By Dimitri Destugues (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Addison Road: What Do I Know of Holy?
Good morning, beloved!
Woke up a little late this morning and so I’m sorry this is getting out late. 😉
Well, the Lord is molding me more and more into His Son’s likeness..whether I like it or not. I can’t say it’s, um, fun. Yet, I see my reflection and I see more of Him..sometimes. Sometimes when I look into my children’s tear filled faces because I have gotten upset, I see more of my reflection. They aren’t listening to me..they aren’t doing what I want. Frustration rises up. Yesterday was one of those days. There was a leak in the refrigerator water line and water was everywhere. Phone calls to the landlord, cleaning, scrubbing, ruined floors..then took my two to their music lessons and came back to find the glass table on the porch in the back yard shattered. And I began to wonder…
I opened my email to find a devo sent by a caring friend. I have chewed on this quote all night and into this morning.
God wants you to enjoy your life. That’s why He tells us to come to Him. God wants to take care of everything that concerns you so that you can find rest in your innermost being.
God wants me to enjoy my life..
Consider these words. They sound so nice. And calming. And yet, why does God allow water leaks? Or misbehaving children who wrestle rather than obey? Or tables that shatter? Or husbands with heart problems? Or a son with issue upon issue? The word enjoy…
No, I don’t believe God’s intent for us is to enjoy our life on this earth. When days like yesterday hit, my longing is for heaven. My longing is for the One who I can dry my tears. Look at these verses from Paul. I put in bold..you tell me if Paul enjoyed his life here or if he spoke from first hand knowledge of suffering?
34Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?
35Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?
36Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.(H)
37Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors [m]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.
38For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things [n]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,
39Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When we have a belief system that says God wants us to enjoy our lives, tragedy doesn’t make sense. Hard times come and we shake our fists at God. This isn’t supposed to be how my life was to go! Yet, beloved, when we look at our suffering as a chance to become more like Christ:
6All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.(A)
7He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah’s] people, to whom the stroke was due?
Then our worldview shifts off of us and our cry then becomes Spirit fill me! Jesus come! I listened to Focus on the Family last night and they featured a woman, Carol Kent who has walked a road of unspeakable pain. And a quote that rings in my head today is this:
Heartache forces us to embrace God out of desperate, urgent need. God is never closer than when your heart is aching.
Am I saying that God doesn’t want blessings for our life? Or that the rest of the quote isn’t true?
No.
I am saying. Don’t push away pain. Don’t hope the hard times go away quicker. Hope in the LORD. Run to Him as the rest of the quotes says. In Him, you will find rest for your soul. Peace. Renewed strength to walk the road set before you. Don’t expect your life to be “easy”.
28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.
29He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound].(I)
30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;
31But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.(J)
May I just end with this? I didn’t want to write this, I like writing fun, encouraging blogs. Yet, when the Lord led me to thinking through the devotional I received, He called me to speak up. And then, when I checked out www.biblegateway.com’s verse of the day, I laughed out loud. Romans 8. And then I bowed to His will for this blog.
May you bow to His will today; whether it be joy or suffering in your day. Run to Him, beloved. He wants you to enjoy HIM. Long for Him. And someday you will be holding His hand in heaven weeping because it was all worth it for the glory of Him who made YOU.
Pray on. Pray on.
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