SLOW DOWN AND LISTEN

With everyone being forced to slow down these days as we pray and hope COVID-19 ends soon, I thought I would share about a time when life had to slow down, and I mean WAY down for me. It was not during great circumstances. It wasn’t by choice. It was not easy, but during this time, God revealed something crucial to me. I know He can and, for many, is waiting to do the same for you.

First, let me start off by expressing the fact that I am not saying that God caused this situation to happen in my life, just like He did not cause COVID-19 to happen. We know by John 10:10 who the author of death and destruction is, and it’s not God. However, I do believe with all my heart that He can take a situation that isn’t asked for or wanted or even the least bit liked, and use it to draw your heart closer to His.

Romans 8:28 tells us that God causes things to work together for the good to those who love Him. This means that we may walk through fire, but if we allow God to work on us in the flames, we will come out victorious with...here’s the best part…. a much stronger connection, a deeper relationship, and an undeniable faith in what our God can do in us and for us.

When I was pregnant with our second baby, I was just coming out of the first trimester, and I didn’t feel well. I remember thinking that I had allergy issues one day, and the next, struggling to get up to care for myself, let alone for our first child who was almost two at the time. That year the flu was being spread like crazy; leaving many fatalities. I was being careful, but sometimes things like this just happen.

It was a Sunday morning around 3AM, and I was laying on the bathroom floor truly feeling like I was about to die. Fear took over me as I worried about the precious fetus growing inside me, and my family who depended so heavily upon me. My parents came to get the oldest, and my husband was able to bring me to a doctor. Sure enough, I had to flu! I had never had it before, but I didn’t expect it to feel like this. My OBGYN was contacted, and she explained that my body’s immune system was solely protecting the baby and leaving me helpless which was why I was feeling the effects of the flu ten times more than normal.

Jumping ahead a little to two weeks of bed rest, fluids, humidifiers, vitamin D and broth, I was stuck. I was being forced to slow down; or more like stop.  

You see, before this happened, my schedule was packed!! I was a pregnant, stay- at- home wife and mom, tutor by evening and a volunteer at every chance I could squeeze in. All of which are great, except when you are running yourself ragged trying to keep up with all the yeses you penciled into your calendar. I was tired. My body was tired. And I was not creating my schedule based on God’s direction, but on what I felt like I should be doing; more so, what I felt like other’s thought I should be doing.  

 With suddenly cancelled plans and an immense amount of time on my hands, I quickly figured out that I could either sulk about it until I got better (which I did a little of, to be honest), or I could give this time to the Lord, allowing Him to work on me spiritually while trusting He would take care of me physically. And that’s exactly what I decided to do.

 I won’t go into detail about my intimate moments with the Lord during this time of bed rest and confinement, but He worked on me specifically about trusting Him. I remember sleeping a lot while I was recovering, and one day, I was woken up by a voice asking, “Do you trust me?”

 I woke up startled at first because the voice spoke so clearly and I heard it so loudly, but I quickly figured out that it was in my spirit where I heard this question being asked.

After that moment, I opened up my heart and  just listened as God worked on me.

 Matthew 11:15 says, “Let anyone who has ears, listen.”

So I listened and learned what the Word says about trusting God.

 I was guided to many verses about trusting in the Lord. Before this happened, I thought the answer to that question would have been a resounding yes, but I didn’t realize until months later why He was addressing my trust in Him.

 It is crucial to remember that God is all-knowing, and what may come as surprises to us, He saw coming long before we did. But the comforting thing is, He’s got a plan and He’s always in control with even the parts of our lives that may, to us, seem uncontrollable. It’s no secret that sometimes we face mountains that are too large for our human minds to conceive.

Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t even wrap your head around what was going on? You felt completely helpless; like you didn’t have an answer. The great thing about our God is that we don’t have to have the answers to any of our problems because the things of this world are not our source. God is, and He has all the answers we need. I love what Proverbs 1:5 says about what happens when we listen!  “Let a wise person listen and increase in learning, and let a discerning person obtain guidance.”  If you find yourself in need of guidance in your situation, God is asking you to just listen and learn from Him.

After I recovered from the flu, I went back to my schedule except with a little less on my plate, and a lot more dependency on Jesus.

 Months later, right as we celebrated 8 months of pregnancy and began preparing for baby number 2 to arrive, my husband unexpectedly lost his job.

We were suddenly without a steady paycheck, without health insurance, and at first, we didn’t quite know what to do.  

My mind jumped back to that time of confinement with God where He asked me if I trusted Him, and I thought, “OH, I get it now!”

 The things I learned in the seclusion of my bedroom for two weeks was now coming into play, but this time it wasn’t just between me and God. It was being practiced in my life.

 We had no other choice but to put our total trust in the Lord and HIS plan, not ours.

 What could have been the worst two weeks of my life, God turned around, prepared my heart and my spirit for the fire, and then He saw us through it.

 I sometimes think about the outcome if I wouldn’t have heeded to His question of whether or not I truly trusted in Him.

He used a time of forced slow down as a time for preparation for the battle to come to my family.

Because I gave my time to Him, I was spiritually prepared. The mountain may have come as a shock to me and my husband at that moment, but after rethinking about certains times, we figured out that God was preparing us for this very storm through various previous situations.

 Which is why it is so important to use times like this where you are able to slow down to listen to the guiding of the Holy Spirit and dig into the Word because the biggest mountain you have ever faced can be just around the corner for you.

 I would love for you to visit me so I can share more encouraging words for day-to-day living at either.

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