"What if?" 2

Perhaps because the chorus of the song, "Blessings," continues to echo in my heart (See previoius blog engry), I find myself still musing on the question, "What if?" as it pertains to this song and God's perspective on our lives and night seasons.

Here are my musings:
What if God being God and all knowing, and knowing us as He does, knows that these painful, gut-wrenching, heart shattering circumstances are necessary for us ...

to mature us,

to cause us to trust Him fully and constantly,

to break the limitations and bondages off of our minds, emotions, etc.,

to usher us into the next level of our purpose

to lead us deeper into His heart

so that His power can flow through us as never before?

I believe that, regardless of the pain we are feeling in the core of our being, if we knew the specifics of what He is doing, we would bow in surrender to His work in our lives and circumstances in these night seasons.  I believe we would say, “Let Your will be done,” and pray for the grace and strength to persevere, knowing that the outcome is worth the pain of the process.  Out of our hurt and frustration, we may be tempted to argue in response, “But I do not know what He is doing! And can’t He find another way?”  But beloved of the Father, that is where our faith in Him must take precedence over everything and our faith has to be based on His word. We must trust what He says more than what we feel or see.  Central to trusting Him is believing He loves us and purposes good for us.  As a verse of the hymn “Amazing Grace” reminds us,

 

The Lord has promised good to me

His word my hope secures

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures

His word our "hope secures," and He tells us that He has magnified His word above His name (Psalm 138:2). What He said through Balaam, a prophet, as recorded in Numbers 23:19 (HCSB*) is still true.

“God is not a man who lies,
or a son of man who changes His mind.
Does He speak and not act,
or promise and not fulfill?”

Like David, let us believe that we will see the goodness of the LORD in this life; this belief will keep us from losing heart (Psalm 27:13).  As encouraged by the prophet Isaiah, let us, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come … He will come and save you” (Isaiah 35:3-4). God, our Father, has not forsaken or forgotten us; He never has and He never will.   Let us remind ourselves that “The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8, NKJV).  We have His word on it. Let us encourage ourselves in Him.

Blessings and grace in abundance to you, fellow pilgrim,

EW

HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Version; all other verses are from the New King James Version (NKJV).