Retreat

The last week and a half I've been on retreat. Except this retreat featured the brilliant lime green walls of the room I share with my younger sister. Sounds refreshing eh?

The last few months I've been really busy, which is something I'm usually not... at least not consistently for several months on end.. and it started to get overwhelming all this keeping busy... So with God's prompting I decided I needed to retreat. There were still commitments I couldn't avoid - work, household chores that sort of stuff. But I cancelled my social plans, And didn't make new ones.

I'm not saying being busy or overly social is a sin, but for me it was hindering the time and energy I had to talk to God, which honestly was very little and very shallow.

 So on my evenings and days off I sat and got to think, reflect and enjoy the peace and quiet. I reflected on things that were and weren't drawing me closer to God and just started to ask Him what He wanted of me...because I didn't really have a clear idea anymore (PS. Still working on that)

I thought about the prayer that is in 2 Chronicles 20. In this chapter King Jehoshaphat is told a vast army is coming against him and so he addresses the people in the temple with a prayer and he ends it in verse 12 with "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" 
And I found that so encouraging - so refreshing! Though I do not and never have had a vast army come against me or my nation, I understood that overwhelmed feeling, the 'something's gotta change or else I'm toast' scenario. So that was one thing that God said to me.

 But the main thing He kept saying to me was to grow in my knowledge of Him, to learn of God and who He is in a deeper way and to better discern in the future whatever social plans, projects and other commitments are going to help rather than hinder in this area of my life.

That's all for now!

Free Indeed

I have walked in darkness, I have cried through the night
I'm sinking in a storm, I am trapped in a battle - that I'm too weak to fight..

Oh sinner come stand in the light

Then the son He said
 to me, be free
The Son He said - go and sin no more

Whom the son set free is
Free Indeed,
Oh free indeed.

Alone in my sorrows, alone in this world,
Crying out -do you hear me, will somebody save me?

Chains were holding, darkness was gripping on tight
I was trapped in a battle , I was too weak to fight

Then the son He said
 to me, be free

Holding on to the things not intended for me
Grieved when I should have let go
Surrendering now is the most joyful thing,
oh free, yes free indeed!

Then the son He said
 to me, be free

Whom the son set free is
Free Indeed,
That is me, oh free indeed.

Free forever, Amen.

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This is a poem I wrote several months ago and have just now felt the need to post it.

I completed this sketch last week and well I didn't plan on posting this either but it goes perfectly and is based on the verse repeated in the poem. So I thought I would share. Hope this encourages somebody out there! :)