Embracing The Past - Prayer Monday

May your day be blessed and filled with God's everlasting love and forginess!

On this Carnival Monday I wanted to look back and see what has happened since the last year when I started blogging for real.

Here are three of the posts that I found.

And wanted to share with you!

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.  
C. S. Lewis

God's Gentelness and Our Pain

When I was a teenager I prayed God.

I asked Him to make me a reflection of Him.

To take away everything unnecessary.

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Oswald Chambers - Disciples Indeed, 395 L

When In Silence And Solitude

Silence is amazing and I need it for my mental health.

I've always enjoyed being in silence, at home, in nature, any secluded place I can find.

The silence gives me the opportunity to meditate, to be in a constants prayer in the presence of God.

How God Speaks To Us?

From the Bible we can see that God talks to us, His people, in different ways.

Jesus says that His “sheep” will hear His voice.

Does this mean that we will literally hear His voice?

Like Paul heard Him when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus?

Paul could hear with his own ears what Jesus said to him.

 This message is part of the Prayer Monday series.

Thought for today

When in silence and solitude

Silence is amazing and I need it for my mental health. 

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Oswald Chambers - Disciples Indeed, 395 L

I've always enjoyed being in silence, at home, in nature, any secluded place I can find.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,

that he may exalt you in due time

1 Peter 5:6

The silence gives me the opportunity to meditate, to be in a constants prayer in the presence of God.

In Finland there are vast green areas for recreation.

We are very proud of our forests and lakes.

And they are free for everyone.

Even in the capital of the country, Helsinki, the nature isn't far away.

There are big parks in the city, forest around it and the sea is everywhere.

There is always a place to be alone, in silence, listening your thoughts and sounds of nature.

We Finns appreciate silence and solitude.

When I came to Ecuador I was amazed by the nature.

The green of trees and plants everywhere, the majestic Andes around me, the way that stubborn life would break through the thickest slab of concrete.

“We went down into the silent garden.

Dawn is the time when nothing breathes,

the hour of silence.

Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”

― Leonora Carrington

It felt so easy to be thankful, to glorify God, and exalt His holy name.

But one of the hardest things to get used to in Ecuador was that I never could be alone in silence in the nature. 

 “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other”

PSALM 85:10 (NIV)

There are always people around.

There is nature, everywhere, all around, beautiful nature, but there are always people as part of that landscape.

Finland is so much smaller and there is so much space to be by yourself. 

And here it's a luxury that I just can't afford.

But for me solitude and silence are not luxuries.

They are like air and water, essential for my survival.

Only in the silence and solitude I can hear my thoughts, see clearly who I am, who is this person inside my skin.

And, I thought, only in silence and solitude I can really experience God.

I also need to be alone with myself to be able to know myself, and learn to like myself.

I think that by knowing ourselves, we know our boundaries.

It is important to be self aware, to understand yourself, forgive yourself and accept yourself, and your boundaries. 

The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good,

 but that God will make us good because He loves us.

C. S. Lewis

Understand how small you are compared to a vast God and His enormous love and forgiving.

It has been a long road.

There has been setbacks and frustrations.

I had to learn that I can meditate inside four walls, I don't always need nature to do it.

That I can pray when there are other people in the house.

That I can exalt God bit by bit, taking care of needs of my son, and returning then to  praise and my prayer life.

That when I go deeper, it is more painful but with time it becomes easier.

And with time I can experience more of God's love.

With the time comes the joy.

Silence of God

Sometimes I can hear God talking to me.

Sometimes it seems that I'm alone and there is no one else.

Sometimes in the silence I can feel God besides me.

There is a silence in the beauty of the universe which is like a noise when compared with the silence of God.
Simone Weil

Many times I want inmediate answers. Or I'm not at all delighted in His will.

One of the things that has brought me joy is God's acceptans of me for who I am. 

He loves me the way I am, including my doubting and stubborn nature.

How many times the voice that I have heard has said, not your will but mine.

How many times I have said, my will not yours. And repented it at the end.

There is my another cause for joy.

Although I may be stubborn and even stupidly so sometimes, I can always ask for wisdom from God.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 1:5
The King James Version

It has been many times painful but I have learned that God does know better than I do.

And He has Good reasons to do what He does.

Many times my answer would be to do what I want, choose what seems pleasing to my senses.

When I rebell against God I'm claiming myself equal to Him.

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
Michel de Montaigne

And there is another reason for such a profound joy.

His forgivess.