Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
xx.
Isaiah 35:5-6
The song "Run to You" by Kari Jobe is playing in the background. I need You, I can't get enough of You, I come alive when in Your presence, oh God of my salvation! How true. Every day I am reminded of how much I need Him, how I am absolutely nothing without Him. When I start my day off right, with Him, the day just goes so much better.
I've learned so much since starting college last year. One day can be crazy busy and you find yourself occupied every second of the day. I see so many people all around me bending under the pressure of college work, balancing basic life activities with education, and other problems that come their way. The biggest thing I've learned is that if I make it a priority to wake up extra early to spend some of my precious time with my Savior and surrender the entire day to Him, the busy day ahead of me doesn't seem so bad after all.
Recently, I've been preoccupied with a certain prestigious scholarship that I'm applying for. It is so prestigious that I had to go through a prescreening with my own college first before I actually apply to the real scholarship committee. I had an interview just last week and it was going to be a packed day for me starting at 8:30am and only ending at 9pm after my interview at 8:40pm. I realized it was going to be a crazy day and I wouldn't be able to handle it on my own. Days before the interview, I was in constant prayer... simply surrendering the entire thing into the hands of God, asking Him for His favor on me, for his strength and peace to fill every nook and cranny in my life. I also texted a few of my close Christian friends and asked them to pray. A friend of my replied, "Matthew 6:33-34." I turned the pages of my Bible, curious as to what it said:
Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
There is such a simple message in this passage: Do not worry. Throughout that whole day, I felt so in sync with God, His spirit was so present in my life, and I was filled with a peace that truly surpasses understanding. The interview went amazing - I could literally feel God in that room with me - I was selected for the next round of applications that I will be submitting next Monday.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Through that day, I kept on repeating, "Lean not on your own understanding." In my own understanding, there was no way I would survive such a busy day. In my own understanding, there was no chance I would get through that first round with such good competition. In my own understanding, no! It may make no sense to the world but I would survive today. It would make no common sense to the human brain that I would be selected for the next round of applications. But it was not out of human understanding that I functioned.
Perhaps it's the second part of this verse that's really the hardest to do. I can trust in the Lord, no problem. I can lean not on my own understanding, no problem! These are all internal actions. But acknowledging Him in all my ways!? Actually saying with my mouth that He is in control, actually declaring with my tongue that He is my Lord? Now that is a different story. But yet I did it. I acknowledged to my friends that I needed their prayers and it was all God and none of me. I mentioned in my interview that I was a Christian. And above all else, I went through that day praying constantly and admitting that it was not me at work, but the Spirit of God that was enabling me. So I acknowledged, I leaned not on my own understanding, and I trusted.
Psalm 37:3-5
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
That pretty much sums it up. I'm going to trust in Him, delight in Hm, surrender every little aspect of my life to Him and let Him lead the way - not only in the terms of this scholarship but in every single part of my life. I know that what He allows to happen to me is going to be the very best for me. I know that He is in control. I gave Him control. He's shown Himself faithful.
Don't miss out on that chance to simply pile all your burdens onto Him. Don't miss out on that guarantee that every day is going to be alright as long as you start it out with Him. Don't miss out on knowing that the greatest person ever on the earth loves you so much more than anybody else could. Don't miss out, I promise you, you will never ever regret knowing Him.