MEDITATION MONDAY: Musing

 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:1-2

Today, I am linking up with Monday’s Musings by the lovely Naomi.
And I am certainly, erm, musing. 
In everything I do recently, the Lord has been teaching me a facet of His love that my spirit was blinded to for some time. It has taken me, in word and deed, notches away from pride and contempt and flung into peace that allows God’s action within me. 
This morning, I was tempted into a mindset of worrying/thinking about the future. Will I be able to go to Johnny’s family’s, and my own family’s, Easter gatherings? When should I start packing the house? How am I going to get all my studying done? What happens if I don’t keep up these grades? How will I get to Toronto and back in time tomorrow to see Josee and make Bible study? 
Jesus brought changing peace through His Word.

 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them? ECCLESIASTES 3:18-22

I experienced His smiling love, and ultimately His power. I am not near to these worries. I am not calling you to them. What are they doing for you, and therefore, for Me? Nothing. Be in Me. 

His voice set a beautiful pace for the day. “Cassie” didn’t anxiously plan anything. “Cassie’s” heart, mind, and soul were simply present. Present to acknowledge physical and mental hunger, present to participate in class discussions in my final lecture of the semester, present with friends, present to decide to head out for the night for a coffee date with myself and the blog. Thank-you, Jesus. 

Jesus, I just want to be with You. I know that when You live through me, Your light shines over Your earth. 

And this pride thing that He revealed, in multiple elements of today. I do not depend on you to work, Cassie. All I need is for YOU to depend on ME.

I wanted to write that all over my walls when it hit for real. It is a Truth I know well. It is a Truth I believe. And it is a Truth that I’ve caught myself expelling in anxious, haphazard, and ultimately self-righteous ways– therefore, of course not expounding His Truth at all. Quite ironic; feeling a frustrated need to ensure that others understand that they need only Jesus, and to die to themselves, while expressing that out of myself.

Nothing CASSIE does will alter or better or worsen Jesus’ plans. Nothing CASSIE does will bring a person to Jesus. 

If I’m speaking worriedly or with angst, I’m infusing my own agenda, for my God is not worried or anxious.

If I’m acting with hast or judgement, I’ve got a preconceived notion, for my God is not hast or judging.

The Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath. PSALM 94:11

But the Lord… His ways are higher than my ways… His thoughts are higher than my thoughts… and His Holy Spirit lives within me (1 CORINTHIANS 3:16, ROMANS 8:2-6, etc.) 

The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God. For God is not gracious and merciful to sinners to the end that they might not keep his Law, nor that they should remain as they were before they received grace and mercy; but he condones and forgives both sin and death for the sake of Christ, who has fulfilled the whole Law in order thereby to make the heart sweet and through the Holy Spirit to kindle and move the heart to begin to love from day to day more and more. –Martin Luther