As I was talking with Christa tonight, my mind started whirling. We were talking about God's provision and care and how often in life, it doesn't seem that He's working. But that despite that external circumstance, we can have hope. We can rejoice. Because He's met our greatest need on the cross. And He cares for us, He loves us, He delights in lavishing us with His goodness.
I was thinking about the "core 5" and some of the struggles we have individually and together. Trusting and faith, despair and longing, hope and uncertainty. All those words describe us all at one point or another. And our desire as a group is that through our lives that God be magnified. That faith of others coming along the way would grow as they see His mighty hand at work in us. And then I started thinking... (danger, Will Robinson, danger!)
... its easy to rejoice when circumstances are going "right." But to rejoice when we're lost? to rejoice when we're confused? to rejoice when we're "in limbo"?? IF this rejoicing truly charachterized our lives, how much more would that be a testimony of God's power? To be able to truly say "my confidence is not in man/ situations/ a house/ physical "security"/ etc... but rather, my confidence is in God. And that confidence is not based on my circumstances." To be like Paul, rejoicing in prison would start some questioning. "Why are you rejoicing? That doesn't make sense. You should be miserable... Life's not going according to your 5 year plan." What a supernatural power that would be at work. To live a life completely at peace, with the realization that my God's enough and that no matter what else happens, that cannot be taken away. "Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever."
- IF I believe in God, in a Being who made me, and fashioned me, and knows my wants and capacities and necessities, because He gave them to me, and who is perfectly good and loving, righteous, and perfectly wise and powerful,--whatever my circumstances inward or outward may be, however thick the darkness which encompasses me, I yet can trust, yea, be assured, that all will be well, that He can draw light out of darkness, and make crooked things straight.
--THOMAS ERSKINE