This image from Pixabay.com spoke to me as a writer. All the tools are there to begin writing a story. It also spoke to me as a Christian who believes that God writes OUR stories. Oh, the possibilities! Though we do not know what He has planned for our lives and we may see a blank future or an uncertain one, God has already written our story. He knows what He wants to use us for and He knows for what purposes. The best story we can live out is one that He wrote. It is sort of like reading a good book. Actually, it IS EXACTLY like reading The Good Book! This poem is about what we see or may plan compared to what God has already planned!
Isn’t it great that we know who is writing our story? Sure, we have choices, but ultimately the Lord is in control. That is not something to fear, but something to praise Him for! The God who created us knows what is best for us and our future. He is with us always! Our heavenly future is His gift, and oh what a future we have to look forward to, if we live our present for Him! We may have our plans, that God may allow or not and that’s okay. We can trust He knows what He is doing!
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Proverbs 19:29 ESV
With love from the Father to you. Have a great day!
DO. NOT. FEAR. How many times have we read or heard those words? How many times have we failed to heed them? As for me, lots!
I try to make sense of things that scare me, but sometimes, we just have to trust God and hold on. What I mean is… it is easier said than done. The same for you?
I keep reading Isaiah 41:10, which says this:
So do not fear, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Since I want to NOT fear, I want to get all I can out of this verse. One method I often use, that one of my pastors taught me, to understand the scriptures better, is to break them down in to small pieces. I also pray and talk to God during during the verse! This is my attempt to get every single grain of meaning to apply to my life. I hope it makes sense and helps you as it helps me:
“So do”…
God says. “I want you to DO what I am about to say.” (In my mind…Okay, Lord , what do you want me to do?)
“Not fear”…
God says, “This is what I want from you, do not do fear.” (In my mind…”Wow, not at all, God?”)
God is saying not to go where our minds naturally want to go, to fear, or if it does go there, remember who He is. He is God and His strength is available to us and so is His awesome right hand!
Those three simple words, DO NOT FEAR, are very difficult to enact when we go through unexpected and unwanted trials. We are human after all. However, those three little words are our lifeline. We do not need to fear because if God told us not to, then He has a better solution to our problems than fearing them. It is to lean on Him, use His strength and guidance and have faith. He loves us and WILL get us through the impossible.
Those 3 little words? They may as well be “I love you.” God loves us so much that He will always be there with us, in the good times and bad. If you could choose one person to be there with you in trials, wouldn’t God be the perfect choice? Only He can give us a holy calm in the midst of fear. Only He can make us strong when we are weak and unable to hold ourselves up. Only He is worthy of praise for the amazing way He looks after His children.
Do Not Fear…those three little words from God hold a guarantee that we can make it through any storm with Him holding us.
I Am With You…those four little words from God hold a guarantee that we are never alone. His Word is true, so that is a promise from Him!
For I Am Your God…those five little words promise us that He is committed to us. He belongs to us!
I Will Strengthen you And Help You…those seven little words tell us how we will get through the trial, with HIS strength!
I Will Uphold You With My Righteous Right Hand…those nine little words are a continuation of His promise that we can use His strength. God explains that He will make US strong!
So many promises and guarantees in that verse! What more do we need? I hope these promises help you if you are going through a struggle or tough decision. Just remember, God understands what You are going through and has offered, personally, to help you by giving You strength. What a loving God we serve!
Happy, wonderful Monday! When thinking about all the things we feel strongly about, I realize we will do just about anything for those we love, causes we think are valuable, people that are needy and for the Lord! We have so many ways we can do it, too, what with social media and all. We can stand up, voice our opinion and defend what we hold dear, can’t we?
Know what? God is dear and precious and true. He is worth standing up for! But what does that mean? What does the Bible say about it?
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15-16 NIV
Standing up for God means representing Him with reverence, gentleness, respect and a clear conscience. I admit, because I love Him so much, I may have been a little too exuberant in my opinions on social media at first. But, I reasoned, I was standing up for things HE stands for! I meant well, but I had some learning to do!
It is great to stand for Him, but speaking for Him must be taken very seriously and done in love. Peter is saying, in the verses above, to be so above reproach that others will be ashamed that they slander our good behavior. It should be that others, if they speak maliciously, (and they will at times), are doing so against our GOOD behavior. Since God is the only one good, we have a high standard of behavior, don’t we?
It makes sense…do we want others to read or hear our words and walk away thinking Christians are high and mighty and opinionated? Or…do we want them to see and hear the love and truth of God in our gentle but sincere approach? Maybe, just maybe, our gentleness will point them to God being the one who is high and mighty:) Maybe, they will see the hope we have!
If we are representing God, we must be diligent about speaking in a way that is worthy of God. How we talk about God to others tells them a whole lot about us, but also who we follow and why we do so:)
Let’s talk about God today and let others hear His love, our love and our hope!
Glory in the Morning 