Gratitude or Grumbling, Part II

As today is the last day of November, I wanted to do an update on my "Gratitude or
Grumbling" post from Tuesday. I had this "funny feeling" when I posted it that I was going to be tested on it. Well, let's just say the last couple days have been kind of rough for me. The enemy has been taunting me with "Look at how much good that did you!" admidst days of unresolved issues in my life.

I know condemnation is not of the Lord. (Romans 8:1) But I was feeling pretty condemned, truthfully. But I have this, this only as I cling to the Lord: He is not in the business of giving up on His kids.( Hebrews 13:5) He loves me unconditionally. (John 3: 16) God's love is not at all like human love.(I John 3:1) That is all I need, period.

He demonstrated that love when He died on that cross for me.(I John 4: 10) He knows my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. (Romans 7: 15) I am still thanking Him for things, even things that are hurting. The promise in Romans 8:28 still says, if I love Him, He will work all the tattered pieces of my life together for good. He promised. He does not lie. He does not change.(Malachi 3:6) You think I am writing this just for readers? I speak to myself first!

Sometimes, when you walk around, did you ever notice all the broken people you see? Those people that are "down on their luck," so to speak? One guy I see around the neighborhood has some kind of problem, he talks to himself incoherently and to others the same way. Most people hurry away from him. Jesus, If Jesus saw that man today, all scruffy and unkempt,He'd find a way to graciously communicate with him. Another old fellow walks down the street very slowly with a cane. He can even hold up traffic at times. One time I helped him with a door or something. I was tempted to be impatient because he was so slow. Then he told me he was blind in his one eye. He may have been injured in battle sometime. All of a sudden, I was ashamed of myself for being so thoughtless and uncaring. Jesus has all the time in the universe to care about people's needs....But my window of opportunity to show love and do good is fleeting quickly. In fact, Christ lived outside of time, in eternity. That's why He never was flustered and frantic like we are.

These two men reflect beatings on the outside, but we all have them, whether inside or out. Though we don't show them, we are just as roughed up as they are, even though many people might not want to admit it. Though my troubles rose rapidly to the surface after I set my mind to think gratefully, I am identified with the Greatest Victor in the Universe. (I Cor. 15: 57) If I set my mind on the things above, not the things of earth (Col. 3:1-2), my heart will remain grateful. If I fail, I pick myself back up again, confess it to God, for He will forgive and cleanse me up to "70 x 7" (meaning an infinite amount.) What more could a daughter of God want?

Thank you Lord for even allowing the hard trials into my life so that I will run back to You. Amen.

Who is our Hope in, Anyway?

Like many of you, I watched the returns last night with a sick feeling in my stomach.
I try not to be political in my postings, but let's just say things weren't going the way I had hoped. My headache got worse and worse. Suddenly, when they switched to the local news at 11pm it was all over.

I felt this election was the most important one of my life, and yet, God is sovereign in the affairs of all mankind. Is that true or isn't it? When the prophet Daniel was interpreting the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, he told him:

"That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
Gives it to whomever He will,
And sets it over the lowest of men." Daniel 4: 17b

So today, I am choosing to go on with my life, focusing my hope entirely on the Hope that is secure and will not change. I read today in the Word one of the very last verses given to the Jews before the New Testament canon was given. In the book of Malachi, chapter 3 verse 6, we read:

"For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."

Thank God! He doesn't change! Everything else is all around us is crumbling around us. What can we rely on? Job security? No. Money in the bank? No. The stock market? No. Gold? no. Even people we thought we could trust? No. We have one thing, one thing only, that we can run to:

"looking unto JESUS, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God..." Hebrews 12:2

He promises never, ever to leave us: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13: 5

And just to show that Jesus doesn't change either: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13: 8

Turn to Him today, while you can. He will not turn you away.(John 10:28) He is in the business of restoring broken, beat up lives like yours and mine. No matter what your political affiliation or how you voted, it doesn't matter, Jesus doesn't care about that, He just wants you to run to His shelter before it is too late.

Focus on Eternal Things

As I look outside at the rainy fall days, I see the leaves ever so slowly beginning to change colors, and observe the days growing incredibly shorter,while at night I feel the chill as I pull the covers tight to keep warm. Change. You can't stop it.

My mother always used to remind me, "Everything comes to pass."

She told me that when she returned from my grandma's funeral a couple states away. I had begged to go, but it wasn't to be. Not that time. She reported that the minister presiding over the services comforted the mourners by saying, " Everything comes to pass."

But did he know how much more that would be true now? That was 1980 when Grandma died. Before the internet, texting, cell phones, tweeting and facebooking.

Something else has been lost as well. The human connectedness, I think. As we sit, transfixed before our computers, for our daily doses of information as internet junkies, don't we lose our human sensitivity to each other? What did we do before we had all these multiple sources of information bombarding us?

Solomon was the world's wisest man, and God gave him that because he asked for,because he chose that above riches or kingdoms. But he forfeited all that wisdom because of the lure of the beautiful foreign women he married. Yet in his youth, he learned one thing that he put down in his book, Proverbs:

"Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom,
And in all your getting, get understanding"

Proverbs 4: 7


So there is one thing that does not change in this world that appears to be changing
faster than we can keep up with: The Word of God.

I don't know about you, but as I look at the news, I see distresses of all kinds: wars and rumors of wars, economic turmoil, pestilence, disasters of epic proportions, etc. It makes me wonder what is going to happen next. It doesn't give me much hope in man's solutions for the future, either.

But Jesus said one thing about His Word:
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." (Matt. 24: 35)

and in Malachi 3: 6a God says: " For I am the Lord, I do not change..."

So if we invest our time in the one thing that is eternal, that will never pass, and get to know the Lord, who does not change, we will have a stability when everything else around us changes, even crumbles, overnight.