Laced With Grace

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.  For the LORD is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:18 NIV)

I wonder if there is a support group somewhere for well-intentioned, God-seeking impatient people.  I’m sure you know the type.  Maybe you are one of them, sincerely wanting to do God’s work, but sometimes jumping in with your own plans and getting ahead of God’s timing, accomplishing a lot of good things, but missing out on the best God has to offer.  I know a few of those people, and admittedly I’m one of them at times. 

God says repeatedly that we should wait on and trust in him.  Through the prophet Isaiah, God chastises the people of Israel for carrying out plans that weren’t of Him.  They were forging ahead, trusting in man-made provisions for their security and God reminded them of the futility of their ways.  He then offered a standing invitation to return to Him for their needs and for future blessing as he stated in Isaiah 30:18, “Blessed are all who wait for him!”

We will be blessed by waiting on God.  While we view our world from ground level, He looks at the world from a “helicopter” view.  Not only does He see how all things are working together, but He also knows what skills and character qualities we need to be able to carry out His plans.  He knows when we will be able to most effectively carry out His will.  We don’t.

When we jump ahead we miss the best for our lives and create more struggles.  Because we jump ahead, thinking we are ready but really aren’t, we struggle with both the inefficiencies of our underdeveloped character as well as the inefficiencies caused by all of the external “pieces” of the plan not being available yet.  However when we wait on God’s timing, He will take care of those kinds of details for us.   We may still face opposition in executing the plan, but it will definitely be easier His way.  That’s why we will be blessed by waiting.  Perhaps by waiting we will even “get there” quicker.

To Ponder:

1) In what area of your life are you getting impatient with God?

2) In this area, how will you benefit from waiting on God?  What work does He have yet to do in you or in the situation?

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see. Martin Luther

If all goes as planned, by the time this devotion posts my family and I will be on our yearly vacation at Walt Disney World. Just a few months ago we were not sure that we would even be able to take the trip. My husband’s company is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and with the real estate market faltering, there is no guarantee that the company will recover.

The US economy continues to get worse. Just this week huge companies have filed bankruptcy or been rescued by massive bailouts. If we are left to reason whether to save our money and not go based on today’s economy – we have been given enough reason to cancel the trip!

Here I go again – trusting in the money we have saved away rather than placing my trust in God. I have a fear of trusting God with our finances.

As a family, we try hard to be good stewards with the financial resources God has granted us. Yes, we have a savings that we would very likely have to rely on in the event of a layoff. However, we saved separately for this Disney trip. We made sacrifices all year long in preparation for the trip. We made decisions not to buy certain things here and there and put that money towards the trip. So apart from savings, we have saved specifically for Disney. Still, fear of an uncertain future led us to want to hang on to that money as well.

Then this past Sunday at church, a couple gave their testimony about the loss of a young daughter just a few short years ago. As I sat in that service and listened to their tearful testimony, I realized just how fragile life is. I thought about all my fretting and worrying over finances and how short my time with my own children really is. I pondered how guilty I would feel if something unexpected happened to one of my children and we didn’t take a vacation together. They are only young once and I want to enjoy every moment I have with them and trust that God is perfectly capable of handling my mere finances. After all, everything is His anyway.

Now I am not advocating reckless spending or debt just to have fancy vacations (or material things for that matter either). However, when you have a plan in place to save for something and you reach that goal – I think (for the most part – I’m sure there are exceptions) it is OK to have a little fun.

In God’s word, Paul exhorts us to keep our minds on higher things. Hebrews 3:1 says,

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.

Colossians 3:2 says,

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

This life is temporary. The cost to follow Christ can be high. Yet, when God allows blessings to come into our lives, we should enjoy them. Obviously, this is as much for me as for anyone else because I struggle with this. Yet, I am learning. I am learning that it is OK to enjoy life, enjoy my children, enjoy Disney World and still be a faithful steward to the resources God has given me and my family. I pray you too will find joy and peace in allowing God to be fully in control.

Dear gracious heavenly father, thank you for your everlasting love and mercy you have show me and my family. I pray you would give me continued peace about financial choices I prayerfully make and seek your guidance in all I do. Help me to trust you always knowing everything belongs to you. I love you and seek to continue to be a faithful steward. In Jesus name, Amen.

A couple of years ago we went camping as a family.  One of the things everyone was looking forward to was fishing, especially my little granddaughters.  I love to fish which is surprising since I don’t have a great deal of patience. Standing at the water’s edge or sitting in a boat with a line dangling in the water just waiting doesn’t seem like something I would want to do, but I like it. There is something very peaceful and calming about it. I used to go with my Dad when I was a little girl. He was extremely patient – not just waiting for the fish to bite but baiting my hook and getting it out of the trees after my feeble attempts at casting. It was fun even when we didn’t catch anything.

The place we were camping is right on the Frio River. The water is so clear we could see the fish swimming around as we got everything ready to go. We couldn’t wait to get our lines in the water. Once in, we didn’t have to wait long. Those little dabbers began bobbing up and down immediately. It was so exciting until we actually pulled the fish out of the water. They were too tiny to even consider keeping.

I know there were big (really BIG) fish in that river. I saw them myself. In fact, I dropped my line with a big, fat, juicy worm dangling on the end of it right in front of the face of a HUGE one – and he just swam away!! Totally frustrating!! We tried over and over again to get that fish, and he just wasn’t biting.

I was thinking about that today. I thought about how Satan tries to bait me. He dangles something in front of me and waits for me to swallow the hook. I could react like the little fish and immediately bite. Hopefully I’ve gotten a little wiser over the years and don’t too that as often anymore.

However, there was one other “character” in this little fishing story. Our friend thought he had a big one which turned out to be a snapping turtle. He wasn’t badly hooked, so he took him off and released him far downstream. About a half hour later, my son reeled in the same turtle. He had apparently not learned his lesson.This time I took him far, far away so he wouldn’t get caught again, but my son said that long before I got back to our fishing spot the turtle had already returned.

I am afraid that this is much more like me. I can avoid the obvious pitfalls, but there are some things the enemy knows I will fall for every time. Like that little turtle, I see the bait and somewhere in my mind I know I shouldn’t bite. But either it looks like something that really won’t do much harm, or I seem helpless to keep from swallowing that hook. There are times I am in a familiar situation, and I know if I react in a certain way it will only make things worse. It isn’t anything new. I know what will happen, but I “bite” anyway and I end up in a mess. The enemy doesn’t have to go shopping for something new and improved to dangle in front of me. He just uses the bait I’ve swallowed so many times before.

It would be so much wiser to be like that big fish. He saw that delectable, harmless looking worm, but he knew there was a “hook”. He chose to turn his back on what looked to be good and swam away. Or perhaps he had taken the bait way back when he was just a little fish and had learned a valuable lesson. I imagine that’s the way he grew to be a big, wise fish.

Lord, may I be so filled with your word and with your Spirit that I can resist the “bait” the enemy dangles so invitingly in front of me. Help me to grow in wisdom and discernment so that I learn from past mistakes and don’t repeat them.