Developing a Life of Worship
We were doing the thing that was before us each day. Leaning on the Lord for strength. Remaining open to what He had for us to learn. The next couple weeks were about to get difficult, but we trusted God to supply our every need. And He was faithful to do so at every turn. . .
November 23, 2010
Well, the 2nd week of treatment has concluded. Based on the number of treatments needed, Dennis has completed a little over a 1/3 of them. He will be done with this first part of treatment on December 17. Dennis continues to do well. He is still up exercising most mornings. He is tired a bit more and gets worn out a bit more easily, but being home allows him to rest. We’ve gotten the schedule down, but the infusion lab can’t seem to get theirs in order! Every Monday and Friday, Dennis has to wait because they don’t have his pump ready. Yesterday the nurse gave Dennis her card and told him to call when we’re on our way so she can get his chart to the pharmacy. Hopefully this will help the process. Please pray for a timelier schedule.
We both have lingering coughs, although Dennis’ is worse than mine. He is also dealing with some nasal congestion. Please pray he can kick both soon. He spoke to the radiology/oncologist yesterday and she said that if antibiotics didn’t help the first time, they wouldn’t help now. So he needs to wait it out. At his appointment today with the chemotherapy/oncologist, we were given the results of his blood test from yesterday. The results showed that his blood counts are down slightly below normal. We will continue to keep Dennis home and away from crowds of people as much as possible to help him avoid catching anything more serious.
As I was reading in Max Lucado’s book “A Gentle Thunder”, I came across a neat piece of wisdom. In reference to the Israelites having to endure wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, Lucado quoted Deuteronomy 8:2-4.
“Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these forty years, taking away your pride and testing you, because He wanted to know what was in your heart. He took away your pride when He let you get hungry, and then He fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen. This was to teach you that a person does not live by eating only bread, but by everything the Lord says. During these forty years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell. Know in your hearts that the Lord your God corrects you as a parent corrects a child.”
He went on to say that, “He took away the Israelites’ pride. He tested their hearts. He proved that He would provide for them. Did God want the children of Israel to reach the Promised Land? Of course; but He was more concerned that they arrive prepared than that they arrive soon.”
Arrive prepared. Where is our destination and how do we arrive prepared? As believers in Jesus Christ, our Promised Land is eternity in Heaven with God. To arrive prepared, I see that we must develop a life of worship. We will be worshipping the One who created us, who has sustained us and has trained and disciplined us for all eternity. Therefore, this trial, like the Israelites, is a way for God to test us and see what we’re made of, to refine us and prepare us for our arrival at His throne.
In the process of this trial, we do see God working in us to help us “arrive prepared”. Humility was something the Israelites needed to learn. So too we have been learning this lesson. As Dennis was sharing yesterday with two of his students, we have been learning to accept help. He and I are both very independent and want to fulfill our responsibilities. But there are some things that have been difficult to keep up with. We have needed the help of others. We have learned to accept the help and even to ask for it. We believe that the more our spirits are in submission to the Lord, the closer we draw to Him, and the more our lives will become worshipful to Him.
Humility is a hard lesson, but an important one. We are grateful for the refining the Lord is doing in us. We do not claim to have mastered this character trait, but we are experiencing a softening in this area of our lives.
Our pastor spoke on Sunday morning about how our choices and how we deal with difficulty will reflect our heart attitude toward the Lord. This message is what Dennis and I have come to believe. Our faith is not to be a separate compartment of our life. We shouldn’t only bring it out Sunday morning when we go to church or when we have a need and decide to go to God in prayer. Our faith is to be like yeast in dough that works its way through our entire life. So when we are faced with the multiple decisions that come our way each day, or when a heavy trial is put before us, we will be able to “rise” to the occasion and deal with it in a way that pleases the Lord.
As we have been growing in our relationships with the Lord through the years, we have been learning to put all areas of our lives under the submission of God: our marriage, parenting, finances, activities, relationships and our trials. With each thing that comes our way, we have been able to do the thing that God has put before us to do because we’ve learned to trust Him in all things. This trial is no different. God’s given us the task of dealing with Dennis’ cancer. So we are doing what needs to be done. We can only do all these things, however, through Christ who strengthens us. So we lean heavily on the One who holds us in His hands. And when we fail, we find mercy and forgiveness and the chance to learn from our mistakes.
We continue to be grateful for the prayers going up on our behalf; for the help that is being provided; and for our God who is preparing us for our arrival at His throne.
With humility and thanksgiving,
Carolyn
November 23, 2010
Well, the 2nd week of treatment has concluded. Based on the number of treatments needed, Dennis has completed a little over a 1/3 of them. He will be done with this first part of treatment on December 17. Dennis continues to do well. He is still up exercising most mornings. He is tired a bit more and gets worn out a bit more easily, but being home allows him to rest. We’ve gotten the schedule down, but the infusion lab can’t seem to get theirs in order! Every Monday and Friday, Dennis has to wait because they don’t have his pump ready. Yesterday the nurse gave Dennis her card and told him to call when we’re on our way so she can get his chart to the pharmacy. Hopefully this will help the process. Please pray for a timelier schedule.
We both have lingering coughs, although Dennis’ is worse than mine. He is also dealing with some nasal congestion. Please pray he can kick both soon. He spoke to the radiology/oncologist yesterday and she said that if antibiotics didn’t help the first time, they wouldn’t help now. So he needs to wait it out. At his appointment today with the chemotherapy/oncologist, we were given the results of his blood test from yesterday. The results showed that his blood counts are down slightly below normal. We will continue to keep Dennis home and away from crowds of people as much as possible to help him avoid catching anything more serious.
As I was reading in Max Lucado’s book “A Gentle Thunder”, I came across a neat piece of wisdom. In reference to the Israelites having to endure wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, Lucado quoted Deuteronomy 8:2-4.
“Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these forty years, taking away your pride and testing you, because He wanted to know what was in your heart. He took away your pride when He let you get hungry, and then He fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen. This was to teach you that a person does not live by eating only bread, but by everything the Lord says. During these forty years, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell. Know in your hearts that the Lord your God corrects you as a parent corrects a child.”
He went on to say that, “He took away the Israelites’ pride. He tested their hearts. He proved that He would provide for them. Did God want the children of Israel to reach the Promised Land? Of course; but He was more concerned that they arrive prepared than that they arrive soon.”
Arrive prepared. Where is our destination and how do we arrive prepared? As believers in Jesus Christ, our Promised Land is eternity in Heaven with God. To arrive prepared, I see that we must develop a life of worship. We will be worshipping the One who created us, who has sustained us and has trained and disciplined us for all eternity. Therefore, this trial, like the Israelites, is a way for God to test us and see what we’re made of, to refine us and prepare us for our arrival at His throne.
In the process of this trial, we do see God working in us to help us “arrive prepared”. Humility was something the Israelites needed to learn. So too we have been learning this lesson. As Dennis was sharing yesterday with two of his students, we have been learning to accept help. He and I are both very independent and want to fulfill our responsibilities. But there are some things that have been difficult to keep up with. We have needed the help of others. We have learned to accept the help and even to ask for it. We believe that the more our spirits are in submission to the Lord, the closer we draw to Him, and the more our lives will become worshipful to Him.
Humility is a hard lesson, but an important one. We are grateful for the refining the Lord is doing in us. We do not claim to have mastered this character trait, but we are experiencing a softening in this area of our lives.
Our pastor spoke on Sunday morning about how our choices and how we deal with difficulty will reflect our heart attitude toward the Lord. This message is what Dennis and I have come to believe. Our faith is not to be a separate compartment of our life. We shouldn’t only bring it out Sunday morning when we go to church or when we have a need and decide to go to God in prayer. Our faith is to be like yeast in dough that works its way through our entire life. So when we are faced with the multiple decisions that come our way each day, or when a heavy trial is put before us, we will be able to “rise” to the occasion and deal with it in a way that pleases the Lord.
As we have been growing in our relationships with the Lord through the years, we have been learning to put all areas of our lives under the submission of God: our marriage, parenting, finances, activities, relationships and our trials. With each thing that comes our way, we have been able to do the thing that God has put before us to do because we’ve learned to trust Him in all things. This trial is no different. God’s given us the task of dealing with Dennis’ cancer. So we are doing what needs to be done. We can only do all these things, however, through Christ who strengthens us. So we lean heavily on the One who holds us in His hands. And when we fail, we find mercy and forgiveness and the chance to learn from our mistakes.
We continue to be grateful for the prayers going up on our behalf; for the help that is being provided; and for our God who is preparing us for our arrival at His throne.
With humility and thanksgiving,
Carolyn
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