No matter where I am reading, the Living Holy Spirit catches my attention. This morning was one of those wake up calls and it began last week. Just like the Holy Spirit to see how I will face these unanticipated circumstances to show me how to put faith to work remembering the words of James. You want to know if my faith is real? Watch my works. OUCH! I thought I was handling this disruption pretty well …that is until finally I caved today and realized, umm nope, I am not handling this well at all.
Perhaps you can relate. It seems that no matter where you live or how your day is going, you and I can be sure of one thing; we will face unexpected, unforeseen and unanticipated circumstances that will disrupt our day and our scheduling and we don’t like it one bit! How we face these proves much about our character and our walk with God.
Listen to this and see if you can relate. We can be heard saying: “I don’t have time for this!” Why are we not rejoicing as Paul said we are to be doing? Why are we whining? Don’t we look for God to show Himself faithful? Intellectually we know God sees and understands just what is happening but in our heart we are complaining; “why me, why now?” As our Heavenly Father He is looking to see if we truly believe this truth: I understand and I am in control and I am allowing this for your good!
But in the immediate we just want relief.
You know as I do that we easily can spout Romans 5 “we have been declared righteous by faith” and Romans 8:28 “all things work together for good.” As a believer those verses are in our instant recall gray matter. But when these circumstances raise their ugly head, we fail to apply them to our own circumstances. Sounds ludicrous; doesn’t it? But, our response reveals the truth of the matter.
Our whining says God you are not there, you don’t understand my schedule and we fail to forget to stop and ask; God what do you want me to learn through this? If we believe Romans 5 we will look with an eternal perspective that these unforeseen, unexpected, unanticipated circumstances WILL produce endurance or steadfastness if we allow God to do the work that we need. They WILL enhance our character so we are reflecting Christ if we allow them to do so. They WILL produce hope not despair if our focus is on Him not on “me.” The bottom line is this:
Do we believe God has our best interest at heart?
How doth thou respond today?
SonShine's Journal: 