4/23/2025
This morning I woke up around 3 am with an extremely painful spinal headache at the base of my skull and running down my spine kicking off inflammation in my lower back and sciatic nerve. It was intense! I haven't experienced that degree of pain for quite a long time. Thankfully, God healed me of chronic migraines, spinal, cluster, and sinus headaches in 2007. It started when I was a small child, and it gradually increased until God heard my cries and delivered me. I had to learn how to function, because I had to go to school, and then I had to earn a living and take care of my three children. I know the only way I could have done it was by the grace of God.
Now that I am older, and I am not able to do things with the same zest and zeal as when I was younger, I need to pace myself. Yesterday, as you may recall, I cut the grass using a self-propel push mower in very dense grass, so it didn't propel much. Today I had to finish cutting it, plus I had to weed eat and pull weeds. I still need to ready my garden for planting very soon. I have some green chili seeds sprouting inside, so I need to be able to rest and not have another early morning like I did this morning. What really did it for me, I imagine, was the workout on the Gazelle before I went to bed. It was short, but I guess it inflamed something, so I won't try that tonight.
In my quiet time this morning I was listening to some of my favorite worship songs, and during"Our God Reigns," when the people were quietly, softly worshiping, with arms raised, praying, the pastor stepped up on the stage and said the following: "Rightly placed worship is the ultimate repentance. I saw you worshiping God this morning, and as John was leading us in that refrain, and I saw you jumping up and down, I saw addictions falling off you. I saw sin being shed from your body, corruption from your mind. As you begin to behold Jesus everything changes in rightly placed worship. The devil has been after your affection for so long, he's been after your worship, and some of you don't need to get free from addiction, you need to be addicted to the right thing. For some of you it's been impossible to get rid of that addiction, that thing that kinda keeps sneaking in, that artificial comfort, looking for your worship. Every thing changes in your life when you start becoming the worshiper God always intended you to be. This is what happens, the world gets transformed when you actually live a transformed life. We are continually being transformed."
He's right about coming before the Lord, in humility, in worship, being transformed, because we don't want to remain the way we were before we found Jesus and made Him Lord of our lives. It's why I stress the importance of having that quiet place to sit alone with Him, listening. I love the song, "Breathing Room" by Kim Walker-Smith:
"I have found breathing room
My soul can rest in You
No longer have to fight
The burden's lifted
The weight is light
You are my steady ground
No need to worry now
The fog has cleared away
And I stand uncovered
Walk in Your grace
My heart is wide open
My heart is wide open
As I breathe in every word
That You've spoken
My heart is wide open
My heart is wide open
As I breathe in every word
That You've spoken
You speak right to my core
Don't have to hide anymore
There's nothing I can do
But stand in Your presence
Completely consumed
My heart is wide open
My heart is wide open
As I breathe in every word
That You've spoken
My heart is wide open
My heart is wide open
As I breathe in every word
That You've spoken
I'm letting go
I'm letting go
There is breathing room
For my soul
I'm letting go
I'm letting go
There is breathing room
For my soul"
We come with yielded hearts, wide open, to breathe in every precious word He speaks to our hearts. In Revelation 8:1, 3-4 it says: "There was silence in heaven for about half an hour.... Then another angel...Came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God." This is the breathing room we have before God, waiting, focusing only on Him and what He has to say. There may be silence, but in the silence there is peace that transcends all need for words. Holy Spirit, dwelling within in, makes intercession on our behalf, and the prayers rise as incense to God. This is worship. This is relationship with a God who loves us and welcomes us in. Andrew Murray put it this way: "The secret of strength can only be found in living communion with God."
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