Ruthless Trust

The Spirit knew exactly where to lead me for my devotion today…  isn’t it “funny” when that just happens like that?  Well I don’t believe for one second that things just happen by random chance, do you?  God is God for a reason, and just when you think God isn’t, GOD IS!  I am in one of David’s Psalms this morning for a reason, because God knew I needed to be there. Psalm 25 is one a plea and prayer from the mouth of David, the man after God’s own heart.  How amazing it is that you and I can share, too, in this amazing Psalm.  Sometimes Trust can be an issue for me in life, any Amen’s on that?  I don’t have the lack of trust in the fact that Jesus has saved and claimed me, but on “day to day” things, well let’s just say I am not quite as trusting in God.  Let’s listen for a moment at some of the word David used.  “Remember your mercy, o Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from old” (v. 6).  I must trust in the Lord’s plans for my life… even when I can’t quite see how they will work out.  There are many days that I just can’t see what those plans are or how this could ever be a part of God’s plans for my life, but I must trust.  I must recall Jeremiah’s words from Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” You see God sees the end from the beginning.  He has told me “that for those who love God all things work together for good”.  I just MUST add that trust to my spiritual armor.  David goes on, “O God, in You I trust” (v. 2). There is a quote by David Lane that this passage and the topic of trust bring to mind.  “If God is for us, Jesus is with us and the Holy Spirit is in us, then why do we let the things around us to overcome us?”  There are so many days, I think, that you and I forget what great power we as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, have.  There are those days when we can’t see what those plans “exactly are, but I always know the direction The Spirit is leading me.  I just need to remember that He is waiting on me at the end of my times of temporary uncertainty or trial.  If I just look … If we will just look we will see God at the end of that tunnel.  God sees the end from the beginning, and we must have ruthless trust, as Brennan Manning so aptly puts it.  My uncertainties and trials in this life may be God’s blessings in disguise.  Laura Story, a contemporary Christian musical artist, expresses so well in her song, “Blessings”.  We must all remember through uncertainty, or trial, that God hears and God Cares.  “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you.” (2 Kings 20:5).  We must remember “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9). 

My prayer is for ruthless trust.  I hope it is yours as well!

God Bless!

Happily Ever After

Happily ever after is something we dream of as children and actually believe in for a while, but where does it go?  Living happily ever after is just a given in the movies and children’s books, but the image gets more clouded and the glass slipper sometimes seems broken as life happens and reality sets in.  Does it have to be that way?  Are we stuck living in a world that controls us?  Is happily ever after a reality or just a dream?

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:3-5)

Peter is telling us that we can have happily ever after.  God has given it to us, but do we accept it?  I spent many years seeking my happily ever after.  I bet we all have.  I looked in a lot of places thinking it was just around the next corner or just beyond the horizon, but it was there waiting all along.  You see, if we try to find our happiness it just seems to avoid us, but when we allow God to lead us to our happiness we see it was perfect timing all along.  God knows our happily ever after before we are born and plabs it out for us… we just have to allow him to work.  “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. ¹² Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” (Jeremiah 29:11-12)  God has plans for you!  How special is that? 

God gives us divine appointments each day.  He sends things our way, but he also gives us a choice to act on those things or to let them pass us by.  We must be ready or we miss out.  I can’t tell you how many blessings that I have let slip right through my fingers because I wasn’t paying attention to God.  I’ll bet you have had some moments like that too, haven’t you?  It’s time for us to wake up!  I have been blessed beyond measure because I have begun to look for God working in my life.  I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the blessing my family is to me.  They have been one of life’s true blessings.  There are others out there that are blessing my life immensely now. (You know who you are!) And to think I might have slept right through these amazing blessings had I not been awakened out of my sleep.  We can’t go through life just dreaming about happily ever after, we have to wake up and LIVE happily ever after.  The only way to do this is through the power of Jesus working in our lives.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”(John 14:6)

“Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”(Ephesians 5:14)  Let’s wake up and begin our happily ever after.

God Bless!