Show Up

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

This morning my dogs got me up at their usual 5:30 am time.  My routine is that I let them out, feed them, make some coffee or tea and then sit on the couch in my office and spend the quiet of the morning with the Lord. This morning I had a really bad sinus headache and was not really able to function. I did realize I had a choice. I could have just gone back to bed and hope that I would wake later feeling better. From past experience this generally does not work and it only becomes worse. The other option was to show up to spend time with the Lord as planned.  I chose to show up I realized that I was not going to be able to focus my thoughts to read or to pray. I knew I was going to need help this morning. So I found my i-phone and launched the Healing Refuge radio and have sat soaking in that music for the past 2 hours. In the midst of it I have been talking with the Lord. I did early on bind any interference from the demonic. I did ask the Lord to come and heal me and bring relief from this headache.  It is now 7:30am and I am feeling much better. I share this with you so that you can see that I am just like you I have days that I am barely able to function - on those days I have learned it is better to show up for my time with the Lord than to go back to bed. I don't have to pretend to be a spiritual giant or be all legalistic about how much I read or pray. Each morning varies a bit because it is part of a living, loving relationship beween the Lord and myself. Today I showed up and the Lord ministered to me though music and the powerful anointing on those stations created by my friends Mark and Lori Kenney. I want to say that showing up is half the battle. If I show up, it communicates to the Lord that I want to be here, I want to spend time with the Lord. My step of obedience and faith, says I may not feel well but I know He is my healer, the one who can deliver me and set me free. I will turn to Him in my time of need.

Today I did not feel good, but I showed up and God brought me healing and relief. I am grateful and I knew once the headache lifted, that I wanted to write about the power of simply showing up. I think it is liked to the power of expectation. I expect that God will meet me, that he knows my frailty. I know He is able to heal and set me free. I know his intentions towards me are for my good.  I have learned in the months of writing this devotional daily that there are days that I am not inspired and can feel the weight of my own self doubt. I have to fight my way through the things that would try to hold me back from God intended purposes. There is a discipline in the commitment to show up for time with the Lord, and to write daily that have stretched and changed me. No one is forcing me to do those things - it is of my own choosing because I believe they are important. I believe they are things that the Lord has called me to do.

I want to share with you a break through that seems to have come out of my morning of showing up. I have not written a song in about 2 years. I suppose the why of that is a subject for another post. I think that the Lord not only healed the sinus headache I was suffering from this morning but He must have also healed the broken song writing place. He wants to heal you too. It is a journey, stay near Him and he will see you through to freedom in Him. So if you are an e-mail subscriber, click on the blue post title to get back to the site to hear my song. Its just me, my guitar and my computer - nothing fancy. I hope the tune is simple enough that it will stick with you and in the lines that say "break the chains of ____" that you will add in your own words that apply to the areas you need to become free.




Prayer:
Dear Lord, Help each of to show up to be with you. Help us to know it is not about our merit or how diligent we are to pray or read the word, but that we would spend time building our relationship with you. I pray you would break the chains that have held us captive to the old dead life. Set us free to love, serve and worship you with undivided hearts. I pray that your anointing would be upon the song and the video and that you would set people free who listen to it. I pray for the transforming power of your love to fall upon those who are reading and listening. Set us free for your glory and kingdom purposes.