One very enjoyable part of this study this summer will be to see how far God takes you. At the end of this study of the book, you will get to take the survey found in the “Before You Begin” section again…and you will find that your answers will be different. It will be one way of seeing somewhat objectively (well, sort of) that God has in fact been doing a new thing!

Since we BELIEVE what God says…that He IS DOING a new thing…whether it is measurable or not, visible or not, perceivable or not…we can KNOW that it is true. I anticipate, though, that by the end of our study, you will see some changes in how you answered these questions! It will be fun to use this little tool!

So please write in your book and answer the questions. It will be important and you will be glad you did it.

I am in a weak place today. I am overly tired and feeling a lot of pressure of things weighing on me. When I am in this place, I know I am vulnerable. Vulnerable to run to other things rather than to the Lord for comfort. Go figure! It seems crazy, yet there it is.

This morning, sleep deprived (the sky fell here in Cool, California at 4am…an electrical storm that lit the sky with an amazing display of cloud to ground lightning and hail 1/2 in diameter!) and feeling a bit lonely (hubby is traveling) and overwhelmed (wanting to have a clean house before I pick up a friend at the airport tomorrow, preparing to lead worship on Sunday morning, etc…), I turned to The Prayer That Changes Everything by Stormie Omartian this morning during my quiet time.

I felt God impress upon my heart that maybe someone here can use the encouragement found in some of the words that were a part of the prayer at the end of the chapter…

Lord, You are the only answer to the emptiness I feel when I am not with You. The fullness of Your being is what I crave. The intimacy of Your embrace is what I long for…Help me to make You the first place I run to when I have longings in my heart. I don’t want to waste time turning to other things that will never satisfy the need I have for intimacy with You. My soul waits for you, Lord. (Psalm 33:20) Amen.

You see, when I am vulnerable, I am prone to being “needy”–to feeling empty. This is when I can start reaching for anything to fill the emptiness. I reach for the very busy-ness that keeps me feeling stressed (figure *that* one out!). Or, I reach for food, for the internet, for escaping into reading–even godly Christian books… While none of these things are wrong, necessarily, the problem is *why* am I running to them? Simply put…to avoid what I am called to…and I run to these things instead of running to God.

As you and I continue the early part of this sojourn we want to ask God to make each of us–I want to ask Him to make ME–to be aware when I am doing this before it happens. This is the crux of much of our disordered behavior and disordered eating. It really isn’t about the food, the computer, the books, the busy-ness. It is about my heart, about your heart…and, mostly, about GOD.

Today, in the crazyness of my day, I want to have a heart that is still and knows that He is God. I want to feast on HIM internally, even while I am scrubbing the downstairs bathroom externally. 🙂