"I Am YOURS"

'"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." Jeremiah 31:3
"HOW GREAT is the love the FATHER has lavished on us, that we should be called children of GOD! And that is what we are! 1 John 1:3

Dear Friends,

A couple of weeks ago on Sunday morning, we were getting ready to go to church. It was going to be my husband's first day back to church since his surgery. As we were getting ready, my husband and I had a "domestic." It was really not that big of a deal, but I got really, really angry, and decided that I wasn't going to church (i don't think I have ever not gone to church before because of anger). My daughter, who had left earlier for Sunday School called and said that they had painted the walls in the hall of the church, so that gave me an excuse not to go since I'm very sensitive to paint, but I wasn't planning to go anyway. Instead, I got the food ready that they were supposed to carry to church to eat afterwards, and I stormed out to walk my dogs. Ordinarily, on Sunday morning, I would have never done that, because I wouldn't want the neighbors to see me and be a stumbling block to them. This morning, I didn't care... too much. It did bother me some, but I went anyway, through the neighborhood, to the field where I get a lot of thinking and praying done during the week. As I walked out in that field, I don't remember what I thought or prayed, I know the LORD was with me though, because HE always is, even when I have "ill manners." I got the idea as I walked along, that I was going to get my Bible, and go down to the river and just sit and pray and worship the LORD there. When I got back, I did get my Bible and camp chair and threw them in the back of the car. To be honest, by the time I left, I really didn't feel like going, but I drove down to the place that i love to paddle and spend time with the LORD. By the time, I got there, I decided to turn around and come home, I just didn't feel like reading my Bible or praying. So, that's what I did, I turned around and came home. When I got home, my husband called me and I still wasn't in much of a talking mood, and I was short with him on the phone. Soon after that, my homehealth nurse called, and said that she was coming to give me an IV. I knew that I was running on empty, my body doesn't absorb my nutrients well, and that this was contributing to my "ill manners." But sin is sin, and it wasn't an excuse to loose self control, become angry and treat my family unkind. After the nurse got the IV going, I began to relax and come to my senses. By the time my husband and son got home from church later that afternoon, I was so sorry for the way I had acted and asked my husband to forgive me. He did for the 10,000th time. Later that evening, we ordered pizza and had friends over to watch the Superbowl. While the guys watched the TV up front, the girls and I hung out in my bedroom and yakked, looked at "skinny and younger folks" in our wedding pictures, and occasionally kept an eye on the game when some of the guys would come back and hang with us. That evening, after everyone had left, and i reflected on the day, I was amazed at how a day could start off so "stormy," and then GOD could calm the seas and bring peace to my soul and to our family once again.

I felt led to share this with you because I want to be honest with you how I struggle with sin. The greater thing I want to share is how much the LORD loves me and you even when we are "ill mannered," even more than we love our children when they are ill mannered. I am so glad that the LORD loves me all the time, including when I act childish and foolish like I did a couple of weeks ago.
As I sat in my sauna one evening this week, I looked up at a poster on the wall that tells who I am in CHRIST. The first thing it listed is that I am a "CHILD of GOD," I John 1:3. I thought about the security of being GOD's child. How we strive to love our children in our human weakness and so often fail them, but GOD never fails us. He says in Psalm 27:10,"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up." I am so thankful that GOD's grace is sufficient and HIS power is made perfect in our weakness...HE has so many opportunities to show HIS power through us! I pray the LORD will use the weaknesses that our children see in us, to help them to turn to HIM and find HIM the perfect FATHER that HE is to us. He even invites us in Romans 8:15 to call HIM, "Abba Father, which means, Daddy, Daddy." Our "ABBA FATHER" loves us with an everlasting love...and underneath are the Everlasting Arms," Deuteronomy 33:27. How often I sin against GOD, and HE continues to forgive me over and over, like we forgive our children and each other over and over in our family. I am so thankful that the LORD JESUS said to forgive each other seventy times seven...cause we have needed that and so much more in our family!
Right after this happened with me wallowing in my sin on that Sunday morning, I was reading Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening." He talked about the love of the LORD and shared, "Believer, look back through all your experiences and think of the ways in which the LORD your GOD has led you in the wilderness-how HE has fed and clothed you every day: how HE has tolerated your "ill manners," put up with all your grumblings... Think of how HIS grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles-how HIS blood has been a pardon for you in all your sins...HE who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to love and pardon." How sweet these words were and are to my soul, as i know that's what the LORD JESUS has and does for me each and every day. How very blessed I am that GOD's grace has been sufficient for me in all my troubles and how thankful I am that HE has led me to a place that knows how to deal with my health struggles. Where would I be, what would I do, if HE had not supplied my needs through the help HE has led me to through the Environmental Health Clinic in Dallas, Texas (www.ehcd.com)? Thankfully, my husband has been able to work hard, and GOD has supplied our needs through his loving care of our family.
How thankful I am that JESUS supplied the greater need of my life of forgiving my sin on the cross of Calvary through suffering HIMSELF. My sin cost HIM everything, that you and I might be healed spiritually..."by HIS stripes we are healed." Eventually, our bodies will have complete physical healing when we are with HIM in glory...but for now, you and I are called as HIS dear and beloved children to follow in HIS steps and "fill up that which is lacking in CHRIST's sufferings" Colossians 1:24. CHRIST suffered for us, and we are going to suffer if we are truly HIS children, Romans 8:17. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of GOD and co-heirs with CHRIST, if indeed we share in HIS sufferings in order that we may also share in HIS glory."


As GOD had given me one focus to share with you this week, HE has also given me one song..."Who Am I" by Casting Crowns. What a blessing their songs, their walk with CHRIST, and their transparency about their struggles are to me. As I have listened to these words over and over the past few days, they remind me that though" I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow," that the"LORD of all the earth, cares to know my name and feel my hurt"...that "HE chooses to light the way, for my ever wandering heart, and it is HE that "calms the storm in me." How thankful I am that, "The eyes that see my sin would look on me with love, and watch me rise again." As I thought about that "black stormy" morning in my soul, I remembered how the LORD JESUS provided my physical need for an IV to help my body respond correctly to be able to repent and ask forgiveness. And thankfully through HIS love, my family responded with forgiveness. In doing so HE calmed the storm in my soul and in our home. There is no greater privilege and blessing than to be HIS child and to know that "I am YOURS" ... even when I am "ill-mannered."

With all HIS love,
mitzi


Who Am I? by Casting Crowns

Who am I? That the Lord of all the earth,Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.

Bridge:

Not because of who I am,But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done,But because of who You are.

Chorus:
I am a flower quickly fading,Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean, A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.I am Yours.I am Yours.

Who am I? That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am,But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are.
I am a flower quickly fading,Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am.I am Yours.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are.
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.

Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am Yours.I am Yours.
I am Yours.Whom shall I fear?
Cause I am Yours.