It's like turning in life's binder to a fresh clean page with no mistakes on it. Feeling that eagerness to press your freshly sharpened pencil onto that blank page and begin to write! Most of us make our start with bold resolutions for which we somehow lose our initial resolve a few pages into the new year. That, I fear, is human nature. Which is why I have decided to begin 2011 with a simple, quiet determination to do only one thing.
Trust God.
Like a good many others there are situations in my life that if left to the wanderings of my natural mind could pull me down into a dark abyss of hopeless, negative thinking.
But I refuse to live in the realm of "if only" or "it should have been" or "might have been".
Instead I choose to trust God.
As I close the door on 2010 and get ready to travel into 2011 I have one important verse of Scripture packed in my bag.
"And we KNOW that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." [Romans 8:28]
I love His Word
Every bit of it.
But this single verse kind of puts things in a nutshell or sums up the Christian's walk with God. There is SO much wrapped up in these few words. An absolute world of joy, contentment and peace if we will choose to believe what it says.
We say we do. But then something happens that is so devastating or painful or unfair that we find ourselves plunged into the depths of despair, drowning in a sea of self-pity or confusion...the truth of that beautiful verse floating somewhere just beyond our reach.
I have never forgotten these very wise words spoken by a wonderful woman of God who has since gone on to glory,
"There is POWER in a made up mind."
Isabelle Norris
That is something you and I CAN do. We can decide. We can determine. We can yield our will to God and choose to believe that He means what He says and He says what He means and that's that!
So when our world turns upside down- viewing it through the lens of this truth will turn it upright. When things don't go as you'd hoped or imagined, this verse helps you release your dreams into God's hand and KNOW that HIS plan is still working!
God either has a plan for our lives and for this world or He doesn't.
If we believe His Word- the notion of coincidence or chance should not even enter our mind's radar.
Whatever is happening in your life and mine is happening for a reason.
There IS a silver lining in your cloud even if you can't see it yet.
TRUST.
I like to think of it as faith so radical it sees through and beyond the deepest and darkest storms of life to gaze upon the loving face of God. Jesus really meant it when He said, "Except you become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." [Matthew 18:3]
Childlike faith quiets the storm in us and allows us to fall back into the arms of our Heavenly Father and KNOW that everything will be alright.
Trust sings. Trust worships. Trust holds the hand of God and believes even when all the odds are stacked against us.
"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines;the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
YET....
I will rejoice in the the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength, and He will make my feet like hind's feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places." Habakkuk 3:17-19
