Comfort

This quote’s been a comfort to me today:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Bigger and Better

“We’ve all given up something at one time or another. At first it always feels like a huge sacrifice to give up what we’ve got. To Jesus though, it’s no sacrifice at all. Think about it from His perspective. He comes from heaven, where He has an amazing love relationship with the Father, which, by its nature, is the most beautiful existence any person could have. And He offers that to anybody willing to let go of whatever is giving them a false sense of security. Why would anybody not make that trade? Jesus is basically saying, “Look, none of the stuff you have is going to last, including you. You’ve only got a dime’s worth of life now. Come and trade up, come follow Me, and you can know God.” In that sense, Jesus isn’t requesting a sacrifice at all. He’s asking us to play Bigger and Better, where we give up ourselves and end up with Him.” – Bob Goff, Love Does

Let’s do this Together

You can also trust that there is nothing you have to go through alone, even if it’s just a fairly typical day, God is always saying, let’s do this together. From the very beginning this has been His desire. You were created to live life with Him. Good days, bad days, everyday and night He wants to be right there with you. Calling on Him only in the tough times cheats you of so very much.

The Case of Unbelief

This philosophical argument is also known as divine hiddenness and reasons that if there were a God that wants us to know Him then He would have made it so that everyone would. This line of thinking is very closely related to the problem of evil that we discussed a few days ago and is also best addressed by understanding that love and choice must co-exist. I believe that God has taken steps to draw us to Him and that His utmost desire is for each of us to choose to know Him. I think that if we were honest with ourselves we’d acknowledge that our greatest need is to be perfectly loved and accepted in a completely unique way. This is a need that God placed in us knowing that only He is able to fill. So in a very real sense God has created a situation to influence us into knowing Him but we still get to choose.

Together

God’s intent, desire and plan for you has and always will be to do everything together. This is especially true during difficult times. Scripture doesn’t specifically say anywhere that God won’t give you more than you can handle but it does indicate the concept that with Him you can handle everything that comes your way. This is not only so with what God has for you but also includes the difficult things that He never intended. With Him all is possible. I love what Mother Teresa had to say about this, “I Know God won’t give me more than I can handle I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” You and God together are unconquerable.

Supply

Scripture says that God will supply all our needs. However we have to let Him. Our choice, freewill comes into the equation all day, every day. Am I going to trust God with this or am I going to take this myself. One decision leads to peace and assurance and the other to worry and anxiousness. I know I say this frequently but He really is more than enough.

No Guilt

If yesterday’s post was too familiar and the result was feeling guilty, I’m sorry. God never intends to shame us, that’s not Him, guilt is a crappy motivator. His desire to walk with us at all times is for our benefit, not His. He, way more than us, knows what’s best and with Him is always what’s best.