By Marni Montanez
Deuteronomy 28:2 New American Bible
All these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you when you obey the voice of the Lord, your God:
A few months back the Lord gave me a vision. It was a vision where I was in the desert. Suddenly I saw these things running quickly toward me and then overwhelming me. I discerned them to be blessings.
Though I had forgotten about this vision, God did not forget. He is true to His promises.
My time in the wilderness has been hard and painful, but God has chosen to use the most amazing people to bless me in ways I could not imagine. I feel His soothing strokes in the kindness of friends. I see His mercy when they reach out with words of encouragement and I have understood His great love for me, through their caring and compassionate hearts. Their words of concern and practical help has caused me to see clearly the hand of God.
When we are in the desert and can’t seem to find our way. We feel all these emotions of loss or anxiety and depression and it is hard to see the hand of God working in and through others to touch our lives. If we don’t acknowledge the bits and pieces all around us that are filled with His love, then we will turn toward the negative. We can become bitter and resentful.
God, in His wisdom, knows this can happen and so He extends Himself in ways that ministers to those areas within us that can receive those moments of blessing.
God is good and even when we feel bad or cannot seem to take the next step through the many tears and hopelessness, He will reach into our surrendered places and bring hope through another person. In those times, these people, who faithfully walk with us, become the manifestation of God’s magnificent love. In their actions and uplifting words, they say, “God loves you and is watching out for you”. I am so grateful for these people.
Challenge: When you are in the wilderness and nothing you do is moving you out of that place. When you are discouraged and feeling hopelessness, look for God’s grace through others. Your circumstances may not look like their changing, but as you thank God for touching you the way He chooses, things will change within you.
God bless,
Marni
Go on to: Deuteronomy 31:8 God Goes Before Us
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The
purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate,
and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through
Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord
require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your
God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or
crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the
standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for
the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not
Christian.