psalm 27:13-14 "i am still confident of this: i will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living. wait for the lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the lord."
this verse is one of my favorites because it is a good reminder that even when life is not going my way and things seem to be falling apart all around me, i am not alone. god has not forsaken me. he still has a plan. often times, what exactly this plan entails is a mystery to me, but the god who made it is faithful. he loves me more than i love myself, and he knows me better than i know myself. sometimes these truths are so hard to grasp as my feelings do not match, but this is where faith comes into play.
i know that god is good, and he is faithful, whether i "feel" that is the case or not. i have to base my life on something more firm than my feelings. can anybody say amen to that? ha. feelings come and go. they change from circumstance to circumstance. through it all, god remains the same. that has to be one of my all-time favorite characteristics of the lord: his unchanging nature. he doesn't change, his availability doesn't change, and his love for me doesn't change. how can it get any better than that?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
the holidays.
oh, the holidays...so many mixed emotions surrounding this "joyous" time of year.
often times it seems that rather than bringing joy and peace, i end up stressed, anxious, and generally not so happy. :-( why does that happen? essentially, it seems that this is caused by me taking my eyes off of jesus and putting them onto myself and my immediate circumstances. i am definitely one to want an immediate resolution to any minor challenge in my personal life, and i generally try to figure out these solutions on my own.
unfortunately, this is not the way life works. god is faithful and has a plan, but his plan may not match mine. and often times his timeline is not mine either. i am reminded of isaiah 55:8-9: "'for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the lord. 'as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
apparently god has his own way of doing things. that does not mean i just sit on the sidelines, take a back seat, and wait for him to miraculously intervene. but perhaps it does mean trying to avoid going in circles trying to figure things out and instead to do what i can to do as 1 peter 5:7 suggests: "cast your cares on the lord because he cares for you."
so simple, so true, yet so challenging.
often times it seems that rather than bringing joy and peace, i end up stressed, anxious, and generally not so happy. :-( why does that happen? essentially, it seems that this is caused by me taking my eyes off of jesus and putting them onto myself and my immediate circumstances. i am definitely one to want an immediate resolution to any minor challenge in my personal life, and i generally try to figure out these solutions on my own.
unfortunately, this is not the way life works. god is faithful and has a plan, but his plan may not match mine. and often times his timeline is not mine either. i am reminded of isaiah 55:8-9: "'for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the lord. 'as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
apparently god has his own way of doing things. that does not mean i just sit on the sidelines, take a back seat, and wait for him to miraculously intervene. but perhaps it does mean trying to avoid going in circles trying to figure things out and instead to do what i can to do as 1 peter 5:7 suggests: "cast your cares on the lord because he cares for you."
so simple, so true, yet so challenging.
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