Adapting by Faith

 

One of the conveniences that I truly appreciate is the GPS mapping function of my smartphone.  I set my destination and my way is mapped out for me. Sometimes mid-trip I receive a messages that a course correction is needed due to delays ahead. The software signals me that a better route is available and gives me two options – accept the new route or remain with the one I chose previously.  I’ll admit that sometimes I find it hard to deviate from the plan! I’m just committed to the highways first selected. Silly, isn’t it?  But there is a life lesson there.

Have you boxed yourself with plans that are so rigid that you cannot adapt well to the things that life brings your way?
Have you defined yourself in a certain way for so long that you feel you cannot change the way you act, even if you want to, because of your ‘identity?’

Planning is a good thing and goals are a way to keep ourselves from drifting through life, but change comes that demand that we reassess as we respond to unforeseen developments.  

Christian, the best life, one that honors the Lord in the best way, will choose to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Gordon MacDonald, author and pastor, writes about those ‘disruptive moments’ that God allows into life as a means of re-centering us on His purposes and leading us to a richer experience of Who He is. Gordon refers to the Interstate road system to illustrate his point. Interstates allow us to drive at 70 miles per hour, traveling efficiently fom point “A” to “B.”  There are no cross roads requiring stoplights. Curves are long and sweeping so as not to slow traffic. However, when a person travels on those roads, you don’t get to experience the local culture, the little shops, the restaurants that are not part of a national chain. 

If you choose travel  on secondary roads “they wind through small towns and villages … you see things on them, even though it takes more time and caution to travel them.  Secondary roads do not promise unhindered passage. Sometimes they are poorly maintained.  … Each town has one police officer with a radar unit designed to raise revenue. … Be prepared for the inevitable slow-moving vehicle that keeps you crawling along for miles in no-passing zones. … There are many potential disruptions along the way.”  (The Life God Blesses)

If the Lord of Life permits you to experience ‘disruptive moments,’ how will you respond?  Angrily? Fearfully? Desperately attempting to re-assert control and force your plans?

OR –

Will you prayerfully let Him lead, asking Him to show you the opportunities created by the unforeseen circumstances in which you find yourself?

That job loss could be a way He leads you into a job more suited to your family’s needs. That sickness could be an invitation to slow down the pace of life and to enrich your relationships with others.  That call from aging parents that asks you to help could be a way He is letting you choose what is more important. 

Yes, friend, I can tell you from life’s experiences that those painful situations you resent so bitterly are often an open invitation to greater faith and new dreams.  Solomon reminds us that "There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. …  A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. … A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 6, NLT)   Paul urges us to listen "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV)

We are people of the Spirit, Who lives not just with us but in us. As we pray for greater faith, we can embrace life, changing as necessary, taking each day as His gift as we make the most of the opportunities. When we do this, we become people full of the fruit that is evidence of His life in us – Loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kindness, and self-controlled.

Here’s the word from the Word. May it bless you with His peace this day.

"To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Guide me O Thou great Jehovah

Pilgrim through this barren land

I am weak but Thou art mighty

Hold me with Thy pow'rful hand

Bread of heaven Bread of heaven

Feed me now and ever more

Feed me now and ever more

 

Open now the crystal fountain

Whence the healing stream doth flow

Let the fiery cloudy pillar

Lead me all my journey through

Strong Deliverer strong Deliverer

Be Thou still my strength and shield

Be Thou still my strength and shield

 

When I tread the verge of Jordan

Bid my anxious fears subside

Death of death and hell's destruction

Land me safe on Canaan's side

Songs of praises songs of praises

I will ever give to Thee

I will ever give to Thee

 

John Hughes | Peter Williams | William Williams

© Words: Public Domain

 

How much will you trust Him?

 

1987 was the year of upheaval. Conflict, confusion, and loss came my way as a result of choices I made that I will charitably say were ‘unwise.’ I was forced out of a good position. We sold our home, moved to a new community, and started over, so it seemed. A lot of ‘friends’ that knew the details of the situation not so kindly told me that I was getting what I deserved and with time I came to understand that did reap the harvest of my sins. I held onto my faith and trusted God to sort out the tangled mess I’d made of life. 

I learned about my God through that awful time – that He restores and that He can use the painful, the terrible, the awful to accomplish His will.  I found a new relationship with my family, learned a deeper faith, and discovered a kind of humility I had not known before.  Most important, the grace and mercy of God became more than words to me in my realization that even in my foolish and sinful choices, He never wrote me off.  Though I could not see it at that time I know now that the Lord of Love took what looked like great loss and made it an opportunity to give me His BEST.

Are you going through a difficult situation?
Have you made some stupid, regrettable decisions?
Are you ready to believe that you are being judged, abandoned by God because of what you have done?

I can assure you that He will never forsake you and will show you His love again if you will give yourself to Him in truly humble and child-like faith.

Jeremiah watched Nebuchadnezzar’s armies destroy the nation of Judah and wreck the holy Temple. The old preacher, called ‘the weeping prophet’ knew that the sins of the people had brought them to this awful moment. Was all lost forever?  The answer came in a vision. He ‘saw’ two baskets of figs placed at the gates of the Temple in Jerusalem. One contained very good figs, the other worthless rotted figs! The, the Spirit gave him the meaning of his vision. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. ... I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. ... But like the poor figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt." (Jeremiah 24:5,7-8, NIV) God said that because of the faith they would display, the exiles would find new hearts and restored faith.

If you are struggling with guilt, broken by wrong choices, or in a time of confusion make the choice of  those exiles of long ago and ‘return to Him with all your heart.’  Trust God to take the situations that you have created, that mess brought about by your sins or the sins of others and turn them around for your ultimate good. He can do it!

Joseph’s brothers hated him so much they sold him into slavery in Egypt. They thought they were rid of him forever. Years later, when they appeared in an Egyptian palace to beg for food, their brother Joseph was sitting on the throne, a changed man. He told them - "Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now-life for many people." (Genesis 50:20, The Message)

And this, too!  IF you are tempted to judge another Christian whose life has fallen apart, if you are standing back thinking they are getting what they deserve, stop it.  You are not God.  Do you think you know enough about the state of his heart to judge him like that? Jesus’ disciples saw a man blind from birth and jumped to a similar conclusion. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” - John 9:1-3 (NIV) God had a greater purpose for that man than being born with perfect sight! That might not seem fair to us, given our limited insight, but then we are not God, are we?

Here’s the word from the Word. It’s only possible to live this way if we fully trust Him, becoming participants in ‘the Divine Conspiracy’ to make known the kingdom of God. But we can defeat evil becoming, through the Christ and the Spirit, people who are transforming into saints - even now! Please don’t read these words as advice just to ‘grin and bear it!’ Read them for all they are worth. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4, NIV)  Trust God.

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Graves Into Gardens

I searched the world but it couldn't fill me

Man's empty praise and treasures that fade

Are never enough

Then You came along and put me back together

And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love

 

Oh there's nothing better than You

There's nothing better than You

Lord there's nothing

Nothing is better than You

 

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness

My failures and flaws

Lord You've seen them all

And You still call me friend

 

'Cause the God of the mountain

Is the God of the valley

And there's not a place

Your mercy and grace won't find me again

 

You turn mourning to dancing

You give beauty for ashes

You turn shame into glory

You're the only one who can

 

You turn graves into gardens

You turn bones into armies

You turn seas into highways

You're the only one who can

 

Brandon Lake | Chris Brown | Steven Furtick | Tiffany Hudson

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