Focusing on the Promises

The weathermen are promising us a week of 'spring-like' weather in North Texas and I'm excited about that. So far our winter has been pretty cold and while there is no way that winter is over, the brief respite from cold reminds us that spring will come.

We've experienced some winters that were unseasonably warm and there were consequences from that. We had more bugs and the foliage was confused about when to bloom. It taught me that winter is necessary - not just something to be endured. The same is true about seasons of winter in our lives.

Winter - times when our lives seem barren and cold and God's presence far away. Billy and I took advantage of yesterday's warmer weather and did a little yard work. We have several plants that we brought to our new home from my mother and step-dad's home. They were avid gardeners and it is so sweet to have living reminders of them in our yard. I found myself taking hold of the stems and limbs and pulling them close to my face looking closely for signs of life. I saw nothing and I was glad.

You see - it's too early for them to bud. Winter isn't over. For them to bud too early would put them in danger of being killed by a cold snap. And these plants are precious to me.

Think about your life. You are so precious to God. You are created in His image and endowed with His spirit. He has made wonderful and precious promises to you that are inviolate in keeping with His nature. Just as winter is necessary for the earth, so it is for the believer. We need times of dormancy to put our roots down deep. We need to rest from the ceaseless tyranny of our schedules and the overwhelming needs of a sinful land. And in that time of dormancy - as we look for signs of life and see none, we need to take heart. In His time, there will be.

Nothing is impossible for Him and no human can thwart His purposes or plans. He who began a good work in you will complete it. These are promises that we hold to regardless of what we see. He knows that for us to bloom too quickly would put us in danger of injury should a 'cold snap' come.

I was able to smile when I saw no buds on the plants in my yard. I think we should purpose to smile when we see no 'buds' in our lives. We have seasons - just as the earth does. God is at work in you and as long as you are seeking Him, loving Him and obeying Him, you need only trust in His promises and that His timing is perfect. Always.

No season is forever. Wherever you are right now is God's perfect place for you - to learn, to grow stronger, to rest and to emerge with much fruit to the praise of His glory.

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED MY SERVANT JOB?

I don't suppose this is the kind of post you would expect - or want - to see on my first blog of 2010 but I want to take you where God leads me, so here we go.

I was all settled in for a month long study of Genesis in my daily Bible reading when my chronological study sent me to Job this morning. From Genesis 1's perfection to Genesis 3's fall to the drowning of the human race with the exception of one righteous man, Noah and his family, I had just begun to prepare my self to read about the wonderful new beginning of life on planet earth now inhabited by the upright family of Noah when God chronologically took me to the book of Job.

Here is my first point: In the midst of a new start with 'better' material trouble came calling to the most righteous and upright man on earth.

In a new year most of us are plying ourselves with black-eyed peas and resolutions to ward off bad luck. We are wanting to do whatever we can to make sure that nothing bad happens to us.

Point two: God started Job's trouble by drawing attention to his goodness.

Most of our resolutions center around behavior that we anticipate to bring us into favor with God and we equate favor with prosperity. I started to type in 'blessing' but blessing is exactly what God is after. It just may not look like blessing to us on this side of the tapestry. God was proud of Job's uprightness and Job never knew it. On his side of the tapestry, it looked like catastrophe.

Point three: Job's friends equated trouble with sin.

They got it partly right. Sin does bring trouble. Sin also brings prosperity and power - at least for a season. But partly right isn't right. Trouble also comes to good people, Godly people, righteous people. People who attempt to live for God and His glory. The final word was God's and He wasn't too happy with Job's friends or their conclusions.

Point four: God so ordered a daily Bible reading that early in the year we can learn some important lessons about trouble and trust.

God isn't as interested in our comfort as He is in our confidence in Him. Trouble causes us to dig down deep into our reserves. What do we find there? Do we find a history of walking with God and really knowing His faithfulness? Do we find scriptures memorized to pull out for such a time as this? Do we find a will that chooses to trust Him when we can't feel Him? Do we find a heart that believes in His love despite the pain? OR...

Do we find ourselves drifting on a sea of faithlessness? Reeling from the unexpected? With no scripture to hold dear in the storm? A will that is flabby and unexercised in the discipline of making the hard choices? A heart that questions how love could allow or even cause such pain?

It's early in January and the time is now to prepare our hearts for the year that is before us. Stock up on the necessities: prayer, God's word, time with other believers, take an accounting of His faithfulness to you in the past, write it down, relive it. There is a part of me that yearns for God to point me out as His faithful servant and another part of me that wants to run screaming. Oh for grace to trust Him more! And that only seems to come when He saves me....again and again from myself, my mistakes, my troubles.

Trouble is coming my friends. Not to un-do your black-eyed peas or cabbage, but it's true. "Count it all as joy my brethren WHEN you experience trials." "Do not be surprised at the fiery trials that come to you." The Bible is filled with warnings but it is also filled with hope - "...take courage, I have overcome the world."

I want to be found faithful. I know you do too. So what do we do?

I intend to purpose to live in the kingdom each and every day. That will mean sucking the life out of every joy that comes my way. I choose to LOVE life. To love my family and friends. To greatly rejoice in belonging to God and to living in a country where I can read my Bible and go to church whenever I want to. And then when trouble comes to do everything in my power to look for God in that trouble. If it is sin on my part, to quickly repent and if it is not to patiently wait on Him to reveal Himself in the trouble. To know that He has my good and His glory at stake. To know that trouble has nothing to do with God's love for me. HE LOVES ME AND YOU PERIOD. In trouble and out of trouble.

God purpose for trouble is to grow us. Satan's is to get us to question God's love.

That love was settled forever on the cross. He said to us then, "I have no greater love for you than this." So let's settle it here and now! He loves us. He is for us. And let's walk in the victory that is ours that one day we will hear those blessed words, "Well, done!"