"He has made everything beautiful in its time..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Things have felt somewhere between crazy and disaster for most of the last month around here... Three of us here had whooping cough and we were quarantined for an entire month, and the kids are still in the coughing recovery phase. Our dishwasher broke. The van windshield got a huge crack right in front of the driver's view. Daily life (and long nights with sick kids) is exhausting all by itself a lot of the time. Parenting is hard.
I know we aren't alone in this; a lot of other people deal with sickness and parenting struggles and long nights and broken stuff. In fact, everyone deals with most of the stuff I mentioned at some point in their life. So really, all this "crazy stuff" should just be normal life to us, right? But for some reason, we have this idea in our heads of how we think, and even expect, things should go. We create this ideal image in our mind and on our calendars and we truly think that it will all go as planned. Sure, a little hiccup here and there maybe, but generally, everything will head in the direction we envisioned. But why? Why do we think that? And why do we so often get completely blindsided when something doesn't go as planned?
Setbacks are upsetting. They feel like a waste to us; a waste of time, maybe money, and even just life itself.
I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that I very often come to the end of the day and think, "well...this day did not go how I planned at all..." I don't even have a schedule usually! And yet, I expect something different. We want to just sail smoothly through life. We think we know best, and how best to make things good, and what is right for us.
Listen...we don't.
The Bible has a very clear message for us and that is that God is in control and knows all things and everything happens according to His Plan. Not ours. What a mess we would be in if He left us to our own devices.
We look at the bad stuff and stresses in our lives and think our perception is reality. But what if you could see the whole picture?
Jesus had to go through some pretty hard stuff, all leading up to the hardest thing anyone has ever, or will ever, endure on this earth. But He did it because He knew that His Father in Heaven had laid out this Plan, and He trusted that it was perfectly good, and that ultimately, the joy and love and peace and glory that would be forever secured far outweighed His present sufferings.
And He asks us to trust too; to have faith that He knows best, and to be humble and submit to His good Plan.
It will not be easy. It wasn't easy for Jesus either. Even with all the hard things I've gone through though, I've never sweat actual drops of blood, so it's safe to say things could be worse.
We need to stop expecting certain things and start accepting whatever circumstance God had presently placed us in.
I do not mean to say that we can't plan or make schedules; God is a God of order, and the Bible tells us to let everything be done "decently and in order."(1 Cor. 14:40) But we have to stop being so surprised when bad things or setbacks happen in this sinful, broken world.
One day, our will will be perfectly aligned with God's once again and then what peace we will have!
But for now, we need to let go of our own plans and just let Him have His way; in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives. We need to trust Him more. "For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." (Lam. 3:33) Remember, He loved you with an "everlasting love", "before the foundations of the world", and you belong to Him. He set this Plan in motion before the world came to exist. And He will bring it to glorious fullness and fruition in due time. In His time.
And things might feel like a mess to us until then, but that's ok. He "will never leave us or forsake us" and He will "complete the good work begun" in us. Just trust that it is a good work and a good Plan, and have faith that things are more than they seem to be at present. They are bringing about your ultimate good and salvation, and preparing you to be presented completely refined, and without spot or wrinkle or blemish, to The One who loves you more than life itself.
"Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
'He did not make me'?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
'He has no understanding'?"
(Isaiah 29:16)
"For Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things."
(Isaiah 45:4-7)
Why do you say, O Jacob,And speak, O Israel:
'My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God'?
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint."
(Isaiah 40:27-31)
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
Things have felt somewhere between crazy and disaster for most of the last month around here... Three of us here had whooping cough and we were quarantined for an entire month, and the kids are still in the coughing recovery phase. Our dishwasher broke. The van windshield got a huge crack right in front of the driver's view. Daily life (and long nights with sick kids) is exhausting all by itself a lot of the time. Parenting is hard.
I know we aren't alone in this; a lot of other people deal with sickness and parenting struggles and long nights and broken stuff. In fact, everyone deals with most of the stuff I mentioned at some point in their life. So really, all this "crazy stuff" should just be normal life to us, right? But for some reason, we have this idea in our heads of how we think, and even expect, things should go. We create this ideal image in our mind and on our calendars and we truly think that it will all go as planned. Sure, a little hiccup here and there maybe, but generally, everything will head in the direction we envisioned. But why? Why do we think that? And why do we so often get completely blindsided when something doesn't go as planned?
Setbacks are upsetting. They feel like a waste to us; a waste of time, maybe money, and even just life itself.
I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that I very often come to the end of the day and think, "well...this day did not go how I planned at all..." I don't even have a schedule usually! And yet, I expect something different. We want to just sail smoothly through life. We think we know best, and how best to make things good, and what is right for us.
Listen...we don't.
The Bible has a very clear message for us and that is that God is in control and knows all things and everything happens according to His Plan. Not ours. What a mess we would be in if He left us to our own devices.
We look at the bad stuff and stresses in our lives and think our perception is reality. But what if you could see the whole picture?
Jesus had to go through some pretty hard stuff, all leading up to the hardest thing anyone has ever, or will ever, endure on this earth. But He did it because He knew that His Father in Heaven had laid out this Plan, and He trusted that it was perfectly good, and that ultimately, the joy and love and peace and glory that would be forever secured far outweighed His present sufferings.
And He asks us to trust too; to have faith that He knows best, and to be humble and submit to His good Plan.
It will not be easy. It wasn't easy for Jesus either. Even with all the hard things I've gone through though, I've never sweat actual drops of blood, so it's safe to say things could be worse.
We need to stop expecting certain things and start accepting whatever circumstance God had presently placed us in.
I do not mean to say that we can't plan or make schedules; God is a God of order, and the Bible tells us to let everything be done "decently and in order."(1 Cor. 14:40) But we have to stop being so surprised when bad things or setbacks happen in this sinful, broken world.
One day, our will will be perfectly aligned with God's once again and then what peace we will have!
But for now, we need to let go of our own plans and just let Him have His way; in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives. We need to trust Him more. "For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." (Lam. 3:33) Remember, He loved you with an "everlasting love", "before the foundations of the world", and you belong to Him. He set this Plan in motion before the world came to exist. And He will bring it to glorious fullness and fruition in due time. In His time.
And things might feel like a mess to us until then, but that's ok. He "will never leave us or forsake us" and He will "complete the good work begun" in us. Just trust that it is a good work and a good Plan, and have faith that things are more than they seem to be at present. They are bringing about your ultimate good and salvation, and preparing you to be presented completely refined, and without spot or wrinkle or blemish, to The One who loves you more than life itself.
"Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
'He did not make me'?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
'He has no understanding'?"
(Isaiah 29:16)
"For Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things."
(Isaiah 45:4-7)
Why do you say, O Jacob,And speak, O Israel:
'My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God'?
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint."
(Isaiah 40:27-31)
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me
and go and pray to Me,
and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me,
when you search for Me with all your heart."
(Jeremiah 29:11-13)
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