Make Us A Vessel Lord

I’am filled with such encouragement this morning.  Our service at church was so beautiful and spoke straight to my heart. We had a reading service on 1 Peter.  Both the reading and the worship was beautiful.  I kept imagining myself in one of the towns in a crowd of people hearing Peter speak these words to me.  I kept soaking up every word and was hungry for more. It has been an emotional week for us.  We discovered that Noah is already starting to show some forms of muscle weakness.  It is not very pronounced, and we will find out more details when we see a Neurologist on January 12th.  Still it hit me pretty hard as I thought about my son having to face the same challenges I have struggled to accept for myself.  My heart aches for him and I wish I could take it all away.  Yet I was reminded today how much the Lord works in the Hard.  How he desires to sharpen us, to use us, to bring Glory to his name in the most beautiful ways. 1 Peter 4:12-13 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  I long to see his glory revealed in amazing ways.  We have several appointments coming up for our whole family.  Noah has a stress test tomorrow at UCLA and then another heart cath and nuerology apt. next week. Hannah has Cardiology apts. as do I. I don’t want to be surprised by what lies ahead for us.  I want to take every single opportunity I can to use it for the Lord.  This year I want more than anything for our family to be a vessel in the hard.  This doesn’t mean that we wont struggle with worry, with joy, with trust.  It just means that we surrender to Christ, we don’t waste our suffering, and we cling to the one who is everlasting instead of the temporal things of the world. What things are you clinging to this year? What are you putting your hope in?

Here are some lyrics to a song we sang this morning that cause my heart to want to burst.  I literally can not sit still with this song.  I apologize to those around me this morning who probably wondered if I was having some kind of seizure. It is often hard at times for me to keep my composure when my heart is so into worship. Thankful for an incredible worship team and for the work that gets put into choosing songs that correlate to the message.  I hope you are just as encouraged by it.  Please keep our family in your prayers as we head into a busy month of doctor apts.  As always we are thankful for each of you.

https://youtu.be/vkq-pq0caxs