Your outstretched arm

"It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

Jeremiah 32:17

My heart finds peace when I hear the words "outstretched arm". It makes me think of Isaiah 40:22,

"It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in."

Both of these verses point to God's immense power, His protection and covering. The image of the Lord stretching out the heavens like a curtain or a tent for us to dwell in, provides comfort and assurance to me. I love that Jeremiah reminds us that nothing is too hard for God.

I've experienced discontent and frustration over aspects of my life I have no control over. I do all the seemingly "right" things and the outcomes are not in my favor. When God doesn't answer the bigger prayers, when I want Him to, I tend to question what I am doing wrong, falling back into the mindset that MY works lead to favor or punishment.

The Lord has been so kind to me. In my discontent, He continues to answer prayers. When He doesn't answer my priority prayers, I often miss all the prayers He is answering. If I look at God through my circumstances, He seems distant and small, but if I look at my circumstances through God, He will reveal His greatness to me and He draws me in.

Instead of praising the Lord, I was complaining. I was being like the nation in Isaiah 40. Instead of seeing the open door, they only saw the long road in front of them. I do not like to wait. I am not patient. But I am comforted knowing that God is aware of how I feel and He is adequate to meet every one of my needs. He provides the strength we need. When I rely on myself, I grow weary. I often need to refocus my attention on putting my trust in God and not in myself.

In the waiting we cam meditate on His character, His promises and seek to glorify Him despite how we feel. I think praising in the valley is a very difficult thing to do. I believe that in the waiting He enables us to walk longer. He is always teaching us lessons, preparing us for things ahead and He knows what He is doing.

Last time I was in Africa, Lizel challenged me to memorize the whole chapter of Psalm 139 with her. It has been taking longer than expected, but having to repeat these verses day after day has turned out to be a gift in itself.

"You have hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me."

"All the days ordained for me, were written in Your book, before one of them came to be."

It is so comforting to know that the Lord has gone before me, that the days ahead of me, He already knows. That He knows my thoughts before I think them, my words before I speak them and that He has all my hairs counted. Sometimes I may doubt that He actually cares that much about me or is that aware of me, but when I see the answered prayers each day, the silly ones, I realize He cares about all my prayers. He is so intentional and so sweet. I just am not always still enough, sensitive enough or aware enough to see them. A heart of gratitude softens the hardness of discontent, opens my eyes, which leads to open hands.

The end of Psalm 139 is a good prayer. "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in way of everlasting."

I don't like the offensive ways in me, but the sooner I am aware of them, the sooner I can be led back to His everlasting way.

One of the things that helped me shift my perspective was hearing from the South Africans. They were sharing about their cables being stolen, being without electricity for several days so far and they didn't complain. They identified temporary solutions, saw the silver lining and were more focused on God's goodness. I was like, dang. They often check my heart and I'm glad for it.

Lizel is doing well. She has 2/3 of operations completed, she is done with red chemos, weekly chemos and radiation sessions. She has several block infusions still to go, 9 of 17. Most of the intense part of her treatment is over and her last operation is to remove the chemo port at the end of the year. Please keep her in your prayers. Her journey has been long and it's been difficult for her emotionally.

The first non-profit fundraising event was last week and I am very grateful to Mike for offering The Chambers for Life Change Foundation to be the beneficiary for it. After their golfing event, Mike had a drone fly above the golf course with a basket of numbered golf balls. The balls were dropped and whichever golf ball was closest to the hole won a prize. People bought golf balls as a way of donating. Thank you so much for anyone who participated!

The new non-profit website is up and running!! This will be the last time I post on this website, my blog has moved to the new website, please check it out: https://chambersforlife.org/

The non-profit bank account was created and is linked to the website for accepting tax-deductible donations. You can do recurring or one time donations. Please consider :-)