I haven't done Mom's journal for a while and thought since her birthday was this week it would be a good time to get back into it. Today's entry is about when life doesn't work the way we want it to. In and of itself this is a God visit since I was just reading in today's devotional from "Women of the Bible" by Ann Spangler and Jean E. Syswerda. We are on Sarah. Her (and Abraham's) plans certainly hit some bumps in the road. And her desire for having a child was delayed until she was an old woman. I'm thinking she definitely felt like things went very wrong for her.
When things don't go right.
1 Peter 5:6-11 6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. 10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11 All power to him forever! Amen.
Psalm 57 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. 3 He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. 4 I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey—whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords.5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth. 6 My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it. 7 My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! 8 Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. 9 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. 10 For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.
God knows when we face disappointments, pain of rejection, feelings of isolation in lonely times. He sees our hearts. We must always come to him first. Take action: Stop relying on ourselves. Start relying on God. Immediately talk to God. Be sensitive to His will. Work through each situation.
Perhaps God is trying to teach me about His faithfulness. Could God be trying to get my attention?
From me.
I would add to that, "Am I in need of correction? Is God wanting to do a work in my character? How will this bring Him glory?"
This whole entry so much lines up with watching the Sarah sago unfold in the Bible. She willingly followed her husband away from family and everything familiar only to be met with a famine that drove them into Egypt. Then her husbands asks her to lie about who she is to him, only to end up in the Pharaohs harem. And finally, being childless, feeling empty, rejected, lonely...she comes up with the idea to use her maidservant to have a child, giving Hagar to her husband as a wife. Well that idea works out quite badly. Can you just imagine Sarah's pain every time she saw Mother's with their children? Can you imagine the heartbreak and isolation she felt? But in all of this we see God's faithfulness. We see His plan unfold in an other worldly way that only He could do. Through these seemingly random and impossible circumstances the Savior of the world came to us!
So when things go wrong, lets vow to trust and seek our Father. Be in the Word, in prayer with open ears, seek godly wisdom if lead in that direction. Be ready to submit your ideas, plans and decisions to God's will Things may seem to be falling apart, but with God they are falling into place.
Lord, thank You! I look at the story of Sarah and I see Your hand guiding and shaping the destiny of the world. It's easy to look back and see Your faithfulness. But so often we fail to rest in that faithfulness and we worry and fret and reason our way into a melt down or bad decisions when things go awry. Strengthen our faith. Remind us to rest in You. I've seen this play out in my own life time and time again. You have a plan. Help us to remain faithful as You are faithful. Even when those plans take way longer then we think they should. It's in Jesus' Name I pray, amen.
Read the story of Sarah. Genesis 12:1-20, 16:1-8, 17:1-22, 18:1-15, 21:1-13.
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