All those times I was disappointed in myself for my failures as a runner, God wasn’t. He was proud of me for stepping up to the line again and again. He was proud of me for showing up to every race to cheer on my teammates regardless of my own anger and disappointments. He is always proud that even when we aren’t the best we are doing His best.
Let’s stop trying to think our way out of a need for faith. I can make schedules, and shift people around, and make phone calls all day, but it’s got to start with a faith and trust that God will provide, even if my logic doesn’t play out.
Can you imagine if God told us all of the plans He had for our lives? If God had let us know the pandemic was coming, the devastating hurricanes, the strife in Afghanistan, the turmoil in our personal lives: would we have trusted that He could make good of all that? Do we even trust that now? And how do we deal with the things we’ve prepared for for years, being pulled out from under us? Was this God’s plan? How can he make this good?
“When life is hard for someone, and Satan is desperately trying to get in and wreak havoc, the last thing he wants is an encouraging word from God via a friend or loved one. He wants control, he wants people at their weakest, he wants to discourage any good thought. Our words, our testimonies of God’s goodness are what will pull people out of that mess. ..”
We have to trust that where we’ve seen God work before, where we’ve seen him faithful, he will always be faithful. And even if we haven’t walked hard rocky trails before, we’ve seen other people run them with abandon. We’ve seen men and women of faith who have walked before us, and we have seen God be faithful. We need to trust that if there is beauty for them, God also has planned beauty for us.
There are too many bad things happening, too many people getting hurt, and too many burdens to carry. We are overstimulated and there is only one solution: go to a quiet room, and be comforted by someone who has no stress. And there’s only one way to enter into this kind of comfort: real, quiet time with God.
abideandwrite.com 