NOT YET........

It is heartbreaking to see someone that you love going down the wrong path, a path that you know is NOT God-ordained!  Maybe they are in bondage to drugs or alcohol or living an immoral life or maybe they are just spiritually estranged from God.  But you KNOW that God has so much more for them, yet they seem to be totally blind to it.  Maybe you have prayed and prayed and yet it appears that nothing is happening, that God is just not listening.

Appearances can be deceiving!  Just because we see no evidence of it from our perspective, it does not mean that God is not working.  God works in mysterious ways.  His ways are not our ways.  And, He is not on our time frame.  God has a way of weaving seemingly insignificant circumstances into a miraculous outcome.  We just have to trust Him to do it in His time and in His way.  That is the hard part.

A dear friend gave me a devotional for CHRISTmas called 31 Days of Praise by Ruth Myers.  It provides a devotional of things to praise God for each day of the month.  I love it!  One of my favorite days says:

"Thank you that You plan to use for good the struggles my loved ones face---including their disappointing choices, their unwise or even harmful ways of thinking and living, and their sidetracks from going Your way....I praise You in advance for the part these difficult things are going to play in Your good plan for us---in eventual deliverance and growth and fruitfulness.  I'm grateful that in all these things, the battle is not mine but Yours...and that the final chapter has not yet been written."

Those are encouraging words to me.  God IS working.  Even if I do not see it, He IS working!  What's more we can rest in the fact that God does all things well.  (Mark 7: 37) We must not lose hope.  Rather we must remember God's promises to us and trust Him even when we cannot SEE what He is doing.  Isn't that the very essence of faith?

An entry in Streams in the Desert puts it this way:

"There are degrees to faith.  At one stage of Christian experience we cannot believe unless we have some sign or some great manifestation of feeling.  We feel our fleece, like Gideon, and if it is wet we are willing to trust God.....It marks quite an advance in faith when we trust God without feelings.  It is blessed to believe without having any emotion.  There is the third stage of faith which even transcends that of Gideon and his fleece....this third form of faith believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people and human reason all urge to the contrary. "

Yes, we must learn to trust God to do what only He can do in the lives of those we love even when we see no evidence that He IS working.  We must trust that the final chapter is NOT YET written.  As our former pastor, Rick Gering, once said "There are some chapters in our life over which God writes WILL EXPLAIN LATER," but in the mean time we wait and we trust and we believe that God IS working, God WILL break through and God WILL use it all of His glory!!  

SOAK UP THE SON

When I was a child, my parents bought land from my aunt and uncle and built a house next door to them.  They shared a common driveway.  After 30+ years, my aunt and uncle passed away and their property was sold and then sold again.  My mother was given an easement to use the common driveway as it was on the adjacent property.  At one point the owner decided that he needed to fence the entire place for his horses.  This created a need for 2 gates...one at the end of the driveway and another at the entrance to my mother's property.

The gate at the end of the driveway was operated by solar power.  Now this was a good thing as long as the sun was shining.  However, let it be cloudy for several days in a row and you could find yourself behind a gate that would not budge.  Why? There was no power to operate it.  As long as the sensor for the gate was pointed towards the sun and was absorbing its light, it was energized and functional.  But when the clouds rolled in, coming between the sun and the sensor, the energy began to dissipate until soon it was depleted and rendered the gate inoperable.

Have you ever felt like the darkness was overtaking you ?  Sadness, depression, anxiety so heavy that it was difficult to function?  When the clouds roll in, they can block your view of the Son.  We have an enemy who desires to take our eyes off the Son and focus them on our problems, our circumstances, ourselves...anything but  Jesus!

So when we feel our light growing dim, when the clouds seem to be rolling in, we. Need to refocus our attention and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  When we focus on Him, His light fills our heart and mind just like the sun is absorbed by the solar light .  Soon we will find ourselves shining with hope and joy, and we will also feel hope rising up within us.  

Sarah Young writes in her devotional book JESUS ALWAYS "I am the Sun that shines on continually , even when your circumstances are difficult and the way ahead looks dark.  Because you know Me as Savior , you have a source of  Light that overcomes the darkness.  I designed you to reflect my Glory, and you do so by looking to Me, turning your face towards the Light.  Take time to be still in My presence, with your face upturned to absorb my radiance.  The longer you stay in this Light drenched atmosphere, the more I can bless and strengthen you."

Today, position yourself to absorb God's ever present light from the Son, allowing him to chase away the darkness.  Feed on His Word, spend time in His Presence and soon you will find your darkness giving way to His glorious Light.  

"Soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

• Refrain:
  Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
  Look full in His wonderful face,
  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
  In the light of His glory and grace".----Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, Helen Lemmel 1922

FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!!

As we approach this Independence Day, let us not forget that never has our freedom been free!  Since the beginning of this great nation, there have been those who laid down their lives for our freedom.

I don't know about you, but I never hear our National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, that I do not get tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. When I hear of those who refuse to stand when it is played it makes my blood boil!   So when I heard this amazing story of its origin, I was again moved to tears and reminded of the immense price that has been paid for our freedom.  I hope you will take a few moments to watch and listen to this video and as you do, that you will thank God for America and for every one that has laid down his life for us.