Now that we are listening for God’s voice in our life, we need to start growing in confidence that He does indeed love us and have the best in mind for us all the time (Romans 8:28)
The words of ‘How He loves me’ by Crowder rush into my soul at this thought.
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us oh,
As the soul grows used to the sound of the Shepherd’s voice, it can rest more peacefully in the comfort of His protection. The soul like the sheep is confident that the Shepherd will keep the wolves and dangers away. It also knows that if it does wander, the Shepherd will leave the 99 to come find it.
I’ve spent so much of my life fighting against God. He has blown like a hurricane, and in my arrogance, I was the tree trying to stand against His mighty wind, only to find myself broken and battered at times. If only I had known the sound of my Savior’s voice back then, He was relentlessly whispering in my ear to stop fighting, to ‘bend with the wind’.
He whispers into the soul to simply trust in Him, trust His Will for His burden is light, He gives peace unlike the world knows.
Jesus crashed into my life some 28 years ago, when He ‘rushed’ to my aid at the side of my dad’s coffin. His power and might whispered into my soul words of peace at my loneliest moment. And, He spoke louder to my soul in those days of desolation when Kristina was first diagnosed. I started to hear His voice and recognize it – and more importantly, I started to listen.
So, when Kristina was back in the ICU a few years ago, with tears in my eyes but a peace in my soul, I could pray over her, “THY Will be done, Father, she is YOUR daughter, thank you for all the blessings her love has given me. I trust in You”
And in that moment, I stopping being that tree fighting against His Will and started to bend with His Divine Will, His Holy Hurricane blowing and guiding my life.
Today I spent my lunch in adoration at Divine Mercy Parish (St. Mary of Mercy). St. Faustina (through her diary) prompted me to lay prostrate before the King and abandon myself in an act of surrender to His Divine Mercy and the Kingdom of the Divine Will (Diary paragraph #9)
There are many times in life when a simple prayer or two are not enough. What we need is to totally abandon ourselves before God, to allow ourselves to bend to the winds of His Divine Mercy and Divine Will.
The soul that takes time to surrender itself to God in concrete moments of abandonment, physical acts of surrender (like laying prostrate in adoration) will begin to become comfortable “bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy” and begin to live Romans 8:28 in its spiritual life.
Lord, I abandon myself into Your hands and trust in Your perfect goodness and Mercy. Jesus, I am totally Yours. Jesus, I trust in You.