You know when you reach my age your perspective changes you have more memories behind you and you begin to wonder how many you will have in the future.
We’re supposed to take one day at a time…live in the now and forget the past and don’t think about the future…
But somehow I just don’t think that is exactly right…otherwise why did God give us memories and why did he say, He knows the plans he has for us a plan of hope and a future.
Now of course dwelling or living in the past is not healthy but it’s ok to remember the former days. Learn from mistakes and try not to have too many regrets when we come to the end of our days…
And living in the future well how can you live somewhere that doesn’t exist yet? So yeah living in the now is the best option…
The thing is, is that, if you don’t like where you are living now…you can always do something about it…because nothing stays the same…
You may say, “Marla what are you talking about? I’ve been in this situation for thirty years and nothing ever changes.”
Well I’ll tell you, if you want a change you have to make a change. We are constantly moving in time and space. It doesn’t feel like it because we can’t see it or feel it but the earth is always spinning…
Every person has a choice…we only get one life on this planet some may feel they don’t have the money or the best education or the right opportunities haven’t come along but we all have choices…
It’s a mindset…there have been people with disabilities that have overcome every obstacle but we make excuses…instead of making choices…
Today I was reading a book and I want to share the story I read in this book that made me adjust my attitude real quick. Taken from the book, ‘The Singing God’ by, Sam Storms.
The chapter is called Singing in the Cesspool…
Really? Yes, really!
“This was a testimony given by a pastor from China at a conference in 1991.
He had spent eighteen years in prison for his faith. Here is a man who seemed to have every reason to doubt God’s love for him. But he didn’t.
His assigned task in the camp was to empty the human waste cesspool. Being atheists, the prison guards took sadistic pleasure in giving this job to the Christian pastor whose faith they despised. They never knew what a blessing it turned out to be. Listen as this remarkable man of God describes his experience.”
It was more than two metres in breadth and two metres in length, filled with human waste collected from the entire camp. Once it was full, the human waste was kept until it was ripe and then dug out and sent to the fields as fertilizer. Because the pit was so deep, I could not reach the bottom to empty it, so I had to walk into the disease-ridden mass and scoop out successive layers of human waste, all the time breathing the strong stench.
The guards and all the prisoners kept a long way off because of the stench.
So why did I enjoy working in the cesspool? I enjoyed the solitude. In the labour camp all the prisoners normally were under strict surveillance and no one could be alone. But when I worked in the cesspool I could be alone and could pray to our Lord as loudly as I needed. I could recite the Scriptures, including all the Psalms I still remembered, and no one was close enough to protest. That’s the reason I enjoyed working in the cesspool. Also I could sing loudly the hymns I still remembered.
In those days one of my most favorite was “In the Garden.” Before I was arrested this was my favorite hymn. When I worked in the cesspool I knew and discovered a wonderful fellowship with our Lord. Again and again I sang this hymn and felt our Lord’s presence with me.
“I come to the garden alone,
While the due is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.”
Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the Lord’s presence. He never left me nor forsook me. And so I survived and the cesspool became my private garden.
“The next time you begin to wonder if God really loves you; try singing in your cesspool. God’s love can work wonders virtually anywhere!”
I cried as I read this story. “Why?” Because lately I have felt so alone I could hardly bear it. I couldn’t hear God’s voice. I couldn’t feel him near me when I’d call out to him. I couldn’t write and I prayed, “God what’s wrong with me…where are you God?”
God was with me. But I have been distracted by many things…so I needed to praise Him and sing to Him but I’ve been so depressed and concerned about health issues and missing my family…the enemy was using everything he could to keep me silent and isolated in my soul. I can’t blame him completely I mean I know what to do but I just wasn’t doing what I knew to do. So I picked up this book and read and there in black and white God opened my eyes and my heart to see, that at least I’m not in a cesspool…
I can sing as loud as I want and no one will yell at me to be quiet…I can read in freedom and dance and no one will see…I can talk to God with no time limits or prisoner guard watching me…I have so much to be thankful for.
Are you feeling like you’re all alone? Are you feeling like God is far off…? He’s not…
Right now go to a quiet place, sing the song you know to your papa God and let him give you a private garden…
When the enemy comes in…Like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will lift a standard against him…and he will run…
Depression has to go in the name of Jesus…
Sickness has to go in the name of Jesus
Doubt and fear, all anxiety and sadness, has to go, in the name of Jesus…
As soon as we turn the praise faucet on…glory comes down and floods our soul with the presence and assurance of the Living God and we are set totally and completely free!!!
Go on…Sing, and God will sing right along with you!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill July 13, 2017
So [as the result of the Messiah’s intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives]. Isaiah 59:19 Amplified
