Women
In Step ~ The Women's
Ministry of Cornerstone Baptist Church
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EncouragementI am a woman who loves to control her life. I like being in charge. These traits can be positive, but they can also be negative. If I use them for God’s glory, then they are positive, but I don’t always do that. Sometimes I use them because I want what I want. I especially do not like to be weak in any way. This year, as in every year for the past twelve years, I went to camp to cook for a week. Guess who is the head cook? You got it…me. The week was going very well until Friday morning at one A.M. I woke up with the beginning of a migraine headache. Of course, this was not what I wanted, so I began to pray that God would be gracious and allow me to sleep it off in the next five hours. At that point I was in a deep sleep until I was rudely awakened by a loud popping noise accompanied by a bright light all coming from underneath my bed. I jumped out of bed, as did the other three cooks, to discover a fire under my bed—an electrical fire. I grabbed a shoe and banged it out. The time was now 4:40 A.M. and the cabin was filled with smoke. We dressed and went to the lodge to rest until time to cook breakfast. I lay down on the couch in the lodge only to have my head begin to pound and my stomach start to turn. I got up and went to the dining hall and made myself some coffee because sometimes that helps. But this time it did not. I could not even help with breakfast. This was not what I wanted. I couldn’t even make myself stand up. I ended up in bed in the director’s cabin for a couple of hours until the headache and the nausea passed. When I went to the kitchen, the crew had it all under control, so I sat with another cup of coffee to watch. That was when the director came in to tell me that the fire had burned a hole in my box springs right under my head area. I lost it at that point and began to cry. This was something else out of my control but not out of God’s control. Why do we want to push ahead of God? Why don’t we trust Him with our lives? Why does it take such an incident to get my attention? He was not surprised by the fire or the headache. In fact, perhaps I had the headache so that I would wake up easier. We keep on striving in our lives to be who we want, do what we want and go where we want without regard to what God wants. We think we are powerful and in control, but the truth is that a fire can be burning right under us without us ever knowing. God wants us to know that He is God and we are not. He wants us to realize that He is in control and we are not. “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10) We need to stop relying on our own strength and trust in His. We need to be still without all of the activity we think we need and get to know God. We need to realize that it is God who is to be praised and not our works, not even those for His Kingdom’s sake. It is about God! Do you smell smoke? Neither did I, but God did!
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Cornerstone Baptist Church ~ 17017 12 Mile Road ~ Roseville, MI 48066 ~ 586-445-8910Send mail to denise@cbcroseville.org with questions about this web site.
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