Week
6 Trust and Peace
Day 38
The Bars of Our Gates
For he strengthens
the bars of your gates;
he blesses your
children within you.
He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the
finest of the wheat.
Psalm 147:13-14
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o often our peace is
disrupted because we feel confined by our responsibilities, but we forget that
the same bars that imprison can also provide protection and nurture. For
example, the job that requires arising daily to the sound of a hated alarm may
also provide health insurance and income. Likewise, the responsibilities we
must fulfill to other people may weary and exasperate, but they also enable us
to form relationships that provide emotional sustenance. Also, when we are
about the Lord’s business we are often protected from the world’s demands by
what is essentially a God-signed note of excuse: My child can’t work for you today because I have given another
assignment. The Lord knows how to protect us from the world’s judgments
while we do His work.
In Acts 26:14, the Apostle Paul tells of his conversion on the Damascus
Road when he heard God’s voice say, “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads
(ESV).” The Voice translation paints a graphic picture of the futility of an ox
that kicks against a goad (a pointed stick used to prod it forward): “…you are
only hurting yourself.” Indeed, we only hurt ourselves when we fight against
the confines of the circumstances God has provided for us.
Our
peace depends upon our perspectives; are we grateful for the protection God has
provided through our circumstances? Or do we chafe at the frustration of the
daily challenges He allows? As Hannah Whitall Smith says in her classic book, The God of All Comfort, “The
soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains
can find comfort in nothing.”
Regarding the
attitude of resignation many Christians exude regarding their life
circumstances, Smith goes on to say:
“…instead of thanking Him we complain against Him; although we generally
direct our complaints, not against the divine Physician himself who has ordered
our medicine, but against the ‘bottle’ in which He has sent it. This ‘bottle’
is usually some human being, whose unkindness or carelessness, or neglect, or
cruelty has caused our suffering; but who has been after all only the
instrumentality or ‘second cause’ that God has used for our healing. Good common sense tells us that it would be
folly to rail against the bottles in which the medicines, prescribed by our
earthy physicians, come to us; and it is equal folly to rail against the ‘second
causes’ that are meant to teach us the lessons our souls need to learn.”[i]
During the years I provided care to my mother, who suffered Alzheimer’s
disease, she would often lash out at me. Her anger toward me was virulent and
sometimes brought me to tears. I struggled as I grieved for my mother as she
had once been. I missed being the apple of her eye, and my heart was broken by
her unreasoning anger toward me, even though I knew it had its source in the
brain damage of Alzheimer’s. However, it was during those years that I learned
to look to the Lord for my sustenance in a way I had not needed to do earlier
in my life when I rested safe in the knowledge of my mother’s unconditional
love and support. At this writing we are nearing the end of my mother’s journey
through Alzheimer’s, and I am able to say, as Joseph did, “Satan meant this for
my harm but God used it for my good.”[ii]
People are imperfect and we hurt one another every day, but God is able
to bless and protect us even through hurtful circumstances. When we determine
to give thanks in everything,[iii]
we can trust that the truth of Romans 8:28 will hold: "And we
know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose.”
Pray: Father, I thank You for those beloved burdens of mine; people who
wear me out and sometimes hurt my heart. I do love them, but help me to love as
You have loved me, and forgive as You have forgiven me. Lord, thank You for
being my vindicator, advocate, and protector; I do trust You Lord, I love You
and I praise You. I would like deliverance from difficult circumstances, but
barring that please strengthen and sustain me through them. Thank You for Your
comforting presence with me, amen.
~~~
We are confident that God is able to
orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when
we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.
Romans 8:28 The Voice
…give thanks in all
circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1Thessalonians 5:18
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