Mobilized by Grace
Some days there are moments when I am immobilized. Forget about the strength to do daily activities, I'm talking about needing to think about every breath that these lungs heave and how it is a cognitive decision to pull in the oxygen in front of me.
When questions stare you in the face and you just want to gulp back a scream and run the other way, that's when we make some of the most important decisions in our lives.
The choice to either run off and rebel against a loving God Who for some reason has allowed this into your life or to trust that this, even this mind-freezing, heart-stalling moment is from God. For your good.
I'll admit that it took me a little while to add in that last part. That this is for our good. How can so much sin, so much failure, so much disappointment be for my good?
I understand the answer to that question might take lifetime in the answering. But I do know that there's an answer...my God will not forsake me.
In fact, He's closer now more than ever, because He hears the cry of the broken and shattered and He does not let them go unnoticed.
Yesterday I was looking out the window as the sun was setting and I saw a group of birds flying, soaring, gliding with the sun glinting off their white breasts and making them glow like silver. I had such a strong sense of the depth of truth in Jesus saying that since God cares for the birds of the air, He'll also take care of me.
Today I grasp onto that promise. Today that promise becomes my lifeboat. Jesus wakes up in the boat and calms the storm, He reaches into my heart and calms my storm.
I am talking about immobilization. But God calls us to more than that. In the face of so much crumbling, I hold up my God as my only strength. I have no good apart from the cross of Christ.
The world around me looks the same, but for a moment everything's changed and harsh. Yet Christ speaks softly to my aching heart and sunlight glints off of another bird out over the lake.
If God is caring for that bird, is He also caring for me? Right here, right now?
I know that because of Christ and His purchase of abundant life for me that I can say without a doubt: God cares for me and He is allowing this for my good.
When questions stare you in the face and you just want to gulp back a scream and run the other way, that's when we make some of the most important decisions in our lives.
The choice to either run off and rebel against a loving God Who for some reason has allowed this into your life or to trust that this, even this mind-freezing, heart-stalling moment is from God. For your good.
I'll admit that it took me a little while to add in that last part. That this is for our good. How can so much sin, so much failure, so much disappointment be for my good?
I understand the answer to that question might take lifetime in the answering. But I do know that there's an answer...my God will not forsake me.
In fact, He's closer now more than ever, because He hears the cry of the broken and shattered and He does not let them go unnoticed.
Yesterday I was looking out the window as the sun was setting and I saw a group of birds flying, soaring, gliding with the sun glinting off their white breasts and making them glow like silver. I had such a strong sense of the depth of truth in Jesus saying that since God cares for the birds of the air, He'll also take care of me.
Today I grasp onto that promise. Today that promise becomes my lifeboat. Jesus wakes up in the boat and calms the storm, He reaches into my heart and calms my storm.
I am talking about immobilization. But God calls us to more than that. In the face of so much crumbling, I hold up my God as my only strength. I have no good apart from the cross of Christ.
The world around me looks the same, but for a moment everything's changed and harsh. Yet Christ speaks softly to my aching heart and sunlight glints off of another bird out over the lake.
If God is caring for that bird, is He also caring for me? Right here, right now?
I know that because of Christ and His purchase of abundant life for me that I can say without a doubt: God cares for me and He is allowing this for my good.
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