Verse of the Day: "He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
Memory of the month: Isaiah 41:13 For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
Today's reading: GENESIS 23-24 MATTHEW 7
The 'Different'
Our God is not a God of confusion, so, we cannot say that following God is confusing. The truth is that we do not even have to put it into words but that is our nature. The path God has for us is unknown but protected. It is not the road less traveled, but a path God has designed just for each of us. God made each different and knew that no two of us could walk the same path-our clothes fit differently-our hair hangs differently. Things taste and smell differently to each.
I sat and watched a professional potter through the window at Marshall pottery as he turned one mug out after the other. As he removed each to join the previous ones on the cart awaiting the kiln I noticed that they all have differences. They are all the same size but not. They all had a couple of lines around them, but the lines were not perfect but were just fine. The underlying lines in the clay were there from the lines in the potter's skin and as he moved his hands, they left a permanent tracing all the way around each cup.
My son and I tested positive for covid on the same day. At this moment there are 8 people in our family with the illness and, thank you Lord, none hospitalized. Every one has had different days in and out. Nothing is predictable. It is like everything else in life. We may drive the same roads but we see them all differently. Our rides are all unique to each.
Do you not think you are special to God? He knew each difference before the world ever laid eyes on you. He knew what your disposition would be and how you would handle the early life imprinting and forming by outside influences. He still knows all your unique ways and still loves everything about your soul. He knows the struggles and the pain you don't want to think about and stands ready to meet you there in your humility and beckoning.
Why does bad stuff happen to God's people? We are in the world like everybody else with all that the world has to throw at all-we are in God's family and washed in Christ's blood to show the difference God makes in the lives of all the different.
The fellowship of the suffering? That's what Paul said in Philippians 3. Paul says first that, (3) "we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh..."
Then in verse 8, he says:"8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things."
And then in verse 10: "I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."
Even having said all that, Paul says 'somehow' which tells us Paul was saying he did not understand it but was trusting God for it.
I had a morning when I got up to do this time for all of us and this sickness was heavy enough that I could not even pray. I typed the words 'Good morning, Lord' and they just laid on the screen. I realized when I had finished that there are people who pray for me and are lifting me up the way I pray for all of you as I write--and God sustains this faith in all of us when we rake off the self, absorbed-pity and look Him in the heart.
Sometimes we are in the same place Job was:
"Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him" (Job 23:8-9).
These are the times when God stands back to pull on the boundaries of our faith-to stretch out faith-and stretching hurts.
Job said, ""He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
Paul sat in prison with nothing to his name but a coat and some papers-on death row-
12 "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Philppians 3
We are all still on the potter's wheel. We are all being refined. None of us ever understand it all and that's normal but our trust deep in our hearts is being bolstered by the King of it all-who knows and loves your every difference-because He made it all that way.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
Forgive my groaning and self-pity. Thank you for never letting up on me and always loving me in spite of me.
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