I have a friend who brought me a little devotional book yesterday and had marked a prayer section that I wanted to share with all of you! It is titled "Magnifying the Lord" My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness...Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:20
The interpretation from this reading is what was so powerful in this little book because it is so close to my thoughts. Let me share: Steve Givens writes; "When I was first diagnosed with a rare blood disease" (for me cancer, Multiple Myeloma) "more than three years ago," (for me 2 weeks ago), "one of my first thoughts was something like, "How is this going to affect my life, my faith, and my relationship with God?"" (for me, this was not my first thought but I did look to God immediately, I just did not know that he would enter my life with such obvious presence and lead me through each and every moment of this journey!)
Steve Givens goes on to say "My deepest prayer was that, like St. Paul, I would not lose faith and would continue to live my faith boldly, no matter what the outcome of the disease or its treatment. I prayed that others would grow in faith because they saw the way that it carried me through a difficult time. That continues to be my prayer." (For me, this is exactly what I have seen happen however, I did not know that all of this strength came from God! I thought that I had made choices to live a certain way and that because of those choices, I was walking the path that God had made. This I am realizing quickly, is not exactly correct....God loves us all and he does NOT choose a path for 1 and not the other! We are all here to show stewardship and love to each other, those opportunities present themselves to us every day. What has changed for me right now is that I am completely open to God and because of that, I find myself being presented with opportunities all the time! I think they were probably there before, I just was too busy with my own agenda to see them!
Steve Givens goes on to say; "Truth is, Christ cannot always be seen by those around us because he is so often a quiet, fleeting, small thought in an otherwise big, busy and noisy world. But as people who place our lives in Christ, it's our job-whatever our situation in life-to magnify and amplify that small place where God dwells within us so that others can see and come to have faith too." Steve Givens
I pray that all of us will pay more attention to the fact that we do not make or control our lives but that God is leading us. When good things happen, God made that opportunity available to us and that we should be grateful to him for that gift and be ready to share those gifts with others. I have not always walked humbly yet have always admired those who did! I believe and have surrendered my health and future gifts to magnify the presence of God in my body, whether by life or by death as was stated in the scripture above.
I love you all and thank you for thinking of me always! You are all in my prayers daily as well. Susan
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