Blessings to you dear friends and family, I don’t know if you have children or not, but I hope you can relate somewhat. Well, my daughter just recently graduated high school and is now settled in college.
Daily routines started to change some for my wife and myself. Not in a bad way.
A new leaf has turned over in our personal lives and it’s the beginning of empty nesting for us. Exciting yes, but we are now trying to find our footing in this new season of our lives, both in our home and in our service to the church. It’s really easy to lose your way when daily routines and habits change in an instant. What you have invested so much time and energy in has now changed. See, my last child was involved in all sports and academics. Things like cheerleading, basketball, softball and so on. Much time was spent following her around since she was just a child, following her to games, being her greatest fans and encouragers. Well once she walked that stage with her gown it all changed both for our now grown child, and for us.. seems like our daily routines for the last 18 years came to a halt and just changed in an instant. The transition was quite emotional…You start to rethink things, you start to wonder - “Now What?”
Well, we know that parenting doesn’t end there and neither do the expenses sadly, lol. But in moments like this it’s easy to fall into a rut of self pity. Moments when you feel like you have come to the end of a long season filled with planning and purpose.
Well, in a strange way it’s easy to feel as though you have lost your footing and purpose in a way. Rose and I turned to the Word of God and we were encouraged to know that God wasn’t done with us yet! Instead of falling into the devil’s lying trap, we decided to pray and ask God to position us and use us however He wills for us everyday in life.
Friends this is our example, but so many Christians step into their next season of life, and when they do, they lose their footing and begin to question their purpose. I don’t know what your new season or chapter has to do with. Maybe family, health, work, ministry, or all of the above. But when routines take a dramatic change, so many of us fall for the enemy’s lies of worthlessness or uselessness to God. But the word of God offers us some encouraging words to remind us of His continual purpose in all our lives!
(Psalm 139:1-18) You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.
Let me ask you today, dear friends. Have you ever gone through or are you facing something similar to this today where you feel like you’ve lost your way and purpose in life, and nobody cares? Well God cares and today He wants you to know that He not only notices you and cares for you, but most importantly - HE’S NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!
With Love, Pastor Billy Montes