Feasting

 Looking over the last year, the Lord has taught me about gentleness,

 priorities, trading anxiety for quiet peace.

I can see a thread woven through each month. 

All the lessons learned have a common source,

that of submitting more of myself to my Heavenly Father. 

He has drawn me into a deeper submission. 

It is a total surrendering of self.

The effect has been a richer,

more vibrant and joyous walk with the Lord.

It is as if I have been feasting,

relishing, yet more and more, the goodness of the Lord. 

This feasting has made me stronger.  

It has deepened my faith, and brought out in me

a gentleness I did not know existed,

a measure of quietness that I previously could not seem to obtain.

There is now new meaning to the verse in Philippians 1:21...

"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

The real American Idol is SELF.

You have seen it, read it, heard it-

"It's all about ME"

But living for self,

putting ME on the throne,

where God should be,

does not make one happy, fulfilled or strong.

That is the great lie of the world.

The more I can get ME out of the way, the more God is able to shine through.

I have found that I do not need his help to make me patient...

What I need is God in me,

then His patience will flow through me like a cup spilling over.

If I empty myself of my will, my expectations, my wants and dreams,

there is more room for God. 

Only then can one become godly.

Then what people will see is Christ, not ME.

"Me" is selfish, irritable, willful, not so pretty, and the one I fight against the most, trying to live a holy life.

I gladly surrender "ME."

In exchange I receive the peacefulness I have always longed for,

a joy and feeling of being blessed that is hard to describe.

To surrender is to feast.

To feast is to be blessed to overflowing.

This has been my lesson this year. This I am still learning.