Tonight, after returning back home from celebrating my sister's 29th birthday at "Tex Mex" restaurant, I decided to walk around the local high school parking lot where I live nearby. Usually, I walk around the school for more than an hour while I pray and just spend precious time with God. I thank God for provisions, blessings and opportunities He had showed me during the course of the day. Tonight, I was especially grateful to Jesus for bringing me through a tough situation with housing; the last walk that I did it was painful one. I was in tears from distress that God had left me all alone and, at that time, I was troubled greatly as I felt God to be far from me. At one point I had to stop walking and paused while I sobbed. Then, later in my walk, I saw a beautiful sunset over an evening sky and I felt a rush of peace sweeping over my body. I was at rest at the end of my walk that night (last week). Today, however, I was simply praising God for His awesome provision of my new apartment and laptop-all in the same week!
While I was at the end of my walk, I lifted my hands toward the night sky and remembered these words from Revelations 4:8 "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." I repeated these words three time simply out of grateful heart. My heart was so overjoyed that I told God to take these words of praise and carry them up straight to His ears. Suddenly, I felt a little breeze and a group of several birds surrounded me and began to chirp! They just appeared from now where out of dark sky and began encircling me around. To me, it appeared they were singing in unison and so I, like a conductor of the choir, began directing these little birds. In several occasions, I stopped, and they stop too and then I continued again by saying out-loud: " One more time!" It was as if they obeyed, then that's when it hit me; God was revealing Himself to me through bird song in the middle of the night! Then as if it didn't happen, the birds flew away and it became quiet again. I didn't hear anymore chirping afterward as I finished my walk with a joyful heart.
I believe tonight I had experienced yet another hopeful signs from the Maker of heaven and earth (and those little birds too). Living the christian life isn't just doing what God requires of us, but also experiencing God in personal and unique ways.
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Sergei,
(Somehow I missed the fact that you have a blog. I just noticed the link to it on your Facebook and thought I’d read. Very nice blog!)
These posts about your finding a house and the transition to living in Philly reminded me of an experience I had this summer when my parents dropped me off at school in August. I, too, was living by myself for about 2 weeks in my little dorm room at BJU, 600 miles from home and with practically no one else around. Since I had arrived 2 weeks before school started, none of my friends had returned yet, and there were only a few other people even living in my entire dorm. I was also the only student worker in my department at work (Just I and my 2 supervisors worked together every day). Additionally, I was having trouble with acquiring my student loans for school and was forced to pay over $1,000 out-of-pocket that I was not expecting to pay.
It was a very lonely time and very frustrating at first. In fact, I was extremely upset that I had to leave my comfortable home, my job, and my friends and family in PA only to get stuck by myself living in an empty dorm room and working at a boring job on campus. I also felt that God (and everyone else in the world) was far away, but I soon realized that He was not far from me at all. I was the one who was far from Him, and that quickly changed as I saw Him at work in my life.
As I look back on that time, I am thankful to God for putting me in that situation. He used those 2 weeks before school began to bring me closer to Himself. He brought me many blessings during that time that I would not have experienced otherwise.
I was able to spend many hours just meditating on God’s Word and talking to Him in prayer. He also gave me the unique opportunity to work and chat one-on-one with my work supervisors in a laid-back environment before the rush of school began. I was able to be a blessing to them, and I also received a blessing from working with them and getting to know them as real people rather than just “the boss.”
Most importantly, God used my time of “solitary confinement” to change my attitude. I had returned to Bob Jones in a terrible mood (one of extreme homesickness and bitterness toward the rules of the school and my new tuition payment plan), and I wanted to be anywhere but there. But I was reminded that it was God who had brought me there in the first place, and He would provide me with the strength and finances to make it through. By the time the other students began arriving for school to start, I was ready to start another good semester and to see what God had to teach me during my last year at college.
Although times like these can be difficult, God does not forsake His children. It’s encouraging to know that He has a plan that’s far greater than any we can think of (Isaiah 55:9). He always provides for us and brings us blessings through every circumstance.
~Laura
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