Category Archives: Bible Study

Posts of Bible study lessons, most of which involve worry, faith, fear, surrender, God’s sovereignty, and more.

Three Days in the Wilderness

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I’ve survived three days of bed rest so far.  Most of my time I spend reading, or checking facebook.  Yesterday I was entertained by my four year old niece, sister, and mom.  Today my sister-in-law came over.  Everyone has been very helpful making my lunches, cleaning the house, finishing my organizing projects.  But it certainly is strange to be forced to lay in bed and direct others to do things that I could have done myself a few days ago.

I am so thankful to have family and friends who are willing to step in and help us. I don’t have enough words to express how appreciative we are and what a blessing it is.

I’ve been reading the book One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer.  It’s about the Israelites time in the wilderness before God took them to the promised land.  Only two people out of about two million believed God’s promises. They trusted God would do what He said and be faithful and good to them.  One of those was Caleb, and that’s why we named our first son Caleb.  So that we would be reminded to trust God’s promises and be whole-heartedly devoted to Him no matter what.

About the “wilderness” in each of our lives, Shirer says:

“You don’t have to figure out the wilderness. You don’t have to fix the wilderness. You don’t have to be able to explain to your church friends why you’re going through the wilderness. Your job as a much loved, highly treasured child of God is simply to yield to the wilderness because it’s often only in the wilderness where our runaway desires can finally be boiled down to this: ‘One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.’ (Ps 27:4)

The wilderness is God’s way of making us want the only thing that’s really worth having. The wilderness, my friend, is worth it.”

You can be sure when you’re walking through the “wilderness” that you are not walking alone, and that you’ll come out of it better than you entered if you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Anticipation

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Throughout this pregnancy my doctors have been cautious. Not knowing the reasons I went into labor prematurely and delivered at 19 weeks last February 24 with our first child, Caleb, the doctors have seen me every two weeks with this pregnancy. When I went to my normal appointment on Friday at 21 weeks, 5 days, the ultrasound showed my cervix had shortened and was weak. The good news is that I was not in labor and that they’d be able to put in a cerclage to try and save as much length to my cervix as they could.

The surgery went well and I came home from the hospital Saturday afternoon. Now however, I am on strict bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. I can only leave the house for doctors appointments and I can only go up and down the stairs once a day.

Already I miss church, bible studies, the freedom to run errands, visits to Starbucks, playing my guitar, and I’m sure much more. But in a world where we really have no control over things, I’ve realized I do have control over my bed rest. So I’m going to do bed rest the best I can and trust God with the everything else. Over and over He has proven He is faithful, He hears my prayers, He has good plans for us. I know I can trust Him. When my mind is tempted to fear, doubt, and worry, I will remember “The Lord my God is with me, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in me, He will quiet me with His love, He will rejoice over me with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

A book I was reading yesterday encouraged me to keep hoping: “Anticipation – an excitement that no circumstance can dull, no setback can silence, no doubt can quench. You just know that God is actively working and is up to something miraculously special – right where you are.” (Priscilla Shirer)

Please join us in praying that this baby doesn’t come until 40 weeks, and together we will witness God actively working a special miracle.

Many of you have offered to help. You can sign up to bring us a meal at: http://www.mealtrain.com/?id=m9k4h3c1djqt. If you’re interested in cleaning, grocery shopping, or just visiting with me that would be great too! Thank you for your prayers and kindness to us at this time. We are so grateful for your friendship!