Heart Troubles

This is a devotional I read back in February I think, but I flipped to it today by accidentish, soooo. Here we go :)

'So many things can trouble our hearts. Unpaid bills. A frightening medical prognosis. Loss of a job. The death of a loved one. Upcoming surgery. An unexpected move. An argument with a close friend. A savage rumor. A church dispute.

The world is full of 'heart troubles', and it always will be. Yet Jesus does not expect us to deal with those troubles so much by ignoring them as by turning toward Him. As he said to his anxious disciples in John 14:1, 'Trust in God, trust also in me.'

What suffering and persecution and pain and difficulties do is not so much make us weak, as show us we are weak. Without them, we can deceive ourselves into believing we're prizefighters. With them, we're reminded that we're not constructed to function on our own power. the trick is to allow suffering to be used as a tool to help us depend on God and not on ourselves.

God didn't go halfway when he went to work on my behalf. He did it all. Even when I couldn't feel Him, even when I couldn't sense Him, even when I wasn't holding on to Him anymore, God worked on my behalf. He didn't need me to do a thing!

When I faced far worse than my worst imaginings, something unexpected and wonderful happened. I realized that God is in control and God is good - even when bad things happen in our lives.

Even though I didn't know what I might have to go through next, I could rest and accept it. Because now I knew that when I let go, I would fall into the strong hands of God.'

Lately I've had some really big decisions to make - ones that I've never had to make before, or ones I have, but have never had quite the consequences that these may. It's scary, being an adult. It's scary living in a world with wars and skyrocketing prices and natural disasters and abuse and theft and death. Life isn't easy, God never promised us it would be easy, but He DID promise He'd always be there for us to cling to. It's hard realizing that I have nothing to give Him that He could ever want ... But still He wants me anyways. There is a very sharp learning curve of inadequacy in Christ.

Sometimes, it's hard to silence ourselves in today's world. But Exodus 14:14 promises, 'The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.'

That's all for me today. My prayer for today is that our eyes be opened to our misplaced reliance, and learn to rest our eyes on the One that never fails.

xme