Hello friends, welcome to In Bolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. We have a few roads from what's to choose when we go through our difficult seasons. We can beg the Lord to go back to the familiar and comfortable.
We can rush our minds to the other side of the trial, either imagining an outcome far worse or far better than we hope or fear. Or we can learn a bit from Jesus' brethren, let this perseverance finish its work so we can be mature and complete. In other words, we can live in this God-given moment right now seeking his blessings, seeking his voice, and seeking the lessons to be learned. During the last few months, I've taken a deep dive into the study of Elijah with my Bible study girls.
And as usual, God used all of my life to teach me about standing firm in my faith and stepping forward in trust. And as I prayed to God to reveal my next vlog series, I kept hearing the phrase, lessons from Kureth. You see, Elijah had to spend a lot of time alone facing his own trials before he was ready for the big show. In that time, some of which was in the area called Kureth ravine, he had to choose to either trust God's eternal plan for him or not.
And although my Kureth didn't last as long as Elijah's or even as long as Jesus was in the wilderness, I learned some valuable lessons while communing with the Holy Spirit. In these next few weeks, I'd like to share some of these with you. To hopefully realign our lives to be Christian lives, lived out for all the world to see, for our friends and neighbors and coworkers to be spurred to ask why we seem different. Friends, we can't keep wandering through the wilderness of this earthly world, living up to its standards.
It's time to take our hard-earned lessons from those seasons and put them to work for the glory of God. I hope you enjoy this. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145 verse 14.
We come to Colorado after receiving the news. My mother-in-law's constant bowel pain was the result of peritoneal cancer. It's a rare and deadly disease. She had never really fully recovered from her bout with uterine cancer diagnosed just 18 months prior.
Her markers seemed to be clear, but this painful and never-ending pain in her stomach kept her sideline. And, you know, we'll never know why it wasn't discovered sooner, but even in that, there are blessings. And so, after setting her up on hospice and determining that additional in-home care just wouldn't be sufficient and was well beyond what my father-in-law could afford, I offered to stay longer. As I said goodbye to my husband who needed to get back to San Diego for work, I was faced with my usual self-doubt.
I'm not good at this kind of thing, I said to myself. I'm not a sweet kind and compassionate person, I lamented. I never know what to say in difficult times, I fretted. I was scared to face day to day the woman I love as my mother, as she lay living out her last days.
I was worried about how to be around my quiet father-in-law during this time. I definitely was concerned how to handle all her friends who wanted to visit and needed a shoulder to cry on. And then I finally remembered God. Psalm 1114-5 says, He has caused his wonders to be remembered.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He provides food for those who fear him. He remembers his covenant forever. So I went for a walk and I soaked in the beauty of the Colorado Mountains and realized I didn't need to have all those gifts.
He has blessed me with so many other gifts that were needed during this time, like organizing and communication and more. What I now needed was to lean on him for the rest of what was required. My BSG's had just finished Shirley Giles's Davis's study book, God Gifts You, which takes a deep dive into the list of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit. Coincidentally, she lives and works in Boulder, Colorado, just a few miles from where I now found myself needing the strengths of God's gifts.
She reminded us that our gifts can be used for good and also have their own pitfalls infused incorrectly. She showed us how God's beautiful world can only function properly when we appreciate and honor the intricate ways all people's gifts are used in harmony. Psalm 5516 says, As for me, I call to God and the Lord saves me. And so I called on God in humility.
I thanked him for the blessings of financial security that helped me be there. I listed in thankfulness the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been endowed to me, and I prayerfully spoke the following. Lord, I cannot do this without you. I don't have the right gifts for the right moments, so I need the Holy Spirit to speak for me.
I don't have the strength for this gracious Father. I need you to keep me strong and lifted or I will fail. Only through your loving grace using my gifts that have been blessed to me, and with you filling in the rest will I be able to glorify you and help Bev and all those around her. Please Lord, speak in place of my words and be my strength.
Amen. His intervention was immediate as he surrounded me with his love and peace. All those worries and fears dissipated. And for the next three weeks the Holy Spirit held me up and spoke for me.
He spoke to the friends who left Bev's room crying in despair. He spoke to the family members who handled grief more differently than me. He spoke to Bev while I read her Psalms each day to comfort her. And he kept me from being tired and weak.
I can wake at any hour with ease to administer medication and keep the house clean and make meals for the ever changing number of people at the house. He provided just as he promises, just as he always has. Psalm 59 17 says, You are my strength. I sing praises to you.
You God are my fortress. My God on whom I can rely. My BSG's just recently completed Priscilla Shire's study on Elijah. In her week six video, she mentions the definition of faith as aligning our entire life with God's 8,000 promises found in his word.
Our faith doesn't need to be some mysterious feeling that is undefinable. It's simple. When we believe God's promises and live like we do, then that is faith. That's what Elijah did when he went as directed by God to Carith, a lonely, dry, desolate place.
God provided in ways only he can with food delivered by ravens and just enough water to get by for about two years. Elijah knew he couldn't make it on his own. He needed God to survive. All his knowledge and gifts weren't going to help him.
God would need to fill in where he was lacking. Friends, God promises over and over to provide for us. The Bible is filled with endless stories of his provision. Our own lives are testimonies to those provisions.
Sometimes we just need to remember to humbly ask for him to provide, where we are weak and not gifted. The morning my beloved Bev went to our Father, I was blessed again to have God show me how much he had answered my prayers. You see, I needed some alone time, so I decided to take a shower. And as I stood in the bathroom waiting for the water to warm up, I suddenly felt a huge weight press on me.
Like an anvil was placed on each shoulder. I cried out in surprise, and then it was suddenly gone. I knew he was showing me what he had sheltered me from for the last few weeks. And although I'm still experiencing the grief of Bev being gone from this earth, that heavy weight hasn't returned.
And I can thank God and the Holy Spirit for being my weight bearers. And I can thank God that he will provide in our weakest moments. Friends, where in your life do you need to ask for God's provision? And where do you feel insufficient and weak?
Ask him today, and he will provide. Have a great day. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Evolden Podcast. Be sure to follow Long so you don't miss any episode.
And check out my blog at embolden.net.