The Lord gave this to me on September 15, 2004:

I find it easy to see where Biblical people fall short or fail... or where they did something good and pleasing. We have their entire story and often even what God and other people think of them. Its easy to say to Biblical folk, "Why won't you wait? Why won't you trust God? Why do you fear and doubt after all God's done for you? If only you'd have waited a short while more God would have delivered you." Life is not so easy for us. God see's all of the past, presant and future, we see only a few fuzzy moments in time. Our Lord sees how things knit together (after all He's the one with the knitting needles doing all of the work) We can't see even the full ball of yarn. We see only a piece of our own little stitch, if even that! I find that I doubt easily. Doubt that deliverance is coming. Forget to ask, wait and trust on the Lord. I lose focus so easily. I forget that God will deliver me!

Its said that a goldfish has the memory of approximately 3 seconds. Well, so do I. How many times in the Old Testiment did God deliver His people and do miracles and in the very next chapter, or even verse His people have forgotten Him? How many times has God's hand moved to bless us and we forget to thank Him or don't notice the blessing at all... or if we've noticed lose hope the very next day/hour/minute? How often do we forget who GOD is? Do we even know at all? If we did, would we still forget? I look forward to the day when I won't have to forget at all!

We have to remember who Jesus is and not who we are and always keep in mind His power and mercy. Its a hard thing to do... but we can not have an intimate relationship with Him and dwell in Him in couples or groups. The Christian walk can be found only in fellowship alone with Jesus. No one is going to do my walk for me. No one is going to do your walk for you. But I'm starting to see that only in this relationship with Jesus can we experience peace in the midst of the storm that is life! Isaiah 26 says that the Lord will "give him perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon me, because He trusts me." God wants so much more for us than we can ever begin to imagine. And he's willing to give it to us if we are willing to give him our lives in exchange. So, every day, I keep asking myself, "Just how willing are you, Stephanie to give everything to Jesus so He can make you new?" and I always say, "I am so very willing... Jesus show me what to do first!" And because perfect unity with Him is - of course - in His will, He will show us each step at its proper time (according to His time, naturally).. because if He told us all the steps at once we would not be trusting Him to be who who says He is. That's faith.

So, I encourage you, dear reader, to wait and hold onto the Lord's perfect promises!