Check Out My Blooms!!!

So...I am officially another year older. But man what I am learning! God is REALLY working in my life, re-shaping me and TOTALLY SPEAKING TO ME THROUGH HIS WORD!! This is the MOST exciting thing EVER! This is what I mean....

1. I was talking to a friend commisserating about our husbands working away from home during the week and we were saying that we just wish God would say OUT LOUD - "you are going the wrong way - turn this way". Then I was reminded of a verse from Isaiah that a different friend had just given me that morning.

Isaiah 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"

2. I sat down to read my Bible. I am reading a chronological Bible, so there are certains things for me to read each day. Then as a result of a video this friend sent me and a sermon on CD I listened to from another friend (aren't friends just GREAT blessings from the Lord?) - I had to stop mid-Psalm and reflect on God's absolute greatness and the fact that I was reading for "distance, not depth". I talked to God like He was right there with me, which, of course, He was! When the cup of my life was knocked around, I wanted to make sure what spilled out was Christ and not my "stuff". I want to be so full of Christ! So after our talk, I picked my Bible back up and started exactly where I left off.

Psalm 66: 16-20 "Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!"

3. Then came today...when I purposely used an elderly lady at the bread store. I told her I would buy her bread (secretly hoping that I would get the "senior" rate - because she was "with" me). She ended up being the sweetest lady and we had a nice conversation about church, family, etc. I even suggested that she go to Ireland with her grandson. As soon as I left the store, I was so laden with guilt - it was terrible. So as I was again reading my chronological Bible for today, I read this:

Psalm 32:1-4a "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Day and night.."

"in whose spirit is no deceit"? Are you kidding me? My spirit was FULL of deceit. "groaning all day long"? Oh yeah, I was. So I prayed, begging God for forgiveness and asking Him not to allow that sweet lady to know that a fool like me used her. Then I read on...

Psalm 32:4b-5 "your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' - and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

Oh, how great is MY God, the Creator of the universe! What an absolute answer to my prayer for forgiveness. Can you see how I have no other choice but to grow in God? Oh how I love this season in my life!!!