Only Jesus

In examining Hannah yesterday, I was reminded that her ONLY problem was God-sized, her ONLY solace was God. Her ONLY hope was God. Her ONLY prayer was to God. And her ONLY praise was to God. Oh there were good things around her (her loving husband), not-so-good things around her (her bitter rival), but those things grew strangely dim (see song below).

Then, in today's MUFHH, it talked about God using anything and everything in us and around us to point out what we really think about Him... and how much we truly trust Him. And Him alone.

This really spoke to me:

Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?

He's been working on that in me. Not that I've necessarily had a mis-trust issue. But I think I've had a mediocre trust in Him. I think I've lived more of a "trust in Him... but go ahead and do your own thing" kind of life than a "trust in Him... alone" life. And because of that, I've had a trickle-sized view of God. And He wasn't going to have any more of it. He's put me in the crucible for the last two months to purify me of it. And now, every time I think "Ok, God you're bigger than that", He blows my mind to even bigger proportions!!

And this last part of MUFHH was the ringer:

There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God’s character, we do not yet know Him.

Now, even in the darks times of today, I want to see nothing, save Jesus! I can see God's character today in a way that I could not have seen yesterday. And the things around me have dimmed. Yes, I can hear these lyrics ringing in my ear:

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
by Helen H. Lemmel (1922)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

And I'm reminded of this verse (I love the King James version best):

And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more,
save Jesus only with themselves.
Mark 9:8 (KJV)

All for now (I think),
Lisa