Not This Moment

May 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment

temptation, comfort, spiritual warfareHow important can a single moment in time be?  If God is eternal and our souls were created as eternal and if we persist even after our bodies die then weighed against all eternity how much does one single moment matter?  For God, who is our eternal creator, it turns out that it isn’t so much the moments that matter but what we choose to do in those moments that make the difference.

We matter to God.  Us.  All things were created for His pleasure and we are the pinnacle of that creation story.  How we choose to spend our moments and the decisions that we make with the time that we have been given matter very much, both to God and to us.  It is all too easy to take our time for granted and to take the love and blessings that He bestows on us for granted along with it.  Unless we decide, day by day and moment by moment, to orient ourselves towards His perfect plan we will be spending our moments in vain and living a life that is so much less than it could be.

But even after we have decided to give ourselves fully to God and His way, it does not make the spending of our precious time and those finite moments any easier.  If anything, it gets even more difficult because now the powers of darkness have set themselves against us and we become soldiers under fire in a battle of spiritual warfare.  Anything and everything that the enemy can do to tempt us, distract us, discourage us or disqualify us they can and will surely do.

I don’t know about you, but I have experienced a lot of those types of moments recently.  Moments where I could literally feel the darkness pressing against my heart and my mind, screaming at me to yield and to submit to something that God would not have me do.  And my flesh, our flesh, is not strong enough to resist that kind of attack on its own.  Without the power of Christ in us in the form of His Holy Spirit we would never be able to withstand those temptations and remain victorious for God.

In one of those moments recently I was reminded of a song, by the Newsboys, called “Stay Strong”.  Here’s what the song says and why I found it to be so comforting:

You’re in the moment now
A bitter root
A wandering eye and then
The ties that bind start wearing thin, thin

You’re in the moment now
When all you’ve been blessed with
Is not enough
Here’s where the ground gets loose
Here’s where the devils call your bluff

Stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
There’s a new dawn to light our day, our day
You’ve gotta stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way

We’ve seen the tragic flaws
The tortured souls
The saints with feet of clay
Here’s where sin becomes cliche’

We’ve come through wilderness and watched
The cloud by day
The burning sky into dawn
Have you forgotten who you are?
Did you forget whose trip you’re on?

Stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
There’s a new dawn to light our day, our day
We’ve gotta stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way

Get up, there’s further to go
Get up, there’s more to be done
Get up, this witness is sure
Get up, this race can be won
This race can be won

We’ve gotta stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
Our Father’s dawn will light our day, our day
Come on and stay strong
His grip is sure
And His patience still endures
There’ll be no letting go today, no way

Come on, and stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way

I hope that these lyrics will help and comfort you as they did me.  Our God will always grant us grace and strength to overcome all of our trials and moments of temptation.  And then we can say, “I will not yield, not this moment, not this time.  To God be the glory, great things He has done!”

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A Fresh Perspective

May 16, 2019 by Leave a Comment

perception, blessings, thankfulnessThese days I make it a habit to stop by my favorite coffee shop at least once a week on my way to work.  The coffee is excellent, the service is friendly and I can pick up a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans while I am there.  For a coffee lover such as myself, it’s a great place to shop and that has as much to do with the product they sell as it does with the people who work there.

During my visit this past week, one of the regular employees opened the door for me as I entered the building.  As he opened the door he said, “Hey Matthew!” which was not only nice and appreciated but also quite surprising in that he remembered my name.  After I concluded my business at the counter I walked over to where he was working (he was in the process of roasting a fresh batch of beans which not only smelled amazing it was quite fascinating to watch) and struck up a conversation with him.

It turns out that he remembered me not only because I am a frequent customer but also because I drive my Mazda MX-5 Miata to work and he, being a fan who was thinking of purchasing one in the future, had noticed it.  Of course any time someone wants to talk cars I am more than happy to oblige in that conversation, being an enthusiast myself.  And the fact that this happened inside my favorite coffee shop with a fresh cup in my hand just made it all the better.  Here were two of my favorite things happening at the same time in the same place and I remember being very happy and thankful for the encounter.

We spoke for just a few minutes about the Miata and why he liked them and I have to say his enthusiasm was catching.  I walked back out to my car at the conclusion of the conversation with a big smile on my face, not only because I enjoyed the chat, but because it allowed me to see the Miata with a fresh perspective.  All of a sudden, I remembered all of the reasons that I had sought the Miata out and it was like I was sitting in it again for the first time and appreciating what a fun and and interesting car that it really is.  Seeing the car through someone else’s eyes and listening to their enthusiasm for it helped to rekindle my own.

Later that day, as I was thinking back on my experience, the Lord brought something to my mind.  It is part of our nature as human beings to take good things for granted once we become accustomed to them.  We do this not only to material possessions  (like I did with my car) but also to our relationships with the people around us.  And then there is that most important relationship, the one between us and God, that I fear we also tend to take for granted.

I know that I do, if I am not careful.  Unless I am vigilant I tend to take so many of the blessings in my life for granted and I know that it’s easy to just skim the surface of how awesome our God really is and all that He has done for us.  I know that unless I take the time to slow down and ask Him to give me a fresh perspective on who He is that I am likely to miss much of who He is and what He is doing.

For that reason, my prayer lately has been that God would allow my heart to grow and my spiritual eyesight to sharpen so that I might better perceive Him and His handiwork.  I want to know Him better and to be a better friend to Him because He has been such a great friend to me.  I can see how I was beginning to take some things for granted and I am so glad that God loves me enough to correct me and to show me a better way.

Sometimes, it takes an object lesson from life experience in order for God to teach us something.  Our responsibility is to be teachable and to be listening for when and how He speaks.  God is so amazing that He can use seemingly normal, everyday circumstances in order to reveal Himself to us.  My prayer is that we would be on the lookout for Him and be actively seeking to know Him better through it all.

 

 

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Do What You Want?

May 13, 2019 by Leave a Comment

plans, goals, 2 Samuel, King DavidHave you ever planned something that seemed like a great idea at the time but then turned out to be totally wrong?  I know I have and I think the answer for most folks who are old enough to make their own decisions would be an emphatic “yep, I’ve done that!”.  Despite our best intentions, sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes even our best ideas are not what God has in mind.

The thing of it is, God most certainly does use and bless human initiative.  We can study the Bible and see many instances where this is clearly the case.  Not everything that we desire to do is wrong just as not everything we desire to do is right.  So how do we tell the difference?  How can we be sure that we aren’t going against God’s will as we are making our plans and living out our lives?

For sure, this is a complex question and one that I will not be fully able to answer with a simple blog post.  But it is a question that is worth asking and worth thinking about if we want to be the kind of Christ followers that God would have us to be.

Here are a couple of examples from scripture to get us started:

 Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.  When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.  Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might,  while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.  2 Samuel 6:12-16 (NIV)

David, as King of Israel, decided that he wanted to bring the Ark of God home.  David and a group of men went to retrieve the Ark from where it had been staying and David purposed in his heart not only to sacrifice a bull and fattened calf but also to “dance with all of his might” before the Lord.  Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly what God thought of David’s plan and his subsequent behavior but it certainly does tell us that someone very close to David (Michal – David’s first wife and daughter of the former king Saul) thought very poorly of how David went about praising God.

David’s response to Michal is recorded in verse 21: David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.  2 Samuel 6:21 (NIV)

In essence he says “God made me King and I will celebrate and praise Him in the way that I see fit” which is, it seems to me, a reasonable response.

I think it is interesting to note that God could have stopped either plan (the moving of the Ark and David’s enthusiastic praise) but chose not to.  And I think that sometimes, just as David did, we need to make the best plan that we can with what God has already revealed to us and just do it.  David could see how God blessed the former resting place of the Ark (the household of Obed-Edom) and I am sure he wanted those same blessings for his home city.  He set about carrying out his plan to bring the Ark home and he did it with praise and thanksgiving – always the best way to carry out any plan!

Here’s another instance from scripture with a different outcome:

After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,  he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

 Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?  I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’  2 Samuel 7:1-7 (NIV)

David has now brought the Ark home and has now finally subdued the Philistines and another plan begins to form in his mind.  He now wants to build God a temple (and by extension, move the Ark into a permanent resting place instead of the movable tent that it was in at the time) and “upgrade” God’s dwelling.  And this sounds like such a great idea that Nathan, a highly respected prophet and man of God, immediately agrees with him.

That night, most likely as Nathan slept, God gave Nathan a message for David.  David’s plan was not God’s plan, at least not yet.  We know from history that Solomon, David’s son, was tasked with building God’s temple but that was not to be David’s task.  God had other plans for David and He used Nathan to deliver His message.  This time, God stepped in and asked David to change his plan and, to David’s credit, he listened to God and did as he was asked.

It comes down to trust and acknowledgement.  We must trust God with our plans and trust that He will lead and guide us as we go.  We must also acknowledge that only He has the authority to change us, change our lives and change our direction.  He has the final say and we must give Him the opportunity to change our minds, change our circumstances and ultimately to change any plans that we might have.

His plans are perfect.  Ours tend to be less so.  Do we trust Him with our plans and then acknowledge His authority in our lives as we go?

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Make It Right

May 6, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The mistakes we make and the unpleasant consequences that follow can be great teachers, if we let them. Making mistakes and messing up, for whatever the reason might be, is never preferred but is nonetheless part of living and growing up. It’s what comes after that is really important.

Romans 3:23 says All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means we’ve all messed up and that no one is perfect. And if we remember the very first sin ever recorded in the Bible in Genesis (that of Eve eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and then giving the fruit to her husband Adam to eat) we know that as soon as they realized their error they tried to run away and hide from God. They wanted to do anything but own up to their sin and admit their mistake.

Yet God knew right away. He came looking for them in the Garden and when He asked them what they had done they both made excuses about their behavior as neither wanted to take responsibility and admit that it was their decision to go against God.

In that very first recorded sin we have a perfect example of fallen human nature in action. We make a mistake. We want to run and hide from our mistake and do anything but admit that we were wrong. If we are caught we are apt to make excuses and not take responsibility for our actions.

Yet God’s word says in 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He if faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. God is waiting and truly wants our heartfelt confession and repentance. God’s way is for us to own up to our mistakes, face them head on and then trust Him with the outcome. Only God can defeat sin. We do not have that power in and of ourselves.

I had a recent example with this very principle and God used it to reinforce the importance of confession and repentance to me. I was on my way home from work and, as it was a nice afternoon, I decided to take the more scenic and rural route home. As I was driving along I came down a hill and around a bend and noticed a police car passing me going the other direction. As I had not been paying very close attention to my speed I looked down and saw that yes, I was speeding and yes, the police car that just passed me most certainly noticed it too.

Because of the rural area, the narrow roads and the fact that we had passed each other in a curve I had the thought that I could probably speed up, take one of the next side streets and be out of his sight by the time he could turn around. In other words, my first though was to try and avoid a ticket and to run away from my mistake. But right behind that thought came another: “No, that is not the way to do it. If he turns around and comes after me then I need to own up to it” and that is exactly what happened.

As unpleasant as getting a speeding citation was I know that in my heart it was the right thing to do. God impressed upon me very quickly that running and hiding from a mistake, even if it something that no one else would ever know about, is never in His will for me. And it is never in His will for any of His children as He wants us to trust Him with our lives, with our hearts and even with our mistakes because that is the only way that He can make us who He wants us to be.

Today, the word of the Lord that came to me is: make it right. Whatever it might be. Stop running. Don’t try to hide. Admit it to God and trust Him with the outcome. Only then can we live at peace with God and at peace with ourselves.

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Our Greatest Danger

April 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

danger, Truth, ignorance, SinIf you were to go out into your neighborhood, school or work place and ask the next ten people that you encountered what the greatest danger we are currently facing is, what do you think their answer would be?  Some might say terrorism or foreign powers who wish us harm, some might say climate change or man’s destruction of the planet and still others might answer that we ourselves are our greatest danger.  And although those answers all have validity, to find out what our greatest danger actually is we must go deeper.

As Christians, our first answer might be Sin, with a capital “S” that indicates man’s fallen and unrepentant state before God.  And while that is an excellent answer it isn’t actually our greatest danger either.  While Sin can broadly be thought of as the main issue behind every other problem we face, we know that Sin is not greater than Salvation and that Salvation comes by hearing the Word of God.  Sin is certainly destructive and dangerous but it has a ready answer and a powerful solution.  No, our greatest danger, for both believers and non-believers alike is ignorance of God’s Word and a lack of knowledge of the Truth.

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?  Romans 10:14-15 (NASB)

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.  Romans 10:17 (NASB)

For the non-believer, not hearing the Word of God is the most catastrophic thing that could ever happen to them.  Romans 10 lays it out very clearly.  How can there ever be an answer to their Sin problem without calling on the name of Jesus and how can they call on the name of Jesus unless they believe on Him by hearing His word? In fact, you can rephrase this problem by asking why God calls preachers and teachers of the Gospel in the first place and why 1 Peter 3:15 says so clearly that we should always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope that is in us.  Quite simply, souls hang in the balance of whether or not we can clearly communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to those around us.

God’s Word is the answer to the Sin problem but without it there is no remedy for Sin and if we, as believers, are ignorant of what God’s word says and can’t clearly communicate the gospel by our lives, actions and speech then we are in the wrong and are contributing to the Lostness of everyone around us.  That’s a hard truth to hear and to acknowledge but it is so important and so critical that we must not try to tone it down or take it in any other way than head on.  And furthermore, even as believers, none of us are perfect and all of us have areas of our lives where we need to grow and improve in our faith.  Here again, it is knowledge of God’s Word and the study of His book that will give us the strength we need and all of the answers that we are searching for.

Every problem, challenge or danger that we face can be overcome by the power of God and the way that He equips His children is through His words (the Bible) and the Word (Jesus Christ, God in the flesh) as they are one in the same.  Without it, we have no hope and no power.  With it, we have everything we need and all of the hope in the world.

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free  John 8:32 (NASB)

Do you know the truth?  If so, do you know how to adequately express the truth to those around you by the way that you walk and talk?  My prayer this week is that we would all take our knowledge of the truth seriously and thank God for the revelation of Jesus Christ while we commit to greater understanding of His powerful word.  May God Bless you as you seek Him ever more.

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That Amazing Grace

April 22, 2019 by Leave a Comment

I am overwhelmed by the grace of God. I am astonished that God would come down to earth in the form of a man for the purpose of rescuing and redeeming His creation. I do not understand this but I do accept it and I rejoice in it.

The fact of the matter is I don’t deserve God’s grace and neither do you. No one who has ever lived or walked on the face of this earth is perfect and without sin except one man, Jesus Christ who was and is God in the flesh. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and it is through His sacrifice that we can be made right with God. God’s grace provided the sacrifice for us but that is not end of it, not even close.

You see the most amazing thing to me about God’s grace is not that He still loved us and desired to save us even in our sin and disobedience. And truly, that would have been enough. But no, the most amazing thing to me is that He grants us His spirit and His nature at the time of salvation so that we become something entirely new.

The born again believer is a changed individual. God sees fit not only to give us a home in heaven with him (someday) but to remake us from the inside out with the very nature and the very spirit of the living God within us. With this we are free from the power of sin and death and are able to commune with God, as He always intended, for the very first time.

Because of this incredible gift not only do I have a friend in Jesus, I can be a friend to Jesus! We can walk together and talk together because my spiritual eyes have been opened and my heart is able to perceive that which it never could before. Peace with God brings overwhelming peace and joy in my heart and I am free to share that joy with others around me and to meet their needs with God’s strength and compassion.

That is what God’s amazing grace can do and it is in that grace that we can stand and in that grace that we can hold fast. He has promised to never leave or forsake us and all that He asks of us is to love Him and trust Him above all others.

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Heading Towards Perfect

April 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Heading Towards Perfect

I fail and I fail often. And as a child of God I wish this were not so. Because I have the Holy Spirit living within me I have the desire and the drive to be perfect and complete in Christ Jesus, lacking nothing. But I am not there yet, no matter how much I might want it.

To live and to walk in this life and on this earth is to be surrounded by that which is fallen. We are fallen and because we are fallen all of creation suffers with us. War, poverty, famine, sickness, greed, and ultimately death itself can be attributed to our fallen state. Every pain and every affliction is the price we pay for our sin and rebellion against a holy and perfect God.

But there is a solution. And I am so glad that God did not leave us in our wretched state but instead chose to redeem us by the blood of Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary. Through that one act I now have hope of life eternal and of perfect completion. One day I will see my Creator face to face but until that time comes I want to walk in such a way that gets me closer and closer to him and points others to Jesus.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13:8-11 (NASB)

All of us who are redeemed are heading towards perfect. God has promised it and so it must be. So hold on, child of God. Be strengthened and renewed through the power of his Holy Spirit. Look forward to the time of completion for your reward is coming soon.

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The Believer’s Proof of Plenty

April 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment

faith, provision, dependenceToday I am working off of a very simple but very powerful truth.  That whatever it is that I lack, God can supply it.  Or to turn it around, whatever it is that you lack, God can supply it.

Lately, for whatever reason, God keeps bringing me back to the basic idea of faith and belief in Him and His sovereignty.  And for us to really “get” the idea that God really can supply all of our needs and that He really does love us so much that He is standing, waiting to provide what we need if we would only ask, we need our faith increased.

Our faith needs to be proven and it needs to be exercised and stretched, like a muscle.  And for that to happen we need to be in a position where we don’t have all the answers and we don’t have the resources that we need.  Because once we realize that we don’t have what we need and we can’t manufacturer it or get it anywhere else but God, then we can rely on Him and watch as He miraculously provides above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine.

And then the process needs to be repeated and in that process, our faith in and dependence on God will increase.

There are many ways that this can happen.  For some of us who are very stubborn, we will only realize this truth when we have made almost every mistake that there is to make.  Call it a crisis point or coming to the end of ourselves, but that is what it takes for some of us.  And it is only when we’ve realized how wrong we have been and how far we have strayed and how fruitless our actions have been can we then turn to a holy God and repent and ask Him to turn our lives around for good.

For others, it is a more gradual process of realization as the Holy Spirit draws and the individual begins to listen and prove what God is saying.  Thankfully, the end result is the same.  No matter how we come or when we come, as long as we fully commit our hearts and lives to God and continue to depend on Him for everything, God will use us and bless many through us.

So my question today, for all of us, is this: what do we lack?  Whether it be something obvious and incessant or something subtle and hidden from the view of most.  And once we have realized that need, are we completely dependent on our precious Savior to meet it, waiting for His provision, or are we looking somewhere else?

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The Hopeful Spring

March 25, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The changing of the seasons are part of God’s grand design for His creation. God appoints such seasons for a reason and each have their purpose and their part to play in his great plan.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease Genesis 8:22 (NASB) Such is God’s promise to us.

At the time of this writing, Spring has just begun. Flowers and trees are in bloom and green and growing things are appearing everywhere (along with the pollen they produce!). The mornings are cool but the afternoons are beginning to warm as we experience days with the most beautiful blue skies and the fluffiest white clouds.

Spring is like that. It makes itself evident and the signs are impossible to miss. Also impossible to miss is the drastic change from the Winter we just left to the Spring that is starting. The colors of the world change from the drab hues of browns and grays to the vibrancy of greens, yellows and brilliant blues along with the rise in temperatures and the lengthening of the daylight hours.

Springtime is drastically different from Wintertime but they are both seasons appointed by God and they each have their purpose under heaven. And so it is with us and the seasons of our lives and our spiritual growth.

Our Creator has ordained our days just as He has ordained the changing of the seasons. We are not given the ability to understand or see the reasons why but we are given the strength to trust in God and His plans despite our outward circumstances.

We can maintain the hope that God has put into our hearts as we continually decide to follow His ways and treasure His word. And if we ever come to the place where our hope has been diminished and our joy is lacking then we can have that hope renewed and our joy restored by simply calling on his name and deciding to trust him afresh and anew.

I am reminded of the words of one of my favorite hymns. There is a sweetness and such peace in trusting on Jesus. For the lost and the unsaved it is the beginning to a whole new life. For the Christian who has wandered and has put other things above their love for God or has succumbed to fear and doubt it is a refuge and renewed strength.

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!I’m so glad I learned to trust Him,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend
And I know that He is with me,
Will be with me to the end.

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The Privilege And Pleasure Of Proclamation

March 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment

important message, praise, God is goodI’m doing this because I told the Lord that I would.  Let me explain:

Last month was a difficult one.  There were several things that I was praying specifically for but one in particular really burdened me.  I prayed that it would come to pass nearly every day and sometimes more than once a day.  Not only did this thing have the potential to effect me positively but it also had the potential of lifting up and encouraging everyone that I work with on a daily basis.

But even as I began earnestly praying I recognized that it was more important that God’s will be done than this one thing come to pass.  So as I prayed I told the Lord that I would praise Him and make it known if He allowed this thing to come to pass and if not, I would praise Him anyway.  Publicly.

The fact is, He is worthy of my praise and even when things don’t go according to my plan they will always go according to His plan.  Job said it like this:

“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

God’s purpose will be accomplished and His plans never fail.  So as I prayed I did so with the knowledge that God’s will was higher than my plans and I yielded myself to His will for my life and waited to see what the outcome would be.

Today I can tell you that the thing that I was praying for did not come to pass.  I was disappointed and saddened but also encouraged that God had a higher purpose beyond what I could see.  Do I wonder why God did not allow this thing to come to pass?  Of course I do.  I wanted it for myself and for my co-workers and as far as I could see, it would only be a good thing.  But I can only see a fraction of the whole.  God sees it all.  I wanted what I thought was good but God wants to give me what is best, always.

I give thanks to the Lord because He is good.  I make it known to any who would read this that I trust in the Lord even when things don’t go exactly like I want them to go.  I recognize that His will and plans are perfect and that I am not.  And I say that it is a privilege and a pleasure to be able to write about how good God is and how blessed I am to be called one of His children.

Thank you Lord, for being so good to me!

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