"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
This is a very well known scripture in Christian circles because lots of people love to hold on to its promise. They love what it says about their future and the hope that comes with it all. But what about those times where you take the future in your own hands? When you decide you know what's best for you and proceed to do it. Then when all of your options have failed you turn back to Him for help. What happens then?
Recently, I faced such a situation. A place where I felt I needed to handle some business and take matters into my own hands. I prayed to God for assistance in the matter but I didn't allow Him to work the matter for me because I felt I could handle it (How audacious of me). I came to realize my efforts to save myself were consistently adding to my detriment. The more I worked on the matter the worse it became. And yet I kept praying for God to help me and it seemed like He was not.
Later on the thought had occurred to me, that He was allowing me to go on my own because He doesn't want to mix oil and water (my way and effort with His power). Suppose for a moment He "helped" me, and I got what I needed to get out of this situation. While I may have given Him part of the credit, the majority of the credit I would have given to myself (after all that is human nature). You have to understand, "He shares His glory with no man," (Isaiah 42:8) so why would I think He'd ever contribute to my failed effort? Yet here in the key scripture lies the true answer to my dilemma. Two simple words often overlooked in Jeremiah 29:11 that revolutionize the way you we should look for answers. "I know."
The words "I know" give us every indication that we need to stop where we are and let the one who has intimate knowledge of the path lead the way. It may be hard to comprehend or recognize because it take a great measure of faith to allow Him to work, but consider how great you will feel when you release the burden of trying to figure it out. I think it's as simple as taking Him at His word. If He says He knows... and what He knows will lead to good and not disaster. In my feeble, mind I think that's good enough to at least give it a try. Don't you?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
When you're in a pinch...Cry for Help
"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles." Psalm 34:17 (ESV)
The simplicity of life is at times astounding. It's amazing how complicated we make it sometimes, almost frightening. Not too long ago I was wallowing in my misery thinking about the problems I had in my life and how I was going to solve them. Sure I wanted God's help but my limited reasoning had me to believe that He's bailed me out too many times before, I think I may have used up all my currency (amazing how we think sometimes, huh?).
As I grew more anxious because my problems seemed to mount up higher than I expected I began to do something curious. I began to read the bible, not necessarily in search for answers but more like trying to forget about what had been racking my brain trying to figure things out. I turned to the Psalms because that's sometimes a good place to find encouragement and as I fell on chapter 34 I began to read.
I'm sure many of us who have read the bible before have read passages over and over only to find a passage that sticks out like something out of place. You can't help but go back in your memory banks trying to figure out if you remember seeing that there. I believe it is these very moments where God speaks loudest to us. You may have glossed over that particular passage because it wasn't ready for you to discover yet. (Let that sink in for a moment)
Now when I read this Psalm and glanced upon verse 17 I immediately put down my bible and began to think. "This is too good to be true." "Is that really there?" "Did I really see the right thing?" So I slept on it, thinking more and more about it and started obsessing over the fact that this is the answer to all of my problems, not only now but in the future as well. How could I overlook what just stared me in the face? The answer was, I couldn't. Not anymore at least. I began to understand a layer of God that I simply overlooked and I believe many people do when the going gets tough...It's not your fight to win.
I've never seen a drowning man keep silent, nor a person badly wounded where someone else is around. No, those people cry for help because they know someone can help. There should never be a moment where you feel your problems are bigger than the one who can help you. What's more is that He not only promises to deliver you from the specific problem you're praying about, but also any other problem associated with it that you WEREN'T EVEN THINKING ABOUT. How's that for incentive? Further proof that the God of Grace is much greater than your own human reasoning can quantify. I guess the only recourse in life is just to trust him, and when you're in a pinch cry for help.
The simplicity of life is at times astounding. It's amazing how complicated we make it sometimes, almost frightening. Not too long ago I was wallowing in my misery thinking about the problems I had in my life and how I was going to solve them. Sure I wanted God's help but my limited reasoning had me to believe that He's bailed me out too many times before, I think I may have used up all my currency (amazing how we think sometimes, huh?).
As I grew more anxious because my problems seemed to mount up higher than I expected I began to do something curious. I began to read the bible, not necessarily in search for answers but more like trying to forget about what had been racking my brain trying to figure things out. I turned to the Psalms because that's sometimes a good place to find encouragement and as I fell on chapter 34 I began to read.
I'm sure many of us who have read the bible before have read passages over and over only to find a passage that sticks out like something out of place. You can't help but go back in your memory banks trying to figure out if you remember seeing that there. I believe it is these very moments where God speaks loudest to us. You may have glossed over that particular passage because it wasn't ready for you to discover yet. (Let that sink in for a moment)
Now when I read this Psalm and glanced upon verse 17 I immediately put down my bible and began to think. "This is too good to be true." "Is that really there?" "Did I really see the right thing?" So I slept on it, thinking more and more about it and started obsessing over the fact that this is the answer to all of my problems, not only now but in the future as well. How could I overlook what just stared me in the face? The answer was, I couldn't. Not anymore at least. I began to understand a layer of God that I simply overlooked and I believe many people do when the going gets tough...It's not your fight to win.
I've never seen a drowning man keep silent, nor a person badly wounded where someone else is around. No, those people cry for help because they know someone can help. There should never be a moment where you feel your problems are bigger than the one who can help you. What's more is that He not only promises to deliver you from the specific problem you're praying about, but also any other problem associated with it that you WEREN'T EVEN THINKING ABOUT. How's that for incentive? Further proof that the God of Grace is much greater than your own human reasoning can quantify. I guess the only recourse in life is just to trust him, and when you're in a pinch cry for help.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Handfuls of Purpose
"Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not." Ruth 2:15-16 (KJV)
I came across this story yesterday and received an entirely different perspective than what I had about it. In times past, I would read this story and would consider it a sweet love story in which a down and out woman meets a rich man and becomes his wife. How nice. However, when I read it again yesterday I noticed some intricacies that had once eluded me.
Ruth was a woman who had an elevated status when her husband was alive. When tragedy befell her she went from prominence to abject poverty in the blink of an eye. She faces a tough choice soon after, go with her mother in law who was heading back to Israel to endure her bitterness, or stay with her sister in law in a place that was familiar to her and safe. As we all know, Ruth left the familiar and ventured into a land completely unkown to her and allied herself to a God she did not know.
Many of us have sympathy for widows, but if we truly understand the times they lived in, consider that women were second class citizens, and widows were viewed as even less. Now Ruth had the responsibility not only to take care of herself but her mother in law as well. A daunting task at best. Yet, this unknown (to her) God began to show her favor in unprecedented ways so much so that this rich man who owned a field saw her and commanded his servants to leave her handfuls of grain for the purpose of showing her favor.
I wonder how often in life when I feel down and out, when it seems like everything in my life is conspiring against me that God gives me handfuls of purpose. To keep my head up and keep me moving. What is lost in this story is that the down and out servant picking up morsels that everyone leaves behind for her, ends up owning the whole field. Makes me pause to think about for a second, what God has in store for all of us who just keep moving forward.
I came across this story yesterday and received an entirely different perspective than what I had about it. In times past, I would read this story and would consider it a sweet love story in which a down and out woman meets a rich man and becomes his wife. How nice. However, when I read it again yesterday I noticed some intricacies that had once eluded me.
Ruth was a woman who had an elevated status when her husband was alive. When tragedy befell her she went from prominence to abject poverty in the blink of an eye. She faces a tough choice soon after, go with her mother in law who was heading back to Israel to endure her bitterness, or stay with her sister in law in a place that was familiar to her and safe. As we all know, Ruth left the familiar and ventured into a land completely unkown to her and allied herself to a God she did not know.
Many of us have sympathy for widows, but if we truly understand the times they lived in, consider that women were second class citizens, and widows were viewed as even less. Now Ruth had the responsibility not only to take care of herself but her mother in law as well. A daunting task at best. Yet, this unknown (to her) God began to show her favor in unprecedented ways so much so that this rich man who owned a field saw her and commanded his servants to leave her handfuls of grain for the purpose of showing her favor.
I wonder how often in life when I feel down and out, when it seems like everything in my life is conspiring against me that God gives me handfuls of purpose. To keep my head up and keep me moving. What is lost in this story is that the down and out servant picking up morsels that everyone leaves behind for her, ends up owning the whole field. Makes me pause to think about for a second, what God has in store for all of us who just keep moving forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)