He's Got This

I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. Ezekiel 17:24 (ESV)

As I listened to these words, I suddenly realized how silly I can be.

Notice what the text doesn’t say. It doesn’t say:

You are amazing! You want it, you can do it.   Or….
Look at all you’ve accomplished! Keep going, you can do it.   Or….
You are so smart and resourceful. You can figure it out.

No. It says “I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

Sometimes, as we look at our full plates or the balls in the air we think everything is up to us. We stress ourselves out worrying about how it is going to work or we exhaust ourselves trying to make it work.

But God says, let me do it. I am the only one qualified and I’ve already got it covered.

Are you trying to make something work that is not yours to handle? Maybe, we need to just trust what God says.

Really God? Always?

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4 (ESV)

How in the world are we supposed to do this? Rejoice always. Really?

How can I rejoice when someone I love is diagnosed with a serious illness?
Or maybe you are providing long term care for someone and it’s hard.
How can I rejoice when I lose my job?
How, when there are more bills than money, am I supposed to rejoice?
Am I supposed to rejoice even when I am looking at this momentous problem that I don’t know how to fix?

I don’t know if it is possible to rejoice in the midst of chaos. That’s what I think …… probably more than I should. And I bet you think it too.

But look at what Paul says next.

Let your reasonableness [or gentleness] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. (Verse 5)

The Lord is at hand. He is near. He’s not abandoned you to stare at what seems impossible. He, the always possible God, is in this with you.

Lately, I’ve been trying to teach myself to do something different. When I start to focus on what seems impossible to me, I instead focus on Jesus. I read my Bible, I read other things that remind me of how great God is, I sing and I do something that Paul recommends next.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Verse 6)

I talk to God. I share my concerns and my fears, and then I give it to him. And sometimes, I thank him for what he is already doing (wish I thanked him more.)

We can’t ignore the things going on in our life. But we can put them in perspective. We can remember that God is the God of the impossible and we can choose to look at who he is instead of what we see with our human eyes. And most importantly, we can go to him and talk to him and rest in his presence.

As Paul says in Verse 7, when we do that the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Sticking With It

Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.  Ruth 1:16 (NLT)

Naomi's life got very messy. First, her husband died. That made things a little uncertain but she still had two sons so she was able to work through it. A little later, her sons died. In that culture at that time, being a woman without a husband and without sons was catastrophic. She did have two daughters-in-law but they were in the same boat. No husband, no sons. 

Naomi decided to head back to her hometown. She packed everything up and took to the road. Orpah and Ruth went with her. Along the way, she realized that just because her life got messy, she didn't need to place that burden on her daughters so she turned to them and said "Go home. I have nothing to give you and the life I am looking at is not going to be fun. Go, take care of yourselves. No need for you to share messy with me."

Orpah reluctantly went back home to her family. Ruth refused. She was committed to Naomi, mess and all. The future for her was uncertain. She would be a foreigner in this new land and may not be accepted. She would have to work hard to provide for her and Naomi. It would have been so much easier to go home, marry again and start another family. But she didn't. 

Ruth chose to stay in the mess. She chose to stick it out and support the person God put in her life. In the end, she became the mother of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was a descendant of Jesus.

You just never can sometimes tell how God works it out if you stay in the messy.

What's Behind Door Number Three?

“Let’s go across to the outpost of those pagans,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord.  1 Samuel 14:6 (NLT)

Last night we were having a discussion about God opening doors for us to walk through. Sometimes, it is clear that a door has opened in answer to prayer. It is totally obvious so you walk through it.

Sometimes however, it is not so clear. Maybe the door opened only a crack. Or maybe when the door opened, it didn't look like what you prayed for so you don't know if God opened it or not. What do you do then?

When Jonathan was walking to the Philistine camp, it feels like he was going up to the door and jiggling the handle. There was definitely a door there but he wasn't sure if God was behind it so he said "Perhaps the Lord will help us." and he came up with a test.

The test was that if they said If you come up here we'll kill you, the door was closed. If they said Come up and fight, the door was open. In my mind that is a crazy test but then again, God's plans are always crazy.

Jonathan jiggled the handle, got the answer and went through the door. That day in battle he killed 20 Philistines. But what happened next was amazing. The army began to panic. They turned on each other and started fighting. Eventually, the Israelites won the battle.

Jonathan jiggled the handle of the door he was facing and it opened. He didn't really know what it was going to look like but he stepped in anyway. God didn't expect him to take care of the entire army. He expected him to take a step of faith and God would do the real work.

Isn't it the same with us? Often we stare at a door thinking we have to do everything on the other side but that is not what God wants. He wants us to trust him, step out in faith and leave the fighting to him. Perhaps if we do this, the Lord will help us like he did Jonathan.

A Minute In It - What An Imagination!

A minute in God's word will change your life. Sometimes, we need to remember that we are special. Take a minute to read the passages below and ask yourself the questions in the passage and the questions at the bottom of the post.

Job 38
8 Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
    as it burst from the womb,
9 and as I clothed it with clouds
    and wrapped it in thick darkness?
10 For I locked it behind barred gates,
    limiting its shores.
11 I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
    Here your proud waves must stop!’
34 Can you shout to the clouds
    and make it rain?
35 Can you make lightning appear
    and cause it to strike as you direct?
36 Who gives intuition to the heart
    and instinct to the mind?
37 Who is wise enough to count all the clouds?
    Who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38 when the parched ground is dry
    and the soil has hardened into clods?
Job 39
5 Who gives the wild donkey its freedom?
    Who untied its ropes?
6 I have placed it in the wilderness;
    its home is the wasteland.
7 It hates the noise of the city
    and has no driver to shout at it.
8 The mountains are its pastureland,
    where it searches for every blade of grass
13 The ostrich flaps her wings grandly,
    but they are no match for the feathers of the stork.
14 She lays her eggs on top of the earth,
    letting them be warmed in the dust.
15 She doesn’t worry that a foot might crush them
    or a wild animal might destroy them.
16 She is harsh toward her young,
    as if they were not her own.
    She doesn’t care if they die.
19 Have you given the horse its strength
    or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Did you give it the ability to leap like a locust?
    Its majestic snorting is terrifying!
21 It paws the earth and rejoices in its strength
    when it charges out to battle.
22 It laughs at fear and is unafraid.
    It does not run from the sword.

Can you fathom the imagination of God? All he has created and all he has done and nothing is the same. If God is that ingenious, couldn't he manage your life?