Changed and Transformed ------ Proverbs 31 OBS Blog Hop

It’s the day after Easter.  The kids are beginning to stir and wake.  I can hear them coughing and sneezing- allergies.  A new season is being born…beautiful blooms of flowers and trees busting open causes my peeps to be miserable.  The day after Easter - the Resurrection - a new hope…a new life…a new being born…all because of God’s Son.  All because of Jesus.  

Anxiety and fear are my natural default.  As a kid I had so much anxiety in me before school days.  When I was in elementary school I was so afraid of a math tutor that I would have to go see…that one day I just hid in the stairwell thinking that I would stay there until it was time to go back to class.  I even heard my name being called over the speaker but never left the stairwell.  

Jesus knows my name. 

  

I’ve grown up but other things try to steal my peace. I was broken and starving for real food. Starving for The Bread of Life. I began to open up God’s Word and really start to read it.  At first I didn’t get it.  I was more confused than before I opened it.  But the more I opened it and read a verse at a time…the more it started to change me.  I began to crave Him. 

Easter…His death and Resurrection have made me so thankful for this life.  I don’t want to waste time that He has graciously given to me.  My name is written on the palm of His hand.  His hands that were nailed through - for me. 

Years ago – I found one of my favorite authors…Ann Voskamp.  Her book, One Thousand Gifts, changed me.  I began to count gifts…things that I am thankful for…things that He has poured out to me.  All the things…the little things and the big things.  By doing this…my mind was changed.  He’s calling my name and I am listening.

  

When I start spinning out of control and my temper flares…I know my equilibrium is off…my center is off.  I need to come back to Him…come back to the writing out the gifts…listening for Him saying, “Michelle.”  Because when I can hear Him call my name…then my day changes.  My center is back aligned with Him.  He is my center. I don’t want to hear Him calling my name and hide in the stairwell.  I don’t want to hear Him call my name…and sit there hoping He doesn’t come for me.  

Just like Mary…she didn’t recognize Him standing in front of her until He called her name.  I too can get where I don’t recognize Him. 

  

Changed and transformed by Jesus. Finding my center – writing out all that I am thankful for-taking pictures of His beauty…by staying in communication with Him SO THAT my heart beats in line with His. 

 
 

When Jesus is my center- then I am looking at my world differently. 

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Do you realize that Christ Jesus is in you?”

  

He is in me.  And when I hear Him call my name- I’m changed.

I know longer want to be that little girl that’s filled with anxiety and fear.  I know longer want to not acknowledge my name when He calls.  Changed and transformed by Jesus calling my name!

“Emotionally, our faith is often muddled by fear, hesitancy, and doubt.  But our feelings become irrelevant when Jesus is the object of our faith- when He alone is the One in whom we trust…not ourselves, not our emotions, not our abilities…but Him alone.”
~Wendy Blight, Living so That.

He’s calling…are you willing to listen?