Are you on the branch or on the ground?

On one of the days at a Ladies Retreat last year I was out for a walk to take in God's beauty and just use that time to be still and allow God to speak to me. I remember walking and just being in awe of the God that I serve daily. There seems to be nothing like walking among God's creation and seeing His finger prints over everything.

While being in awe and amazement of who my God is, something caught my attention. And God used a leaf that had been detached from the branch that once held it and now laid among the dirt and rocks of the ground.

As I looked upon this leaf, I was overcome with the feeling that so many times this has been my life. So many times I have detached myself from from the body of Christ and have also tried to run from Jesus. Not based off of not loving Him, but because of feeling like I didn't deserve the freedom that He was offering me. I thought that I had to stay in the pit that I had created for myself. And that's when I found myself like this leaf on the ground and somewhere that I no longer belonged. For my God had truly set me free from my life of bondage (but I hadn't truly accepted that for myself), I was in a sense too comfortable in my pit to truly allow God to truly hold me like a branch does. Instead I chose to be away from the branch and the tree as a whole and be in a place where I could be stepped on without a thought from those passing by.

Then there was the time, that God spoke to me and called me. And from my place in my despair I was able to see what God had for me as it truly was His Mercy and Love! And that's when my heart and life truly became His again. At that moment I was lifted from my lowest point and placed back upon the tree that gives life (which is none other than the God I now serve with my whole heart). What I've been given is a gift and No one can compare, one that won't fade, die, be taken away. For I am in the hands of my God and there is no way anyone or anything can get me out of His loving, merciful hands! And I'm so grateful that I have a God that I can count on no matter what this world may say, I know my God and I know His mercy for I have experienced it for myself daily.

From one who has been forgiven,
Stormy


This blog is for you my beloved God for whom I serve, and if you use this blog to speak to the hearts of others I give you praise. I pray that this be used for your glory and that in the words that I speak here and daily may point others to you my God!
-Amen