My morning commutes to work give me time to admire the beauty of the sunrise God paints every morning as He reminds me He has gifted me with another day. Especially this week, I have witnessed the sky’s proclamation of God’s glory. This week maintains such a mix of gray clouds and light reflective of confusion and spiritual warfare in life. My week and weekend has included aspects of both, making the morning skies even more reflective of God’s ever-presence. The gray masses of positive stress adapting to my new job, spiritual warfare experienced by myself and co-workers as we band together to spread the Gospel, and confusion about pursuing new writing goals hover over my head much like the morning’s clouds. Yet light always bursts forth. As Psalm 19:1-2 sings,

The heavens declare the glory of God;

The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

Night after night they display knowledge.

This emphasizes my personal connection to God’s glory, reflection on it, and my writing aspirations.

This week we have some weather reprieve from some rainfall; this provides more change in the sky as the clouds develop and move. My week has had its share of stress as well, notably from emotional buildup and schedule adjustments. A few times, I have gotten in my car and shared with God that He knew how I felt and painted the sky for me, maybe further pushing me to write about it later. I always note the light coming through the center of a dark cloud or a bright silver lining around a raincloud and am thankful that God is light and that darkness will never overcome that light. Even when the gray clouds merge into one, God will make sense of it all. My biggest example of this comes from the end of the week where the sky was simply gray when I left for work. Just a ways down the road, I noticed the blue above me. I could let go of my confusion because God has already answered my prayers.

At work and in my personal life, God clearly has answered several of my prayers that have been weighing on my heart lately. It seems like as soon as I was more open to letting Him use me and me placing my brokenness and desires in His hands, the more He enlightened me and the more He opened doors for me. These revelations most notably came through encouraging interactions with friends and co-workers.

To give an idea of my heart lately, I have been contemplating several writing projects, healing from heartbreak, settling into my new job, and joyously adapting to my regular working hours routine. Again, this all creates positive stress, but it involves a lot of transition at one time. God has spoken to me through His portraits in the sky (an artistic fitting way for a reflective writer like me) and the conversations I have. A friend of mine has casually told me that I should write the novel I’ve had growing in my mind, just the little push of courage I need to get past my first line I’ve had for a while; my boss has found ways to utilize my writing and editing skills and noted me for a volunteer position with our organization that would get me the media exposure and experience I need; I have been reminded of the continual purpose of certain relationships with people; a couple people I recently met have reached out to me in what might be an answer to my prayer for a mentors relationship. God has reminded me that my heart for Him and how I share His love is a testament to Him and can touch other people; I have even met another person at my work who is helping me find outlets to publish my work. Doors are opening, and God is showing His glory.

What stands out to me most throughout all this is how much God honors our efforts to be open to His plan. One of my co-workers pointed out that we should all know good things are ahead when because some of us were going through some spiritual warfare. She is so spot-on. Just look at how God has delivered me again this week and shown me opportunities to glorify Him. As I open myself to Him and His plan for me, He honors my efforts to share His love, especially as I do that through the support of His body and the power of prayer. Now I pray that God will continue to give me courage and strength to pursue the use of my gifts and that they ultimately point to Him. I lift up the end of Psalm 19, verse 14:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be pleasing in your sight,

O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

to remind us that God holds us firmly and delivers us that we may serve Him. May the skies and the efforts of our gifts proclaim His glory forever.