trust – Moving Forward

Keep Moving Forward

So, do you think God still speaks to us today? Or do you believe He just created the world, set the auto pilot, stepped back and let it run? Maybe, if you are like me at times, you begin to believe the latter. God seems to be silent. You pray and seek His answers to your requests. Maybe you ask for His direction. Or maybe for something you want desperately to happen- like a job, a healing, a home, a baby. Or maybe its for someone else. Maybe you just want to know if He is there and listening. But, it seems as if Heaven has shut you out.

If you are persistent, you keep on asking. I mean, that’s in the Bible, right? Knock and keep on knocking, ask and keep on asking. In your mind you might think; “I will pester God enough that He will answer with what I want.” Instantly. Or at least in your idea of the right time. We start to recreate God into what we think He should be; our own cosmic Santa Claus, or magic genie in a bottle. Our personal wish giver, or personal shopper.

It seems to me that part of our problem is not whether God is listening and communicating with us, but our own impatience. We just want to rush and get things done. We hate being still and waiting.

The waiting and the silence are uncomfortable. Like a blind date, or first date that isn’t going well. The silence is awkward. We make up things to say. Trying to spark a conversation with the other person.

In our asking, knocking and seeking God’s answers we can start out asking the “If you will just…., then I promise to….. for you God” As the time drags on without a return reply, we even offer to up the ante with Him. “I promise God, I’ll go be a missionary, or give all my money away, just please, please give me this one thing.”

Waiting is difficult. I’ve been there. Praying for the healing of friends and family. Circumstances got worse, not better. I’ve doubted my own prayer “worthiness”. “Maybe God is upset with me” or even “Maybe I’m not praying right” To the dreaded comparison trap that wonders why others can hear from God, or get their requests answered and I don’t.

To be clear though, I have also been the one with the answered prayers for jobs, food, pregnancy, and a home. And healing. But being true to my own human nature, flawed as it is, I remember the silence more than the answers. Why is it we tend towards the negative anyway?

The reality of it all, is that God does speak to us, but we are too busy to observe the answers. Sometimes it is as simple as rainbow in the sky, a sign on a business, a rock in the shape of a heart, or a kind word from a friend. Or a scripture that jumped off the page of the Bible. Giving us a confirmation that God is still concerned with what concerns us.

Four years ago, the encouraging words from a college professor propelled (and challenged) me to begin a blog. A blog that was intended to help others through the difficulties and challenges of life as a Christian. Life keeps moving forward and we must work through it all. Having faith in Jesus does not shield us from pain, sorrow, stress, anxiety, difficulty, or grief. And it is not a guaranty of happiness and joy 24/7. It gives us hope that we are not alone. And that this life with all of its difficulty is only temporary. We have an eternity that will make this life and all its problems a distant memory someday.There is something more we were created for. Someone more we were created for. To love and be loved by. Forever.

I have heard many of your stories of how the blog has helped you and encouraged you. I am encouraged by the stories. God always knows the right topic for me to write. I hope my own struggles will encourage you to keep moving forward. We are in this all together. “And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds” as the author of Hebrews reminds us. We encourage each other as we grow and go through difficulties that we can share with others. I am definitely a work in progress and I too struggle to wait to hear from God. But my struggles can encourage you that you are not alone.

But just like I hope the blog encourages you, I too get my encouragement from others blogs and podcasts. And God reminds me to keep writing to encourage you in your faith. Keep going on and do not give up. God is listening. He cares. He knows just what you need to hear from Him and He waits until we are paying attention enough to hear. Be still. Even for a moment and listen and watch. And read His word. Let Him speak to you in His own words. God Bless You – Nancy

Held Back

I walked down the aisle and found my seat. I sat down and stared out the window as the early morning sun streamed across the wing. The glare of the sun was bright, but I watched as the ground crew busied themselves with pre-flight duties. I was ready to get home. This was the second flight of a two flight journey that would bring me home after two weeks overseas. My husband and I had just landed an hour before from a red eye overnight flight and we were both tired.

It was then that the pilot broke the silence and informed us that there was a slight delay due to waiting on bags from connecting flights. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I thought, well, maybe the bags are from our flight. So, I guess I don’t mind the wait.

A few minutes later the captain once again spoke, and yet there would be another delay. This time for aircraft maintenance. A seal needed checking. It is at these times that I am glad to be traveling with my husband, an FAA aviation mechanic. He turned to me and said”It’s probably a door seal” What!? yeah I think that would be important at 30,000 feet. Better check that before we take off. So, I didn’t really mind the delay. I was glad they were holding back the flight. As much as I wanted to get back home and rest from my jet lag, a delay for safety was understandable.

But, I have to admit, I don’t like delays to my plans, otherwise. I like everything to follow my action plan, without delays. My plans, my way, in my time table. Funny thing is, that is not how this world works. I apparently, am not in charge, even though I deceive myself into thinking that way at times.

Have you ever felt like something was just holding back your progress? Whether at work, life status, or spiritually? We want to make our plans and stick with them, but many times we might feel like it is one step forward and two steps backwards. Part of the focus of this blog is to explore growing in faith through the challenges of life. And there will be challenges in this life. We simply cannot escape them. Life is full of change. We grow as babies into children, into preteens, young adults, adults, and finally senior adults. There are many changes and challenges. Likewise, we grow as Christians from baby,into newbies, and then into mature Christians. But this journey takes the rest of our lives. It is not a quick growth track. God uses all of our challenges to mature our faith. He has a plan to help us in our journey. And it is always in His timing.

When I think about timing and the Bible, I think about two stories of two different Bible characters. Character might not be the right term, because these involve real people, not just fiction characters.

The first is from the book of Ester. If you are familiar with this story, then you might recall a well quoted verse from the book. “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” This is an often repeated verse from Ester’s uncle, Mordecai. Mordecai was attempting to encourage Ester to go forward and meet with her husband, the King, in order to reverse a law that would have wiped out the Jewish people, Ester’s people. Ester, a Jewish young woman had been chosen to be Queen after a long preparation time. It is an interesting account of faith and trust in God’s provision and His timing.

The second I am reminded of is from the Book of Acts and involves the Apostle Paul. Acts 16:7 records this; “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” (NIV) Luke, the author of the book adds; “So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.” (vs. 8) I’ve always wondered why they were allowed to go to Mysia and just how were they stopped. No clear explanation is given, but later we read that Paul had a vision after this that called him to Macedonia. Still, it is one of those interesting passages to consider.

The first example is clear it was the right time for Ester to speak up and perhaps was the very reason why she was chosen as Queen, instead of other women who were also in the running for the position of Queen. It was the right timing. In the second example of Paul, it clearly wasn’t the right timing or the right place, so they were held back from visiting Mysia ( now Turkey).

We might find ourselves in a situation in which God says you are where you need to be ( the right place, for such a time as this) or even: not now, wait, this isn’t the right time or place (being held back) just like my flight home. What I couldn’t understand, sitting there, waiting to taxi out, the pilot knew, the ground crew knew, and the mechanics knew. I just did not know. I could only speculate. I was just waiting for it to be the right time to move forward.

That is the thing about our faith journey, we do not fully understand why there are delays. But, God knows. Maybe we are not yet ready for the next growth step. Or maybe the others around us are not ready.

If you’ve ever been grounded on board a plane, you probably waited it out, trusting the pilots, crew and ground mechanics. So to speak you placed your complete trust in them. You had to, unless of course you know how to fly the plane yourself, but even then you would need to wait. And by the way, on our flight, there were other pilots and crew onboard, flying as passengers to their next airport assignment. They could have taken over, because they were qualified. (How many times do we think we can take over for God and can manage our own lives?) But, without the mechanical go ahead, and the place in line to take off down the runway, even the other pilots on board had to just sit and wait it out. We were all held back for a few minutes on that flight.

Trusting God should be as easy as trusting pilots and mechanics with getting our flights safely off the ground. The struggle we have, or at least I think I have is letting go of my own control of my life and my time table. I want to go ahead and fly my own plane, so to speak. And most of the time I do not understand the hold backs in my life. I probably won’t fully understand most of them until I can personally ask Jesus why someday. But, by then I probably won’t care. So, if you are like me, then let’s just pray for each other to stop and quiet our busy thoughts that drive us crazy about why life feels like we are being held back. Remember its not our timing, but God’s. We might not fully understand, but we can sit back and trust God. God Bless You – Nancy

Trust First

So, I’d like to think that I am a trusting kind of person. I admit there have been times that I can be overly cautious around some groups of people or individuals. But I also have made the mistake of trusting in others too much and have been hurt.

But I wonder if that has affected my ability to trust God. I know you might be thinking “Wait, like trusting God should come easy for a believer” And I agree with you; it should. But can you actually admit that sometimes you might struggle with trust?

What I mean is that we all have at one time or another told God that we had the best way to go. We asked bold prayers for God to answer, in our way of course. Not necessarily in God’s way, or in His timing. And we were probably let down. We struggled to understand why our heartfelt, fervent prayer wasn’t answered. At least not in the way we had expected.

I have also found that when I am seeking to understand and find answers to the whys in my life, God always challenges me with the same Bible verse. Does this happen to you? Or is it just me? There a couple of verses that just seem to bring out guilt. Actually, its more of conviction from the Holy Spirit than guilt. But, it troubles me, none the less.

One of the verses is Proverbs 3: 5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.” (NIV) It seems pretty straightforward. Except I always feel bad for the second part- leaning not on my understanding. I know I do that more than I should. I am a person who tries to figure out everything. And plan everything out.

But, quite often I will find whenever I am seeking God for direction in decision making, this verse will pop up. It might be from a daily devotional, or from a sermon, or just the verse of the day sent to my e-mail address. And it trips me up. I begin the question which understanding is mine and which is God’s. Which way should I go? Am I trying to figure it out on my own?

Well, this week it happened again and once again, my favorite verse came up. Except this time I began to look at it differently and wonder if God was trying to tell me something other than to not lean on my own understanding. Maybe I had been thinking of this verse all wrong.

Maybe I should break it into two parts. First, trust in the Lord, than not lean on my own understanding. I was trying to avoiding leaning without doing the trusting first.

It was if a light bulb went off in my mind, and I understood. I needed to focus on the trust. And I have to ask myself, “Am I really trusting God in this situation?” Or am I trying to figure it all out?

It is similar to following a recipe. If you are a baker or cook, than you know that there is a list of ingredients first, than the directions for assembling the dish. If you randomly combine the ingredients, the recipe won’t work. You have to follow each step in the order listed.

So, in my case with Proverbs 3:5, I was trying to jump ahead and focus on not leaning first- something like jumping ahead on a recipe. So, I struggled with the verse, and felt bad, for not being able to avoid my over thinking.

It sounds simple, but consider whether God has been speaking to you through a particular verse. Does it have different parts to the verse? Try focusing on the individual parts and consider the meaning.

In my case, I am trying to focus on the trust part, knowing that God has my best, that is HIS best interest at heart, for me. I am not God and only have a limited ability to understand what lies ahead for my life. There is so much out of my control. So, first things first; trust. Than the more I learn to trust Him, the less likely I will panic and over think everything. God Bless -Nancy

Road Work

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. -Isaiah 40:3, NIV

I remember vividly the first time our daughter drove us up the mountain near her university. At the top was a beautiful vantage point to look out over the valley below and even the smaller mountains that were around were dwarfed by this much taller peak.

The views were breathtaking, but that wasn’t the only thing taking my breath away… you see the road up to the top was anything but a peaceful drive on a country road. There were steep inclines and multiple switch backs with no guardrails, nope, nothing but a hundred foot drop on the side. Driving down was even more exciting as she had to shift down the car to prevent from using her brakes too often and having them overheat.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing the views from the top, but I just don’t like the the winding roads to get there. Why can’t there just be a more direct route? Too steep probably, I get it.

Lately God has been impressing upon me those straight paths Isaiah talks about, like from the verse above. We find it also in all four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It of course is speaking (in Isaiah) prophetically of John the Baptist, who was he “voice of one crying our in the desert”. His mission was to announce Jesus coming as the Messiah. His message was one of repentance and baptism.

Those who came out to the wilderness to hear him speak were a mixed group. Some were looking for more in their own spiritual life, and others were curious, in particular members of the Jewish religious leadership who had heard that his preaching was having a big impact on people, probably much bigger than their impact with their long list of do’s and don’t s that held the people in bondage and without hope that they could ever be good enough for God. People were responding more to John then them. They probably were getting a bit jealous.

They questioned John about his purpose and mission and this is when he quoted from the book of Isaiah. Matthew’s gospel gives the reader a bit of more insight into John’s view of his mission and it wasn’t very kind to the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7-10). They were very religious, but had no fruit to show a true heart that had repented. They were a hindrance to the people when they should have been leading them towards a closer relationship with God.

There are still many hindrances today, to a closer relationship with God, like religion, bad experiences with church and church people, doubts, fears, pride, and maybe over rationalizing, for a few examples. I’m sure if we got together, we could all add to that list. These rough roads to belief in God or trusting God more, if we are already believers, sometimes keep us from knowing God in a more personal way.

It’s like that windy mountain road. It’s rough and we just want to turn back sometimes. It can be scary to place our faith in God. We look around and see the potential drop offs – like maybe people will think we are weird, or worse, our friends will leave us. Family might think we are crazy for starting this journey of faith.

Or maybe we have been so hurt before, we already know its difficult, because we tried to start up the mountain, but turned around. We are still licking our wounds from the hurtful things that church people said to us, or worse, did to us. We don’t believe we can do that again, I mean what if we get hurt again?

John would have liked to talk with you I bet, see he knew the religious leaders did not have fruit, he called them out on it. He called them snakes. John was not teaching another religious way, but what he was proclaiming was a new way- the kingdom of God way. Jesus’ way. The way people should be, repentant of their sins, and turning away from them to produce good fruit. He describes this good fruit in Luke’s gospel chapter 3 verses ten through sixteen. Sharing, treating others fairly, not for dishonest gain, in others words, loving your neighbor as yourself would demonstrate your love for God. A life that realizes they have sinned against God and no amount of religion fixes that, except trusting in Jesus as the payment. Nothing more, nothing less. This is what changes a man (or woman or child). Followers of Jesus are not perfect, we still need work, but God works on us and helps to smooth those rough places in our lives. He directs our path and keeps us going on this journey of faith. Will you allow Him to make those straight paths in your life? Start the journey and let Him drive the car. God Bless You – Nancy

Embracing Pain

There isn’t anyone alive today that has not experienced pain. Physical pain, emotional pain, relationship pain, financial pain, even spiritual pain. We don’t like it, but yet it is something we will experience throughout the course of our life. We often attempt to avoid pain and hurt by avoiding conflict, finding medicines to dull our pain, and trying to not think about the negative. But, maybe instead of escaping the pain, we should instead embrace it. We will have troubles, the Bible even says we will have them in the Gospel of John (John 16:33). But we are also promised that Jesus has overcome the world. He has taken on our pain and hurt from this broken world and overcome it through His death and resurrection.

It is impossible to escape pain from a broken world, the world that was never designed to be this way in the first place. It wasn’t supposed to be so messed up. We weren’t meant to be so messed up, but it was our choice, at least it was Adam and Eve’s choice to follow their own way and lead us all down the path of brokenness, pain, hurt, suffering and ultimately death.

So why should we embrace this pain? Well, maybe we need to realize that as we are moving forward in this life, down our own paths, maybe, just maybe, we can find some redeeming quality to this pain. Maybe our pain will make us smarter, stronger, and more hopeful than we would be if we hadn’t experienced it. I know of a woman who is posting videos on her journey through cancer. She is creating this documentary, that if anything, inspires me to take each day as a blessing from God and to live each day intentionally, enjoying what I love to do. Her pain is joy to others. It inspires others. I’m sure she does not want this cancer journey filled with both physical and emotional pain. But she is finding peace and joy amidst her struggle as she allows her self to be vulnerable about her own fears, including death.

I have also considered my own journey through grief of losing my mom. This pain that I still feel has brought me much closer to God. And maybe that is the greatest reason to embrace pain. For when it is at its greatest, its most hurtful and bitter as if it is a knife plunging into the flesh, it is then that we cry out most earnestly to God. And He hears. When we are done trying to figure everything our for ourselves, and are completely undone, we fall at His feet and let Him pick us up as a parent scoops up their crying child. -God Bless Nancy

Getting it set

A moment of panic was beginning to set in as I frantically began to enter my email and passwords over and over again. The results were the same. The login was just spinning about like a tornado, albeit a slow tornado. It can be mesmerizing at times to watch those little circles spin. But, it didn’t help to watch for long. The situation was not going to change. All of my digital content had disappeared, ie. no digital books in my online library. I was panicked because this was the first day of classes and without books I could be in trouble. The link from my school showed just the basic Bible versions that had been set up originally, but all the other books were gone. No content. Even when I called the service number the results were the same. They had no name or listing. It was as if I didn’t exist. How is this possible?

I frantically searched for answers as to why this could have happened. Had my school switched vendors? Had I missed an important e-mail about it? Had I done something to delete my library? I was put on hold while being transferred to a nice tech support person. To be honest, I had almost hung up on the call because it was taking too long. But then, like a voice from Heaven, a voice said hello. I explained my problem and then the tech guy asked me something quite simple. What time do you have on your computer? Wait, what? Yes, he repeated, what time zone is your computer in? Hmmm, this sounds crazy but ok. I told him the time on the screen and he said, oh you have the wrong time. You need to change the time on your settings and turn off the auto zone option. I explained that I had recently done an update, well, windows had, but he said yes that was it. When I checked, the hour was correct but the minutes were off by ten minutes. He told me the correct time and I changed it. I went to login and as if by magic, all my books appeared once again. Whew! Crazy stuff. Ten minutes.

Now for all of you techy people, you’re probably finding this amusing, but for those of us who are not so technology gifted, maybe I just saved you from calling for support. It’s all about the timing. It seems like it is always about timing. I have been in the right place at the right time and have seen how God has protected me from accidents. Only at the time, it didn’t seem like the right time. I had been held up or delayed, kept from driving on for whatever reason. I would get back on track down the road, only to see the remnants of an accident that had occurred before I reached that section of road.

We never fully understand why the timing in our lives is what it is. The corona virus has changed the timing for many of us. We have been forced to slow our speed, change our plans and now are slowly moving back up to our regular rhythms of life. Timing has changed. We have realized through all of this, that it is not our timing that matters, only God’s. I have realized that I cannot control my world as much as I thought I could. If I try to control everything, I might suddenly realize it is my timing that is off. I can presume my timing is correct, but just like my laptop, when its off, it has huge consequences. I can try to log on, try to do new things, force my way, but when I try to do it my way, by my strength, in my name, ironically, like using my e-mail log in, it just isn’t going to work. It’s all about setting myself to God’s timing. Trusting Him.

Last time, I mentioned my plan to keep media from crowding out God. Now today, let me suggest that in addition to quieting ourselves from the crazy anxiety producing news feeds and social media, we all, that is me too, set our minds on God.

Just like needing the correct time on my laptop, we need the correct mindset. Just like the word implies, a mind set, is what you have your mind set on. What are you thinking about? What are you basing your thoughts and actions upon? Yourself? Your desires? Your timing? A favorite verse of mine is Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (New International Version).

It’s something I need to remind myself of often. Too often I set my mind on me or on stuff that doesn’t matter much, the earthly things. And then I worry, or get frustrated. Or get angry when stuff doesn’t go my way. The way I want it to go. In the timing I want it to happen. Then I realize, my mind is not on God and His timing. When I stop and turnaround and refocus on God, my mind begins to be set on the things above. The things that matter to God. A great place to start is to read Gods’ word.

Doing this is much like going into the settings on our computers and changing our thoughts, our mindsets, and our timing, so that it is in sync with God’s. In the time you have freed up from being tethered to socials, that is if you followed me in my last blog, by limiting your social media addictions, you now have time to read God’s promises, thoughts, and words to us. And if you don’t have a Bible or like to use technology as a benefit rather than an intrusion on our lives, there are many Bibles available as apps. Some Bible apps even offer daily verses or reading plans and reminders. Time to get set.

Caution or fear

Life is full of challenges. Too many challenges some days, but overall its our attitude in facing these challenges that can either hold us back or keep us moving forward. Recent days have demonstrated just how quickly life can change. Lives can be disrupted by a small crown like virus. For some it produces no more than the common cold, for others, a serious medical emergency. But all lives have been affected to be sure in some manner or another.

Yet, time continues to pass, whether that time passes while we sit indoors, or as we venture out to our jobs and schools. Circumstances change, locations change, but time is always moving forward. We can latch onto this forward movement, or resist it and try to drag our heels.We can either find the good in our circumstances or look for the bad in our circumstances, but we cannot change the fact that even if our world seems to stop, life does not. We get older, and hopefully wiser, as we experience life. As the saying goes, time marches on.

I’ve recently been considering how I address the fears that have cropped up since the pandemic, and found that, I have been letting my emotions have first place. I am, by nature, a cautious person. I make sure not to pull out into traffic without looking carefully. In fact, during my driver’s test, that was the one complaint of the tester, I was too cautious! I will agree to that, I’d rather be safe than crash my car. But sometimes too much caution keeps me from enjoying my life. For example, I’m afraid of roller coasters that turn upside down. I love fast roller coasters- in fact the faster the better- but, I’m just too cautious to go upside down. I’m cautious. But, someday I imagine I will get the courage to face this fear and go on one of those crazy twisty, upside down terror rides.

As the days have passed since the beginning of this pandemic I have noticed there is great debate over the seriousness of the pandemic, some toss all caution to the wind, while others are fearful of everyone and avoid everybody. I admit, at first I was scared to death and followed every update on the news. But, then I began to read more about the disease and also a book that challenged my faith. It made me realize how I had allowed my natural caution to turn into fear and here I was with this question posed at me by the author of the book, “Am I afraid to die?” Wow, that’s heavy for anyone to read in a book about helping your thought life. Thanks? for that, I feel so much better now. Seriously though,that really put things into perspective. I do believe God has given us all a healthy fear of death, so we will be cautious and not hurt ourselves. But, we can allow this fear to control us and manipulate us.

It’s a good question to ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Am I afraid of all the bad news I hear? Afraid of being rejected? Afraid or being hurt? Afraid of failing? Anyone of these fears are normal, but when moved past the level of cautious to downright fearful, we have a problem. It freezes us from moving forward.We close ourselves off to others, and to God. Difficulties will always face us as a planet. There will be more pandemics, more floods, more wildfires, more famines, more earthquakes, more hurricanes, more betrayals, more hurts, more financial problems, more sicknesses and diseases that claim too many lives too soon. But what matters is how we process all of this. We can be filled with fear and resign ourselves to believe that God is a God who doesn’t care what is going on down here, or we can quietly, take a deep breath, pray, seek God’s face and not His hand, and trust. That’s it. Trust. All of our fear and worry will not change the outcome. This planet will move forward.Time will move forward. All the circumstances that cause us fear will disappear as quickly as they came. In the meantime, trust. God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. It is what I have banked my life on. God does not leave. God is with us even through this time of stress and anxiety. We can be cautious and wise, but not let fear get the better of us. God’s got this.

Certain.

There’s a popular phrase circulating around the media these days; “In these uncertain times”. I’m not sure who started this phrase, but advertisers have been quick to join others in using it over and over again to promote whatever they are selling. But, are you buying it? Is it really an unprecedented, uncertain times we live in? From the perspective of a pandemic, then no, this world has seen them before. Haven’t we already been living in uncertain times? I mean, does anyone know the future? Life is short and often we are caught unaware when someone close to us passes away unexpectedly. Tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes often hit unexpectedly as well. We could add fires and accidents to the list too. Any one of these tragic events can alter our lives forever or just temporarily. Jobs can be lost, and businesses close overnight. Disease can be lurking within us without our knowing until one day we receive a difficult diagnosis. Life is uncertain at best. Without a major pandemic hitting the world. But is there anything that is certain? Please don’t say the obvious two; death and taxes, but think beyond those.

We can be sure that any event we are going through right now is temporary. We can be sure that there is more to our existence than this life. There is an eternal life past what we can see now. We can be certain that God is still in control. He always has been and always will be. We can be certain that God can work out all things for good. Why? Because we read it in the Bible and we can be certain it is true for the Bible is God’s word for us. We can be certain because what God says in His word is true and His promises are true. We can be certain of the Bible as historically accurate since there is less than five percent inaccuracy between the earliest copies and today’s versions, and of those mistakes, they were misspelled words. So, we can be certain that what God intended to say to us has passed through the generations to us who are living now. We can be certain that God does love the world and that He sent Jesus for us. We can be certain He has plans for us and a future. We can trust Him. We can be certain our peace is found in Him. We can be certain that He prepares a place for us in Heaven. We can be certain that He knows the pain and stress we are going through because He felt it too when He came as a man and dwelt among us. We can be as certain as David when he wrote; “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” (Psalm 62:1-2, New International Version Bible).

For those familiar with David’s story, you can recall he didn’t have a perfect life or even act perfect all the time, but he knew what he was certain of: God. So, I challenge you to think about what is certain in these times and avoid getting caught up in believing that somehow God isn’t aware of what you are going through or that everything is out of control or beyond His control. God is still in control and He can use something of our pain and difficulty to help us grow closer to Him. God is certain and we can trust Him. God Bless -Nancy

Going Through The Storm

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you—1 Peter 5:7

We once lived next door to an amazing older woman. She had emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century from Hungary. She had come with her Aunt and Uncle but not her parents whom she had a difficult relationship with, as I recall her telling me. She was quite young, around six years of age and spoke no English. She had a hard time at first in school and with the neighbor boy who also did not speak English, but Swedish.

Why I consider her amazing was for her take on life. Through every difficult situation she would explain all the difficulties facing her as she aged- her husband’s Alzheimer’s, her own declining vision, a fall that caused her a near fatal broken neck, relationship stresses caused by her family obligations, and of course weather related storms that worried her. At the end of each discussion of her current hardship she would pause and exclaim; “But what are you going to do?” It was not so much of a question she posed to me as a calm answer to all that she was facing and had faced in her long life.

She had been through many storms in her life and she had this great perspective that there wasn’t anything you could do about certain situations, so why get upset. She didn’t avoid talking about her problems as though they weren’t there, she described them, faced them and decided she might as well accept things as they were. She went through.

I remember my Mom giving me similar advice; “This too shall pass” I always thought of it as kinda cryptic, but now that I am older and have been through the storms, I can now say my mom was right. When we are younger, it is hard to take the advice of our parents. We really do think we know everything there is to know about any given situation. But, given the current worldwide crisis due to the corona virus, I am beginning to get a slight glimpse into what the older generations went through and were forced to go through at young ages, giving them every right to know what they are talking about. They were strong and resilient, because they had to be. It wasn’t something they chose to go through. Oh we have had our own share of armed conflicts and large super storms, earthquakes, tornadoes in the late to early 20th and 21st centuries, but nothing on the global scale of the current COVID-19. Our lives have been disrupted and basic supplies are difficult to find. It is now that I recall my grandparents and even my parents stories of what it was like during World War II. Everyone received booklets that rationed items like, meat and sugar. people did not travel and my Mom told me of the air raids that often happened at night. If you were home you were instructed to turn out all your house lights and if in a car you would pull over and turn off the headlights. Apparently it was a regular occurrence.

So,as we are all a little anxious at this moment with our regular predictable lives on hold, let’s remember the words of previous generations. They went through and got through it. We cannot change what is happening, but in those moments when we feel anxious, we can be reminded to turn to God and cast all our anxieties on Him. Sometimes we cannot avoid going through hard times, we just have to. We can’t pretend we don’t have fears or anxieties when we do. It’s okay to describe our difficulties as my elderly neighbor use to do. But once we do, we can go to God and admit we need Him to calm our fears and still our anxieties. I know that’s what I have been doing. -God Bless – Nancy

Waiting For The Morning

“Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)

Do you know many joyful people? Those people who always seem to have a smile on their face, no matter the circumstances? I do. And I admit sometimes I’m jealous that they can seem to be so happy all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy, but I do not always appear that way. I’m a thinker, who likes to think about everything and if you see me out and about, I probably have a serious look on my face. It’s just that I’m thinking and reflecting on something. If you have seen me lately, you probably would have noticed a little bit of a frazzled look added to my my serious look due to my recent philosophy classes, which force me to think too much. But I am happy, just maybe not outwardly joyful.

This topic came up recently when my husband woke me up in the early morning hours to ask me what “sorrow lasts for the night , but joy comes in the morning” meant. It was a good question. Although I was tired, I managed to grab my phone and do a Bible verse search to find the passage the phrase had come from. Memorizing scripture is an area that I admit I do not have skill in, so I am so thankful for Bible search apps. It wasn’t easy to find because some versions trade the words sorrow for weeping. We decided to table the conversation until we were both more awake, but it started me thinking. Why do I not feel joyful all the time? Is there something wrong with me?

Maybe you too, have asked yourself this question before too. Are Christians always supposed to be joyful? Isn’t it a bit too unrealistic? Well, maybe what the problem is found in our definition of joy. If we treat joy as a feeling, then yes, we will not always feel “joy”. We might feel joy when our favorite sports team wins, but then become sad and depressed when in the next game the team loses. This kind of joy is changing with our circumstances. No one would expect us to feel joy if our team lost, or we receive news of the death of a loved one, or of a bad health diagnosis. So, what is this passage trying to say?

This particular phrase is found in Psalm 30 and its writer is David. If you’re familiar with the Psalms, David seems to write whatever pops into his thoughts. There are times when he cries out to God and wonders where God is in dark times. He will then remind himself of previous occasions when God came through in these darkest hours and he rejoices with praises to God. Psalm 30 is no different. Bible commentator Matthew Henry finds evidence in this Psalm of David’ sadness at God’s turning away from him because of his (David’s) sin. Henry believes David had security in himself and this brought him to sin and the feeling of sadness or sorrow that was replaced with joy once David repented.

While, I am not an expert at the meaning of this Psalm, I’ll offer what I can as I let God work on me through this passage. This is some of what I have gleaned through reading Psalm 30: 1)There will be times when we do have dark times. there is no getting around them. This is life, and the fallen state in which we live in the world. We as Christians, cannot escape the bad times in life, the dark hours, just because we are Christians- they will come.2) I also believe there are people who are just naturally happy go lucky people. It’s just their nature whether they are Christians or not. 3) We are all created uniquely by God and shouldn’t compare ourselves with others- even other Christians. We all have different temperaments. I might be more of a serious minded thinker, but that doesn’t mean I’m not joyful on the inside. 4) Joy is more than a feeling; it is a quiet confidence and trust in God. We rejoice because we know God will strengthen us through anything. 5) We can trust God and He will get through to the morning- the times when we can rejoice again. 6) We should ask ourselves if we have let confidence in ourselves lead us into sin- is it God who has turned away, or have we turned away? If so do we need to repent a little? 7) The passage seems to be meaning that we shouldn’t focus on the dark times as a permanent place regardless of the cause- it is temporary. 8) After we go through these dark, joyless times, there will be joy. Times of praising and remembering all that God has done.9) Sometimes, we can be mistaken as to when we are in the dark places when actually we are in a time when we should be rejoicing. We can assume we having bad, difficult circumstances, but maybe things aren’t as bad as we think. We can focus on the negative or choose to think about the good, which is what I suspect the” happy” people I know do regularly.

My husband’s question was a good one, and as I said, I probably do not have the perfect answer to the meaning of the passage, but I think it is one to reflect upon and do some research on. If you are finding yourself in a place where you are having are difficult time being joyful, reading the Psalms is a great place to start. Just be assured morning will come. Sometimes we just need to wait. -God Bless- Nancy