The words of this song have been so much on my mind and in my heart as I have traveled a path this year back to my home country for now, leaving my two twenty-something children an ocean away.  A path that is uncertain and unknown to me and yet totally known to the God who daily is providing for me... 

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

Surely I believe that although I can't see and don't understand right now,  it will all turn out for the greatest blessing in the end...for He is faithful who has promised.  I am believing and praying that the trials of this life truly are His mercies in disguise.

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John 4:23).

God desires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth.  He desires that we be wholehearted for Him and for the truth and that our worship would be based on the truth and on our deep love for Him.

STUDY TO KNOW THE TRUTH FOR YOURSELF – MAKE IT A PRIORITY, MAKE TIME, TRUTH MATTERS!

TAKE TIME TO WALK WITH GOD THAT YOU MAY FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM AND BECOME WHOLEHEARTED FOR HIM.

At the center of that gospel is Jesus, the incarnate God,the God who through forces and means that our minds cannot even begin to grasp came into this world as a human being.

God has a call on my life, on the life of every one who claims to be a Christ follower, to share the amazing good news that Jesus, the everlasting God, came to earth to save them.  Jesus is the center of the everlasting good news, He is the good news for all peoples though all ages.

Lord open my eyes to see others as you see them, to be moved with compassion for them and a desire so share your glorious gift of salvation with them!  

MAY THE LOVE OF CHRIST MOVE US TO SHARE THE AWESOME GIFT HE HAS GIVEN US.

In sharing there is always blessing.  Please share  how you make the truth a priority or how you walk with God.

God’s promises are not unconditional. Humans, given free will, mustmake the choice to obey the Lord, to do what He commands, not as a means ofsalvation but as a revelation of the reality of the love relationship that theyhave with God. 

LORD BECAUSE I LOVE YOU I DESIRE TO OBEY YOU

Obedience is to be the fruit of my relationship with God, and if I amnot desiring to obey, then in reality perhaps my love has grown a little cold,I have fallen away, and if I am honest with myself, perhaps I am not making Godthe center of my life.   Maybe it’s timeto slow down and consider.  Maybe it’stime to go running back to God and to passionately pursue Him.

Scripture teaches us that we are free to choose our path in life andour own destiny. We have the option to choose whom we will serve and worship,and the fulfillment of the promises is dependent upon the choices that we make.The Bible is filled with wonderful promises to any and all who faithfully seekand serve Him.

Freedom is an amazing gift and an amazing responsibility, oh Lordthank you for Your promises that you have given to guide me, please teach mehow to choose wisely and how to live with eternity in sight.

LORD BECAUSE YOU LOVE ME YOU LET ME CHOOSE MY OWN DESTINY

God in His great love for me and in His desire to receive true love inreturn from me has given me freedom of choice. I can choose to obey God because I love Him and desire to pleaseHim.  This as a result opens my life upto be able to receive the gifts and blessings from God that He desires to giveme.  When I stop to read all the amazingpromises that God has made to me thorough His Word I am overwhelmed by His loveand His faithfulness and how He offers to provide for me.

THROUGH LOVE AND OBEDIENCE YOU OPEN YOURSELF UP TO THE BLESSING

At the same time because God is so loving and so fair, if I don’tchoose to love and obey God, He won’t force what He has to offer on me, forthat would be taking away my freedom of choice. 

TRUE LOVE GIVES FREEDOM OF CHOICE

From the first day in Eden, God has longed for fellowship with man andto restore man to His image. Some have lived lives of faithfulness, but howoften our fathers have drawn near, only to later be swept away by the cares ofthis life and fallen away again.  Howmany times I have drawn near, only to be carried away by the busyness and thecares of this life.  How clearly thisreveals the awesome reality that our loving God has given us the ultimate giftof free choice.  Oh Lord, help me not tobe swept away today, but may I live in your presence. 

FREEDOM OF CHOICE IS THE ULTIMATE GIFT

Will we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? Will wedrift along doing what they did or will we dare to learn from the past, learnfrom what happened before and be different?

Will we point the people to the Lord’s leading, to His promises, andto the conditions of those promises?  Thesharing of the Word should be Christ centered, pointing to what the Lord hasdone for us, what He offers to do for us, and what He will do for us, all onthe condition that we come to Him in faith and repentance.

WILL YOU SHARE THE BLESSING OF LOVE AND OBEDIENCE? DON’T THEY NEED TOKNOW?

Can you hear God calling through His Word to Zechariah saying: repent,turn from your own self centered ways, learn from the past, and put your hopein the Lord and the promises of the Lord for the future.

O how we hate to admit that we are making mistakes, that we areunfaithful, that we are self-centered, and yet this is the turning point if wewould really live, really be happy, really have His joy. 

HE IS FOREVER CALLING FOR OUR HEARTS

How much we need to come to the Lord and worship Him in an attitude offaith, repentance, and obedience.

Oh Lord lead me today in the way of repentance, true faith andwholehearted obedience.  As You havesaid, I realize that I am powerless to do any of this without you, so pleasehelp me to stay with You today, please give me the desire and strength I needto be wholehearted for you, faithful and obedient.  Thank you for the promise that You will workin me to will and to do of Your good pleasure. 

When all is said and done, the reality is that though obedience cannotever save us, there is no such thing as salvation without it, regardless of howflawed our obedience so often tends to be.