This past week I was laid up in bed with the flu. Thankfully it was not H1N1, but it took it's toll nonetheless. Sounds funny, but I actually approached this past sickness as a much needed vacation or retreat from student life. It's funny because I am finding that being in seminary and studying all the time can breed a stagnation in your personal devotional life. I have had to fight for time in God's word that isn't for a class reading assignment and finding time where you are fresh to pray is even more challenging when the day is done and you're spent. Yet God is faithful and he will intervene in ways that may even come by way of illness. I had sweet time with Jesus while I was sick. I was able to have continuous times of prayer and my attention was undivided. I didn't have much strength to pick up text books, but I did have enough strength to pick up my small Bible and read for the fulfillment of my very thirsty spirit. I also wanted to know in what ways I could better honor God in some of the areas of my heart that continue to resurface and He was ready to meet me and speak to me. It was sweet to be in His presence and to cast my cares, my burdens and the burdens of the numerous people in my life unto Him. Truly, being laid up in my bed was a time of worship! It was as if I was on a bed in the middle of paradise. No place safer, no peace so sweet then to be in the throws of prayer. To be still, to listen and to know that God will have His way and He will break through. His Holy spirit comes and will work, convict, correct, encourage, promise and lavish you with the grace and love of our Heavenly Father. I pray that it doesn't always come down to me getting sick to get back on track in finding intimate communion with God, but I'm so grateful that God has infinite measures to break through when inevitably I will fall short. I was richly encouraged by the call in Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
I didn't realize that the very rest that I needed in the depths of me would come by way of bed rest. It was the most worthy way to spend my time and my strength in holy pursuit of the Great I Am. Worthy is He of our praises, our adoration, worship, honor and all glory. I will leave you with the words of J. Wilbur Chapman "This is your privilege for this day and every day, to live in the very atmosphere of heaven while working down here in the sin-tainted atmosphere of this world. It is the personal appropriation of Christ that makes this world like heaven. It is the sweet fellowship that opens our eyes, so that again and again we cannot help saying, "you know that I love you."
~Mel
