Trust in the Lord

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

I feel lead today to dovetail off of what Alice wrote the other day.  She talked about God closing doors, sometimes very literally.  I personally can relate to this very well.  You see, I am a planner.  I often try to map out where my life is going.  What new opportunities I have and to feel in control of my life. 

God however often has different plans for me.  Plans I may not understand at a given time.  That door shutting on you when you really want something, really hurts in the moment.  This however is a time when we need to trust in the Lord with ALL of our hearts and trust that he is making our path straight. 

I know that I for one am living this right now.  I pray that in your life, you can also feel the challenge to trust in the Lord to lead you.  We might feel like we know what is best for ourselves, however the Lord truly does.

Our Journey to Adoption, Part I

For a while, we thought it wasn’t God’s timing for us to have children. Then, in 2009, we were studying the book of Isaiah and I was challenged by God’s command to take care of widows and orphans.

Isaiah 1:17   Learn to do right; seek justice.

   Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

   plead the case of the widow.

James 1:27         Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

As we researched “orphans” in the United States, we realized there are very few orphanages anymore and few of them actually adopt out the children. However, there are thousands of children in the foster system. So, we prayed about whether God was directing us to take care of orphans by pursuing foster-to-adopt.

In God’s timing, several months later there was an “Orphan” conference in Grand Rapids. It was all about fostering-to-adopt. We attended the conference and then signed up for an official orientation class in our area through the Department of Human Services. However, we had bad traffic, were 2 minutes late and the doors were locked when we arrived. We knocked on doors and called numbers we had, but to no avail. We took that as literally a closed door, at least for a time.

God knew we didn’t need to be licensed yet. James wasn’t going to be born for over 2 years. I think God planted the idea early so He could prepare our hearts and test our willingness.

Has God planted a desire or goal or purpose in your heart that hasn’t gone anywhere or worked out, at least not yet? Will you seek and then trust His perfect timing?  

Alice

Getting Off The Sidelines

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes.  If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?  James 2:1-4

Like many of you, I have watched the past election with a lot of emotions.  My wife has watched the toll it took on me, and some of the frustration and anger that at times has overcome me.  We’ve been praying about it, and she has been truly my better half through it.  I once told a friend years ago that peaceful times in my life meant that God was ready to rock my world.  Well, consider that prophecy fulfilled, and I am glad He is still active in my life.  It was helpful that I focused on what was at the heart of my frustration.  It was more than an election and who won and lost.  It was my friends who were at times ‘proud’ of what had happened.  It was as if one major part of the equation had totally been missed out.  There is a reason a choice is called ‘the lesser of two evils.’  The point is it is still ‘evil.’  It was then God made my call clear.  That I could not stand on the sidelines. I needed to voice those feelings and emotions constructively, and articulate what many are now seeing unfold first hand.

As a Christian, we can never accept discrimination of any kind.  Period.  Many have focused on words and rhetoric saying those things do not matter, and those offended need to toughen up.  I have a picture in my head of Jesus hearing that, and saying, “Really?”  There is no debating the events of last week, and for us to continue that discussion is unproductive.   What God would want is for us to focus on Him, and respond forward and accordingly.  This is where I am today.  If you are one of those saying people need to deal with it, I challenge you to ask yourselves are you dealing with it the right way?  Do you ask the question why, and as a friend of God, are you being empathetic toward that person?  And if the result was not to your liking, are you asking yourself what God wants from you?  Do you pray how you can respond both Godly and yet firmly?  Do you trust He is in control?  And no matter who you chose, how can we love our brothers and sisters while encouraging them toward holy reconciliation?  I know there are a lot of questions, but if we ask God the right questions and our hearts are truly His, surely He will guide us toward the right answer!

All because the world won a battle providing us two unacceptable choices does not mean we have lost a war.  To be clear, the overwhelming majority of us understand discrimination is unacceptable, and that is something we should be proud of.  However, we must make this crystal clear as well.  Discrimination is never acceptable.  Not in words.  Not in deeds.  Not ever!  Let’s say to each other, “No.  This will not happen again.”  My prayer is that as God’s children, we stand up to discrimination and get off the sidelines!  Amen.

Tues Devo: Piles of shells

Hello,

Thanks for allowing a late night version this week! I just arrived home with my family from a 1 week vacation. It was great to be away and to focus on family. One of the days we were going to a couple beaches and someone suggested a particular spot for looking for sea shells. When we arrived there it was like nothing I had ever seen. Giant rows of shells that had washed in with the tides and been left behind. Inches deep, and what looked to be miles long. My wife put the following on facebook after that day, and gave me permission to use it here:

“Sea shells...piles of sea shells - tossed around by the ocean and landing with many others. Some broken and tattered and others whole and unscathed from the outside. Each one rummaged through by hands looking for the perfect one to keep.

Same with life...some are visibly broken, cracked and scared; while others are not but hold their scars deep inside where they are less visible. But God, takes all of those broken and tattered pieces and turns them into something more then we could imagine even when others and ourselves see broken, tattered, messed up, not worth it- God sees His children as worth it.”

When I read this it made me think of two things: 1) God created each individual and 2) no matter what we go through, we are loved deeply by the One who gave His only Son for us.

Psalm 139:14 “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.” (NASB)

Romans 5:7-8 “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (NASB)

Will Hill