In spite of the bad news we receive and in spite of the troubles and setbacks that seem to come our way, we need to set ourselves on this: keep trusting. Keep trusting God in Christ. Keep trusting God's promises; hang on to them for dear life. Fall, as we will, on God's grace to us in Jesus.
L.L. Barkat's thoughts on lament are helpful here. We need to pray and let out our true heart and thoughts to God. But we also need to reach that place in our hearts, minds and will to keep trusting God no matter what.
When we do then we have to let go. And I mean this as ongoing; we don't just trust God once and that resolves it; it must be a daily, ongoing trust. This is a trust in God that lets the outcome of our concerns be in God's hands, not in our own. Our place is to simply trust and obey God, obeying God's word and following God's leading through the Spirit and in community with his people. This won't always look pretty or feel good. Quite the contrary, as we see in many of the psalms.
Through thick and thin; times of discouragement and encouragement: we need to keep trusting God. Will we? And how will that be evident in how we live? What will it look like to really keep trusting God in our lives? What is the outcome?
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Through thick and thin; times of discouragement and encouragement... God is still trustworthy.
Ah, trust. A simpler thing when there's nothing much to trust over. But in times of threat, is this not the moment when the trust we've been cultivating comes in to carry us? It makes me consider that cultivation takes time, concentration, commitment. And that challenges me.
i pray for your Grace, Lord God, to trust in Thee forever, in the name of Jesus the Christ, my Saviour, Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
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will we? i pray that we will.
how will that be evident in how we live? Fruit of the Spirit.
what will it look like? Love.
what is the outcome? glory to God.
minute by minute, day by day
now there might actually be time to post this weekend - so please pray that I actually will have something to write about. I feel spiritually and physically drained so God will have to actually give me something because there's certainly nothing there now!
Craver,
Yes. We have to hang our hat on that. I believe God has been working on me with reference to that lately.
L.L.,
Thanks for your thoughts here on cultivation. Wise words for us. We need to keep trusting and keep working on that so as to keep growing in it.
Nancy,
Thanks for grappling with this in words. Simple yet profound. Trusting will help us experience that, surely.
Susan,
That's normally the way I always feel, especially when I'm sitting down in the evening to type a post. But yes, I'll pray.
And forgive me for comparing my fatigue with yours. I'm SURE there's no comparison!
Hah - fatigue is just fatigue - I think most times (aside from the times I just all asleep on the couch because I can't stay awake) I'm more weary than tired or fatigued. I don't get to do enough physical work and the mental junk I do seems fruitless and wasted many times. I like real, hard work earned, sweaty tired - that's the best!
My problem with writing - I just sit and stare at the laptop and nothing comes!
Susan,
I love mental work and would like to have alot more of it. As it is in factory work I do move quite a bit in spite of all the automation. But I would miss the physical side of work if I lost it. So a person surely can use both.
As for posting, I often don't know what I'm going to post when I'm about to do it. But I pray and think of some impression that I take from God from the day and build something on that. Of course my posts, especially lately have been simple and short, some of the time because I don't have much time and am exhausted and not getting enough sleep. Well, my posts are simple, I aim for that, but hopefully not too simplistic.
But back to my point. I just type something that has to do with what I believe God is doing in my life and what I'm working on.
The point is that it should simply be something that flows from you and is natural to you according to your gift. When you do that it shouldn't take long, though some of my posts take longer (like the one I did on emerging conversation recently).
I think it can be a nice way of sharing while helping us in working on ourselves in how we're to love God and our neighbor and live this life in Jesus in this world.
Anyhow, I'm sure you already know all this, but I just share it to let you know where I'm coming from, and perhaps encourage you to share more, because you share helpful and good things for us all. And hopefully this might encourage someone else as well.
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