“It is easy to call Him best friend when things are fine and dandy,” I recently told a friend who’s going through a rough time. I know this, I speak from experience. I mean, He showers me with His blessings and life is great.Couldn’t be better. I feel safe and comforted day after day after day. It gets to where I wonder if I even need to pray that much. Because God is good; my bff — Then wham! — The proverbial stormy weather rolls in — as it will and does — lasting days, a week or two, or longer. I start to feel a bit abandoned, and my praying increases, but to no avail it seems, and incertitude sets in and I get all doubting-Thomas-like, antsy about my bff’s whereabouts, leaving the door wide open for the Tyrant. Because by now I’m vulnerable and my spirit’s quite conquerable. All the while my Lord’s smiling and shaking His head at me: “Lighten up girl you know better!” Do I?
My friend wonders how many trials one must go through before breaking this pattern of infidelity. I know for me, it appears, as many as it takes for my fearful self to learn to Trust. Full and devoted Trust in God with a capital T. The kind that reassures me that even though I don’t know the why of something, I will deal with the adversity in everything, and see the lessons in gratitude, perspective, and strength in all of it.
“We’re all God’s work in progress, and thankfully He doesn’t give up on us, ever,” I told my friend, “we are the ones who give up on Him.” Really, more often than I’d like I find that I’m the one shaking my head at myself saying, “O me of little Trust!” It is precisely then, I know, that I must humbly take a knee and utter those telling words: “God, I trust in You.” I do know better.
He’s got my back. And yours. Believe it.
“It is not to be imagined that the God who has been so faithful to me in the last six trials I’ve gone through, will now abandon me here on the seventh.”
– C. Spurgeon
“Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” – Matthew 8:26
Excellent – Connie! A lesson to be learned by everyone!
Thanks,
Joyce
Thank you Joyce.
No — – thank YOU – – for continuing to earmark my spiritual needs and for acting as a constant reminder that all things are possible through prayer and our unconditional and unwavering faith in God!
Take care,
Joyce
EXCELLENT! I’ll say it even if Joyce already did. Straight and right to the point. U know I couldn’t live even 1/2 of one hour without completely trusting in Him. Especially with everything that goes on in my life on any given day, hour, minute…-lol. Luv ya!
You’re not kidding Led, you’re the queen of the rolling-in storms, LOL. And a true example of trust-in-Him faith. Love ya back.
Again … wow. Having gone through a rather bumpy April, this was a perfect read. I detest change, yet change forces itself upon us. Sometimes we welcome it. Sometimes … not so much. That was me last month. While I realized I was blessed to have friends who rallied around me when I found myself on VERY shaky financial ground and then blessed to have found a new job (with a lovely boss, to boot), I really resented how things were handled at my old job, having to leave a group that was like family and having to learn new procedures at my new job. In short, I was a crabby individual, complaining to the Father on a daily basis, asking “Why, why, why?” All the while realizing, of course, I had absolutely zip reason to complain and whine, but still, I did. It’s a wonder He did not reach down, smack me upside the head and go “REALLY? You are complaining??? REALLY? Read the news about Japan? How about your friend whose little boy is battling cancer? But you are complaining about having to change jobs? REALLY?” My friends, blessings themselves, kept me in their prayers, patiently listened to me and told me (repeatedly) it would get better. I didn’t listen. One night while reading (yet again) the first book in the Mitford series, I got to the page where Father Tim is visiting his neighbor’s studio and sees this quote pinned to her wall “Commit thy works unto the Lord.” I thought, hmmm, have not been doing that with this new job, been too busy whining about all the new stuff I have to learn. Next morning I got to my new job, gritted my teeth and said “Okay, Father, I’m doing that.” Somehow it all started to get better from that day on. He really DOES have our backs 24/7, sometimes we just forget to look. I realize, I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed. And our Father is VERY patient.