Tag: God is in control

Don’t Ask “Why”, Ask “How”.

Don’t ask “why”, ask “how” …. “how can I glorify You?”

This past week a  friend went through a very traumatic experience — a life-changing experience.  Sometimes it is hard to understand why God lets these things happen.  I have so many questions and so few answers.  I cry, I get angry, I try to run away from the tough realities of life.  Through it all, I know that God is love, that He has a purpose and a plan, but my human mind wants to understand.

Several years ago, I listened to a man with cerebral palsy speak about the challenges in his life.  He said, “I don’t ask ‘why’.  I ask “how can I glorify God?'”  At the time, I was going through the first weeks of being a single-again parent.  Listening to that man speak didn’t change my circumstances but it helped change my perspective.  I needed to remember that today.  I needed to remember that God is still in the business of making beauty from ashes (Isaiah 61:3).

In Psalm 56: 8, it says that God keeps track of all my sorrows, He collects all my tears in His bottle and He has recorded each one in His book. God doesn’t say we shouldn’t mourn and grieve.  He cares about our pain– He remembers our pain.  In Ecclesiastes 3 I read that there is a season for everything, including a  “time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”.  I will always go through seasons in my life.  

But somehow after a big trauma, I have to decide to move on into a season of restoration, of no longer looking back, but of figuring out how God wants me to use the lessons I have learned for His glory.  I have to trust that God will lead me into that place in His time.  I also have to trust that  the plans He has for me will suit me perfectly if I follow Him step-by-step, trusting Him as I move along.

In Isaiah 43:18.19 I read “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”.  In my personal experience, when I began to believe that God was doing something new, I didn’t notice the “wilderness” and the “wasteland” so much.  I became more aware of the “way” and the “streams”.

So, today, I pray for those who are looking for hope for the future.  Trust that God will surround you with His loving care during your season of weeping and mourning.  But also trust that God has plans for your tomorrows that will make beauty from ashes.  May you become more aware each day of the “way” (the path God is leading you on); and the “streams” (the refreshing He is bringing to your soul).

 

The Joy of the Lord

During the past years of my life, God has richly blessed me through His Word, but also through the wise words of others. One evening  in 1998,shortly after the end of my marriage,  I read a quote that greatly blessed me.  “Happiness is elusive and can be wiped out in a minute, but joy from the Lord is like a deep river down in your heart that just keeps flowing.” (Barbara Johnson)(1).  I was overwhelmed when I realized that even though in many ways I felt like my world was falling apart, I was still experiencing the joy of the Lord — that joy was my strength.

It was a number of year later when I read the words of another woman who described that “joy” so well.  Mary Southerland says it better than I can, so I will use her words:”Joy is not the result of outward circumstances. Joy is an inside job, a deeply rooted confidence that God is in control. Every trial or loss, every defeat or victory measured against this confidence can be counted as joy.”(2)

Today it is 2017 and my mind went back ten years to 2007.  In my journal, I decided that my theme for 2007 would be “the joy of the Lord is my strength.”  I had just gone through another difficult time.  While I was still living in Ontario, my children both moved from Ontario to Alberta.  Then my father had a stroke and my parents moved to a long term care facility in a town a two hour drive away.  And I decided to sell my home.  Yet, that confidence remained. I am writing these words to remind myself.

I can decided to take God at His word when He says in Romans 8:28  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Life has many ups and downs.  Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is weaving the threads of my tapestry into anythings that makes sense.  Fears overwhelm and worry keeps me from sleeping. When I face the storm, I can only see the storm, but when I turn to my loving Father, He shelters me in His arms.  He reminds me that He is in control and I can feel that river of joy flow.

Yes, I can choose joy.

 

 

(1) Barbara Johnson, The Joy Journal, Kindle edition, [Nashville, Tennessee:Thomas Nelson Inc.(1996)

(2)Mary Southerland, “Choose Joy”, Girlfriends in God, January 26, 2016, http://girlfriendsingod.com/choose-joy/