Isaiah 26:3
He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!
The
Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved.
In her book, For the Love*,
author/speaker Jen Hatmaker says [paraphrasing] that “I suspect
‘getting it right’ isn’t God’s highest order.” She maintains that not
one human has ever stood before God having “gotten it all right”…that
“some of the rightest rights turned out wrong.” Hatmaker proposes that
when we get to heaven and discover some of God’s most “mysterious ways,”
we will be genuinely shocked.
I share this to say that I am a
good example of someone who doesn’t fit the legalistic mode of Christian
faith…but that does not mean that I am lacking in this department. I
don’t kneel at the side of my bed to pray each evening before retiring.
Some days, my prayers are more like an… “Oh, yeah, God…I almost
forgot…please bless this one and that one”…or a quick, “LORD, please
help me with this situation that I’m facing right now.” Other days, I
spend hours talking to God about what is on my heart…and praising Him
for all that He has done for me.
Still, my faith is strong. I
have trusted God in some pretty big things (well, big for me!)…and He
has never failed me. And the more I trust…the more He shows up - and
the more I grow in peace.
People have said to me recently, “I
know you are so upset over your mother’s cancer diagnosis.” Well, yes…I
am upset…but I am also “eerily calm,” as one faith-filled cousin
described it. I’m frustrated – and heartsick that my mother is ill. But
I know that God is in control…and I am trusting His “mysterious ways”
and believing that they will be manifested perfectly.
I am
believing for others who are sick, suffering, and struggling in some
manner…confident that God is the ultimate “fixer”! I am trusting that
God will protect a former Sunday school student - and father to a
toddler and newborn - who has just been deployed to Afghanistan for a
year as a Black Hawk pilot for the National Guard. I am trusting God to
surround all of the precious children in our lives with angels who
watch over them each and every second and provide a hedge of protection
against the devil’s evil tactics. I am trusting God to care for us as a
nation…to keep us safe - and to equip us with the physical and mental
capabilities to solve our differences and become even stronger. I am
believing that God is still in the church – that His body of believers
is a refuge for weary souls and an encouragement for each of us as
brothers and sisters in Christ.
As I go about my day, it may seem
to some that some of us are disconnected. We want to look at others
and wonder why they don’t wring their hands and cry out in frustration
and protest. And the simple answer may be that they are living in the
peace of trusting God…that their thoughts are on Him. It is a wonderful
thing to hand your burdens to someone else…but when that “Someone” is
God Almighty, the peace is indescribable.
I wish I could say
that I never pick my worries back up and massage them for awhile…but I’m
learning to see the foolishness in that. I want to be one of those
people who operate in the perfect peace of trusting God…for everything.
What about you?
©2015 Debbie Robus
* For The Love -
©2015 Thomas Nelson Books for HarperCollins Christian Publishing,
Inc. ~
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Fighting-Grace-Impossible-Standards/dp/0718031822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441913947&sr=8-1&keywords=for+the+love+hatmaker
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