Week
9 God’s Love for Us
Day 58
Fall Back Into His
Love
We
often do not know our own minds, but the Lord is never at an uncertainty. We
are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs are all against us; but as to
his own people, even that which seems evil, is for good. He will give them, not
the expectations of their fears, or the expectations of their fancies, but the
expectations of their faith; the end he has promised, which will be the best
for them.[i]
Matthew Henry
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rief and worry over distressing situations can interfere
with our awareness of God’s great love. It is good to remember that although life
circumstances and our fellow human beings may trample our hopes and threaten our
dreams, nothing can interfere with God’s love-directed plans for us.
Our responses to frustrating life
events are often sinful and self-defeating. We show God our disapproval of His
decisions by snatching pleasures He has not provided, as though to administer
our own balm to wounds of disappointment. We search the pantry for something
that will satisfy and, like petulant children, refuse to find our refreshment
in the God who has withheld some pleasure or asked for a sacrifice we do not
want to give.
When Jesus called Lazarus to come
out of the tomb, the ever-practical Martha pointed out that three days had
passed and the body would smell. Indeed, something that was once alive and is
now dead does smell, and there is a spiritual stench around dead dreams to
which we stubbornly cling beyond the time any hope of their fulfillment has
passed. We must come before the Lord with hearts willing to release the secret
hopes that He has not chosen to inbreathe with life, because apart from Him, we
can accomplish nothing.[ii]
There is no benefit in keeping a dead body of thwarted plans; it only occupies
space that should be dedicated to the Lord. God has made our hearts holy by
setting His Spirit to dwell within us, and something that is unclean should not
be allowed to inhabit holy ground.
But it isn’t so easy. Sometimes,
especially as we grow older, we fight against the death of our ideas of the way
we thought things would be. We may find it impossible to let go of past dreams
and move forward into circumstances God has chosen for us. The Lord’s response
to our inability to shake off the old and welcome the new might be something
like this: "It is very true you can't do this, but I can. You have
only to entrust yourself into My hands and allow Me to work through
you."
In God’s economy, nothing is
wasted, and we serve a God who is able to resurrect lost dreams. But, as Christ
said, just as a seed must fall into the ground and die before it can sprout forth
with new life, we must release our ways for God’s. This exchange can feel a lot
like a death, and it is not wrong to grieve. But although it feels
counterintuitive, we must recognize that falling back into God’s arms (rather
than plunging forward in our own strength) is the most expedient way to the new
life He has promised.
Perhaps we will experience the joy
and healing Naomi felt when her beloved daughter-in-law, Ruth, placed her firstborn
son into Naomi's arms.[iii] Maybe
we will be workers, like sensible Martha (I’m always comforted to remember that
Scripture says that Jesus loved Martha despite all her bustling and worriment).[iv] And
by God’s grace, we may become more like Mary, who loved to sit at Jesus' feet.[v]
Whatever the plans of the God who
loves us more than we can comprehend, we can be certain that when we exchange
our goals for His, we will be blessed beyond anything we could have dreamed for
ourselves.
Prayer: Father God, I entrust
my future into Your hands. Please forgive me for seeking comfort in
sources not of You, and show me how to find all my needs met in You. Show me
how to remain steadfast in honoring You in my behavior even when I am lonely,
hungry, or tired; teach me not to let my physical state dim the expression of
Your Holy Spirit through me. I release my ideas for yours because I trust in
your love for me. Help me to become very good at loving others and at being
loved by You. Amen.
~~~
See now that I myself
am he!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
Deuteronomy 32:39 NIV
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