Monday, January 30, 2023

Monday #2 - wide eyes...

 


How big is God to you?

Do you see Him through small eyes, eyes that shrink His ability to work in your life, eyes that cannot see clearly how great and wide and deep is His love for you? In your heart, do you believe He does not care enough about your needs, your grief, your lack, your pain, your unfulfilled hopes and prayers?

I have heard many people say (including a few in my own family) “Why would God bother with me?”, or “God won’t do anything about this”, or “It’s stupid to pray for that”…and every time they are looking at God with small eyes.

Years ago I looked at God with wide eyes, confident eyes; eyes that could not contain just how magnificent and wise and powerful and loving and faithful He is, and always has been. It was life changing. It happened the year I decided to re-focus my hopes and not give up on them anymore.

You see, there was a time when I would always believe God for small things, like a car park in the shade, or enough money to get everything on my grocery list, or for the rain to hold off until I got the washing off the line…I would always pray for stuff like that, totally believing He would answer, and He did! My husband would laugh and shake his head, but had to admit, God answered my little prayer.

But the big prayers? The ones which seemed so far out of reach that whole seasons would pass by and I would not be persistent to pray about them, rather, I’d accept they were too big, requiring a miracle beyond my faith…my faith in God if the truth be told.


So, what changed for me, what opened my eyes wide to see my big God? The Psalms. Especially the psalms of David, where he poured out his troubles, praised God to the highest of heaven, and described our Heavenly Father in a way that ripped the veil from my small eyes, so that I could see in panoramic majesty, the greatness of…

ADONAI Elohei Tzva’ot – the Lord God of Hosts

ADONAI Nissi – the Lord my banner and miracle

ADONAI  Shalom – the Lord of peace

ADONAI Shamah – the Lord is there

ADONAI Tzidkenu – the Lord our righteousness

ADONAI Tzva’ot – the Lord of Sabbath, Lord of heaven’s armies, Lord of hosts

ADONAI Yir’eh – the Lord will see it

If you’ve been looking at God with small eyes, my sister in Christ, open His Word and read from the Psalms, one after the other, and pray for the Holy Spirit to lift the veil from your understanding so that you can see clearly the greatness and majesty and power and love, of the God we serve, our ADONAI.

Open your lips to pray again those prayers you thought hopeless. I have many of them, and they’ve not yet been answered, but I know how big my God is, and I trust Him to answer every one in the best way HE chooses, because I am but dust and see through a glass dimly, but He sees all, knowing the end from the beginning, and all His ways are true and just and perfect. I surrendered long ago to His will, and that’s something my Nana taught me…”Jennifer, God willing it will come to pass.”

Lord, I pray for all my sisters reading this today, that You widen their eyes to see You as You are, in all Your greatness and goodness and wisdom. I pray that they pick up the prayers which they felt were too hard for You, or the prayers they felt they could not ask because they weren’t worthy, or the prayers they were told were stupid…I pray they open their hearts to You in complete surrender, in total trust, and in childlike faith, and that You, our great Father, will in some way let them know they have been heard today, even if those prayers are not to be answered quickly or in a way they hoped for. We love and adore you, and I offer this prayer in the name of our Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus, Yeshua Messiah. Amen.

Bless you heaps!


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19 comments:

Shelley said...

❤ lots to digest here, I 'll be rereading it this week. I have Psalms so highlighted too, along with Philippians.

Joanne said...

Thank you for sharing your prayers Jennifer :)
hugs, take care,
Joanne

Mrs. White said...

Thank you for this beautiful message and prayer. The Psalms are very powerful and precious. I read from them daily. God bless you!

Martha said...

Jennifer, thank you for always giving us encouragement in so many areas of life. It is true that God is faithful to provide our greatest need, our relationship with Him.

Anonymous said...

I thank our beloved Lord Jesus for comforting me through your beautiful words tonight Jennifer. For the last few weeks I've been going through depression that as soon as I'm home behind closed doors from anywhere I just sob and sob. I thank Him for being with me in this time when I'm feeling the pain and aloneness without him more acutely than ever. Insomnia due to Fibromyalgia and sleep apnoea all seem to have banded together to drag me down. Each morning I read my Bible and pray walking around as if I sit down I fall asleep. So thankyou dear Jennifer for your very timely words. God bless you and your loved ones.

Anonymous said...

Without him should read without my darling husband.

Gail S. said...

I love this message SO much! I too need to read and reread this. Thank you.

Lori said...

Thank you for the reminder to put all of my trust in the Lord!!

C Reeder PhxAz said...

Timely words as 2023 begins. I remember sharing once in a small group at church about how I pray daily to and from work. I have a long commute with lots of stoplights. When one is red and I am waiting I pray. I’ve assigned the lights along the way to specific people. Responses ranged from that’s weird, how to be silent and prepare to properly pray in such a short time? You can’t pray for much in that amount of time. Etc etc and then one person said what a great way to up your time with Jesus! I’m gonna try that and he did. Said not only did it feel good but it calmed him in traffic to be one on one with God. I commute one hour in the morning drive and about an hour and a half going back. That’s considerably good time. And yes I randomly hit all green lights now annd then. I consider those the adversary trying to break my habit so I just drive along finding ever I can see and saying thank you out loud. When I do red lights every prayer begins with something I am grateful for first. I am all about the little things as well as the big. Your post was really well written about this subject.

Mary-Lou said...

Jennifer what a lovely inspiring message you have sent its lovely! Thank you so much. 💖❤️😊

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful message. Thank you so much!!!

Emma - Barradale Farm said...

A lovely encouraging post Jennifer. Yesterday was not a good day here. It was a day where parenting was incredibly difficult and on top of that there were some expensive mishaps. Last night I fell into bed utterly deflated about what on earth we are trying to achieve here, but praying for strength, love, hope and joy to flow into my heart. I woke this morning much brighter, determined to continue to put one step in front of the other. Your post was a timely encouragement.
much love, Em xx

Allie said...

How lovely it is to trust in Jesus - great post, sweetheart, and praying for anonymous, bless her....

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing what the Holy Spirit lays on your heart. I have been struggling with my prayer life, and on Saturday decided to read through all the gospels, looking for any reference to Jesus and prayer. It continues to amaze me how our Lord speaks into our lives, even from sisters-in-Christ whom we’ve never met from across the pond! I also appreciated reading other comments and have been encouraged by them as well.

Kim S. said...

Wow, sister! What an encouraging reminder! We misrepresent God (adopt his name/reputation in vain) when we think of him as too little or too uninterested. I've been stuck in doing that lately and have determined to write out verses on index cards showing his love and delight in his people and in doing marvelous things for them and putting them in noticeable spots throughout the house. The verses you pictured will be on one of those cards. Thanks again.

Susan said...

Thank you for your prayer, Jennifer. I am more like you. My mother taught me child-like faith, when I was just a child. Our car ran on prayer, when I was five, but it always ran. When we needed grass to plant a yard, God inspired my mother to go to neighbors and ask for their grass runners, and we got enough to plant a yard which grew green over the summer. She taught me of his love and his safety by sitting on the porch with me in lightning storms and admiring the beauty and majesty. I've never thought there's anything God couldn't do, but I have thought there were things He wouldn't do, usually because it wouldn't be good for me. =)

I know that God is in the very details of my life. I know He wants to give me blessings and gifts and hope and loves me every minute of the day and night. I know he waits for me to ask for His help and I've sometimes made Him wait too long, but He loves me anyway. Having you and your faith in my life is like shining a second light on me and my faith, and I'm so grateful He put you there, even from half a world away!

Donna P. said...

This is indeed a year of trials, isn't it? We're retired but dh had to go back to work this year as we had several RV problems (we're full timers) that our retirement would not cover. I'm blessed that he did this and I can take care of things here "at home".
God has provided for us through this and though it seems that we're "not getting ahead", we're not behind...right where we're suppose to be.
Thank you for such uplifting posts - so appreciated.
Blessings

Anonymous said...

Inspiring

kupton52 said...

I go through Psalms and Proverbs each month....5 Psalms and 1 chapter in Proverbs a day for 31 days.....there are 150 chapters in Psalms and 31 in Proverbs. I've encouraged my 3 grown daughters and ladies in our church to do the same....it is life changing for our Christian walk.