the Scriptures say are true. I have begun to read more and try to find out who God says that He is. I hear alot of people talking about the Bible, even quoting scripture. But do we really believe what we read? Do we have this hope? God's word tells us that we will not be disappointed in hoping. That's enough for me . I want to have that hope. I want to anticipate and be excited to see God do these things He says He will do in my life. I don't want to just wonder. The only way I can have this hope is to know Him better. Are you at a point in your life where you feel disappointed? Well, good news...you don't have to be. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, how much time I have wasted worrying and wondering. I want to have true hope in you. I will expect and be excited about the prayers and requests I have made. I will turn my fear and anxiety into excitement as I wait on you.