Solomon wrote "There is a season for everything." The Byrds took that knowledge and sang "Turn Turn Turn." Both understood that existence has moments, times and seasons that separate themselves from the normal hum-drum of life. These ticks of the clock can be incredibly rich, such as times of great joy seen in new marriage, the birth of a new baby, or moving and starting fresh, but they can also be very hurtful and joyless. Life brings us seasons where we don't understand why things are going on the way the are. These can be seasons of wrought with darkness, anger, pain and suffering.
Does it mean that God is with us in the one and absent from the other?
Often the moment makes us feel that this is true.
That's often the problems with feelings. They are naturally subjective. By subjective they are 'true' in the moment, but not 'true' after the fact. This is one of the primary reasons that we can not trust them and should not listen to them. We are challenged in the Bible to win the battle with feelings by 'Taking our thoughts captive and bringing them into obedience to Jesus Christ" 2 Cor 10:5b. In short, God's Word is our source of objective thought, and we need bring every feeling back to it to determine if it is healthy or unhealthy.
If it is healthy, let it live in us.
If it is unhealthy, you got to kill it!
I give you Paul the Apostle as a reference. Paul said, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" Phil 4:11. He still went through seasons where He was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and run out of town. Paul's churches struggled to listen. He had people run him down on many occasions by slandering him and his ministry. If Paul trusted in his feelings at those moments he would have done what so many others do, retreat into the dark moments and perhaps never return.
He didn't - He took His thought captive and went to the Word. He commented to Timothy about what He found in today's verse that gave me pause:
2 Tim 1:12, "Because I know whom I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what I have entrusted Him unto that day."
As I read this verse and the verses following, the Spirit spoke to me this truth.
"Aaron what God has given to you, He protects (see Romans 8:38). What you have given to God, He also protects." For me, in very practical terms, this means that my leaving everything that I knew and moving 500 miles away, my not retreating into disability but offering myself again to God to serve Him as a pastor, my denial of my 'rights' to embrace my calling, are held in a sacred trust with God.
He protects my investment in Him.
The 'market' may experience a crisis. It may seem like my investment might be lost, but I have the wisest broker around, who is always monitoring my investment and putting it into the best location to yield the highest results.
I just have to trust Him that the long term gain is always worth the short pain.
He is taking my investment and strategically placing it into the areas of greatest influence and result. That's His job. My job is to simply keep my investment in His hands and not let the moment rob me of the plan.
Have you trusted God to protect your investment in Him?
Grace and peace...
Nowhere in God's word have I ever read where our walk with Him would be easy. Recently, I have been realizing that the trials we go through are actually training session for our faith. And, there is a huge difference between a trial and a tribulation. Welcome the trials as His investments into our training.
ReplyDeleteRemember, the pain God allows in your life is purposeful. The heat is never intended to destroy you, only to conform you into the character of Christ. As the heat of painful circumstances intensifies in your life, know that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify . . . and refine them like gold and silver.” (Malachi 3:3)
ReplyDeleteI’d like to share a Scripture that has been the anchor in my own life, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:2)
My all time favorite, Jeremiah 29:11-12. 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.