Thankful!

So this morning I have been sitting here reading about being content and emotionally stable, and it has been so good!  I so love Joyce's teachings and the practicality of it all.  I am thankful to be able to think back and see that even though I am not where I want to be I am not where I was in the area of my emotions and my responses to things.  It is a wonderful revelation to KNOW that God has been so working in my life that I can not only feel the difference in myself, I can see the difference!  Cool huh?

I don't want to react to things that happen in my life, waiting for stuff to happen before I get busy with it.  I want to know ahead of time what I will do in a situation (my husband is the one who pointed that possibility out to me...how wise IS he????).  I am so grateful that I don't have to live by what I feel and that I can walk in freedom from the turmoil of emotions and the waves that they represent because God gave us the fruit of self control!!!  I think this is so profound to me because I was raised to go with whatever you felt and let that be your guide and I saw the destruction of that principle over and over again.  I don't want that fruit in my life and as I have been learning over the past few years, it doesn't have to control or rule me! Yeah, I mess up, I get emotional and have mini break downs once in awhile but I can honestly say that they are fewer and farther in between than they ever were, even just a few weeks ago.  I am content and emotionally stable, I am difficult to offend....(just a few of Joyce's power thoughts!)  Renewing my mind has become a hunger in my heart, letting the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing to God, THAT is what I long for.  I don't want to want things that He doesn't want for me, and believe me, I have begun to discover a few of those things recently.  I want to want HIM, long for and hunger for HIM and when the things of life get in the way, I am asking Him to be the only thing I seek, the only thing I see and after that, well, I can do what I need to do because He gives me the strength that I need to do it.  I could, if left to my own fleshly devices, ruin my life rather quickly, but thank the Lord that He has a hold on my heart that I don't!  If there be any way in me that would lead to destruction, Lord, take it from me, don't let me go down that path and lead me in Your way.   

The Lord is so good!  I am so thankful that He lifted me out of the miry clay and set me upon a rock, upon HIM and that each day He takes me higher, deeper and teaches me even more about Himself and in the same token, about myself!  I am so thankful that I don't have to live according to how I feel, that I can chose joy, peace, contentment, thankfulness...to name a few, and that I can choose the oil of gladness for the spirit of heaviness...that I can throw off all that hinders me and run the race He has set before me and since and because it is the race HE set before me, He will strengthen me, sustain me, teach me and run it with me.  Oh the joy that that brings to my heart.  Even in the midst of much change and uncertainty, even in the midst of what looks to be a season of grief, of letting go, I know I can trust God completely and I don't need to worry about anything.  I can CHOOSE to trust, CHOOSE to walk in peace and CHOOSE to not let my heart be troubled.  Yes, it is and will be a battle and I might lose a few skirmishes once in awhile, but as since I have already seen victory after victory in this area of my life, I know that I can walk in safety and security, calmness and assurance that no matter what happens in the days, months and weeks ahead, I am safe in the arms of His embrace, lifting a song to Him of joy in the midst of trials. 

"My faith is in You for all things, Your life put an END to my searching, now my hope is in Your hands by the wounds that paid for us all...so we would know our God..."