Wait and see that God is good…

   

These days I’m more verbal about God’s purposes for trials. From the beginning, He taught me that He uses them for good. At first I thought that meant ‘feel good’ or comfort, but then learned it was the good of being transformed into the image of His Son:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

That doesn’t always feel good, at least the process. I’m reading the story of Joseph, a story that is such a blessing as long as it is read to the end. Joseph’s life was not comfortable for many years. He’d been pampered at home, and that could have ruined him, but God had other ideas. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery and although he did well wherever he landed, he was mistreated. But he was also aware. In the end, when he rescued his family from famine and his brothers expected retaliation for what they had done, he said to them:

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)

Without that ending, it would seem that people, circumstances, and even the Lord was against Joseph, but somehow he knew that his Father in heaven had better plans for him. He had been the favorite of his father, hated by his older brothers, a victim of false teaching, put into prison, but wound up second in command of Egypt!

All of this was preparation, as the prophet later said, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” (Lamentations 3:27)

This makes me think of my trials when younger. I spent much time in a hospital bed, didn’t get to school with others until grade seven, learned to love being alone, but later married an alcoholic who had many heart-breaking faults. As women often do, I blamed myself and that led me to seek something better. Then Jesus, the greatest ‘better’ came into my life. However, I married an unsaved man without realizing this was not a good idea. I spent ten years wondering if God would ever change Him, not realizing that He was changing me.

There is more in this story, but reading Joseph’s story helps me see what God was doing in all the dark places, in the more than thirty moves, in the trials of raising children, and many struggles learning what it means to walk with God instead of trusting myself, I saw how God was using this for my good.

Now I do not look at trials with fear or dread or suspecting God has forgotten me. I can also urge others to embrace what they are learning or will learn about Him from what He will do in their dark situations. We do question God when His ways seem strange or do not make sense, but that is only because our focus is on the problem rather than on our mighty and gracious Savior. He knows what good He will do even when we cannot see it yet. Instead of praying, “Take this away” it’s a good idea to pray, “Surprise me” and wait. As the psalmist says: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)

PRAY: Jesus, I know that many of Your people are struggling, not only with world events but also personal distresses, relationship issues, finances, all sorts of things. May all be encouraged and look to You, and even learn to say, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2) whether we can see it yet or must wait for a while longer.

Too many birthdays?

My Dad used to explain his mental and physical problems with “I’ve had too many birthdays.” He was 90 when he died. Now at my age I sometimes say the same thing, particularly as I read challenges such as “Do you have zeal for a worthy cause? Is there some good for which you are being slandered? Or is your routine so harmless in this evil world that it fits nicely with the way things are going, and so nobody is asking you anything?”

Yes, I know that Moses didn’t get started until he was 80 and that God can renew the strength of those who wait on Him…

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

The Bible says He can. My faith says He can. Yet this is not gold-stamped with a seal to make it certain. Many days I feel faint and without strength, asking for renewal. Over my desk is a painting of eagles with a reference:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1–5)

Because I appear to be younger, expectations from others are higher than the way I feel. I don’t want ‘renewed youth’ to meet those expectations, but I do want to have what is needed to do what God asks of me, even on those days when it feels like I’ve had way too many birthdays.

Others verses echo the cries of those with white hair and bodies that no longer cooperate with ambition, or even wipe it out:

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. (Psalm 71:9)
O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? (Psalm 71:17–19)
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalm 92:12–15)

The Bible shows that the average lifespan in OT times was less than my age now. We live in a country whose average now is lower than my age also. How true what Moses wrote:

For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:9–10)

And how true what my hubby often says; we are all terminal. A friend told us of his sister’s death last week. She was getting ready to go somewhere with her spouse, and put on one shoe, then left this earth. Some die violently, or because of a painful illness, or an accident. We don’t get to choose (despite efforts to make it lawful) but even so, it still happens. Best option:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

PRAY: Jesus, no matter my age, afternoon fatigue, or all other ‘symptoms’ of being old, eternal life began the moment You called me into a personal relationship with You, a relationship that changed my life here and my destiny when this life is over. This love affair with You makes such a difference in the way I look at too many birthdays!

Do not grow weary in doing good…

Can I blame age for my lack of ambition? The body isn’t as strong now so that is a good excuse for those activities that require physical strength. I’d rather nap than exercise, watch a game on television than do the dishes, wear wrinkled clothes than iron them. Many times during the day I find myself doing chores out of sheer will power than any desire. Most of the time, once I get started it isn’t as challenging as my thoughts made it.

This stage, if it is a stage, is new for me. I’ve always been an eager worker. One summer I dug a hillside beside our house and made it a series of steps. This was hard physical work and turned out well. I’ve made king-size quilts and now view that similar to constructing a four-man tent. This decline in ambition bothers me, not the aging part but the attitude of resentment toward doing what needs to be done, or should be done.

It hits spiritual responsibilities too. No one person can do all that the Bible calls Christians to do, but I’m often shirking even those things that God puts on my plate. I’m too tired or I have easier tasks and put the more important at the bottom of the list.

A few principles come to mind. One is when Moses led a battle. His army won as long as he held up his hands…

But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (Exodus 17:12)

When his hands dropped, the army started to lose, but as others supported their leader, they won the battle. This says much about the importance of Christian fellowship and the need to be supported. Don’t be a loner, and I tend to like be alone, but this is not always the best choice.

In another OT narrative, David was being attacked by his son. The son’s advisor said…

I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, (2 Samuel 17:2)

This is a spiritual warfare principle: the enemy goes after God’s people when we get weary and discouraged. Sometimes more sleep is the issue, yet in this story God sent another advisor with a different plan that sounded good but led to David’s victory.

I need to be alert. Fatigue and feeling discouraged is to be vulnerable, yet the answer is not always in being rested — it is in trusting God to get me where I need to be and with the energy I need to have, just as the psalmist did:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

One friend says the next verses are about spiritual weariness, not physical, yet it seems to me they are partners that require the same solution:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

God also says: “I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” (Jeremiah 31:25) and “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) and “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Hebrews 12:3)

PRAY: Jesus, forgive me for turning my mind toward how I feel instead of toward You. Your grace is sufficient. I may get tired, but You are enough and You always supply whatever I need for whatever You want me to be and do. Give me wisdom so I don’t try to do too much for me, but rely on You for whatever you put on my to-do list.

Waiting for what happens next . . .

 

 

READ Isaiah 29–32

If I were an animal, it would be a black and white zebra, no shades of gray. This is how I see Scripture and see life. The Bible says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) It also says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17) Sin/black. Righteous of Christ/white.

Looking at the world from this perspective means I must work at it to see goodness. Jesus did say there is none good but God! My view is not popular (most people think humans are basically good). The biblical prophets were not popular either. I’m reading Isaiah and can identify with his words of doom for the wickedness in his world. I can also identify with the way he inserts positive promises from God that counter His judgments against sin. Not wanting to have a ‘black’ day, I’m trying to focus on these positives, even though some of them announce how the Lord will deal with evil. For instance, He speaks against the foes of His people:

But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel (His city), all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. (Isaiah 29:5–8)

He also speaks against the sin of those who are His people:

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:15–18)

He makes promises for their future saying they “shall weep no more” and He will hear and answer their cries. Even though He will send adversity and affliction, He will not hide but give them direction saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” They will get rid of their idols and He will bless their work, their animals and make them prosperous when He “binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.” (Isaiah 30:19–26)

God also warns them not to go back to their old life, or rely on any other power but Him. (Isaiah 31:1) He will send them “a king (who) will reign in righteousness” and other godly leaders, each like “a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.” They will see, hear, understand, even “speak distinctly” and “the fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.” (Isaiah 32:1–5) These days, when good is called evil and evil is called good, this promise is precious!

In describing the mess back then, He says the Spirit will be “poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest” and “justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” (Isaiah 32:14–18)

My thinking is usually ‘now’ rather than ‘future’ so these promises tend to make me ask “What about today?” and God says to me that this is the kind of God He is, a God who is gracious, compassionate, and just. He will make things right because He is righteous. My part is to trust Him, walk in His ways, and rejoice in Him as I wait to see what happens next.