another post on trust

One of the biggest lessons I have learned over the last year was to trust in God’s goodness even when my external circumstances seem bleak.  I have been learning how to be able to trust that God is good and that he loves me despite how I might feel.  I might not understand why things might be happening at any given point in my life—but I do fully believe that God is good and is always working things out for the good in my life.  Part of maturing in our relationship with God is learning to understand who God is, how he feels about us and who we are created to be.  The next step in the process of maturing is learning to aggressively hold on to those truths.  My relationship with God was supercharged during those times when I encountered hardships and heart break, but instead of getting bitter decided to turn to God amidst my pain.  It was in those times I have seen God both build character in me while simultaneously teaching me to trust and depend even more deeply in him.  Learning to depend on God in hardship is critical.  Without trauma and hardship to refine our hearts it would almost be like the person who studies about military tactics, watches Army movies on TV, gets an Army tattoo and even purchases an old Army uniform on Amazon.  although they might look the part--until they actually enlist in the military, and go through the hardship of training (or engage in battle) —they  won’t really be a soldier.   I have also just started to learn that when we trust God’s goodness rather than our own abilities, provision, etc—it invites him to intervene in our life and work things out for our ultimate best.  I think living a lifestyle of dependence on God is the ideal way of submitting to his lordship in our lives.  True faith in God is being able to say, “Lord, I don’t understand why this is all happening—but I still choose to trust you knowing that you love me.”        

Walking by faith

So many times when things get intense we have a tendency of blaming God. We blame him for our bad decision, we blame him when others are cruel to us, we even blame him for the simplest pains of life. Our fear of rejection and past wounded ness cause us to cry out in judgment and attempt to indict God's character based on our circumstances. But our heavenly father loves us. Regardless of how you "feel", he loves you dearly. Even if you don't believe he exists, he still loves you and earnestly desires for you to know him. Instead of blaming God in the future --when things appear to be falling apart, turn to him with your pain and your sorrow. Cast your cares on him because he cares for you.  Trust that God is good and trust in his character regardless of your external circumstances.  And remember our loving heavenly father has unique ability to take the hardest of life's circumstances and bring healing, hope and restoration.

Learning to trust.

There are a whole bunch of steps leading towards spiritual maturity. One of the first is learning to fully trust God with your life. Learning to trust him when things seem bleak and it seems like there's no hope on the horizon. Learning to trust in God's goodness and his love for us-- even though we don't see immediate evidence of that playing out in our lives. One of the next steps toward spiritual maturity,which is much harder, is learning to trust God with our children. Although it's hard when we go through personal trauma, it's exponentially harder when we see our children wounded and hurting.  God is still sovereign and he is still loving however.  He loves our children more than we ever could. He loves them dearly and holds them firmly in the palm of his hand.  Being able to dwell in the peace that comes with that realization is another sign of a maturing relationship with God

Another school tragedy.

22 kids were attacked and stabbed at a high school by a 16 year old student today. The problem behind this was not the knife--nor could it have been resolved by instituting a ban on knives. The problem is with the heart of our society. We've taken all mention of God out of our school systems and out of much of our culture. Many kids have to suffer through divorce in the family and are often abandoned emotionally by one or both of their parents. Alcohol and drugs saturate our nation offering an easy way for kids to medicate to avoid dealing with the pain of life. We now live in a culture where there are no moral absolutes and where kids have no boundaries to keep them safe. And despite these things we ignorantly wonder why these school attacks keep happening and what is wrong with the younger generation. Kids are desperately looking for meaning in life. We were created for a relationship with our loving Heavenly Father. Jesus taught that the  true meaning of life is to "love The Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and to also love our neighbor as ourself." When kids start learning this truth the anger and hopelessness that many of them feel will be replaced with the peace that comes with knowing their identity as beloved children of a loving Heavenly Father.  I'm in no way advocating teaching Christianity in the public school systems. The fact that even the acknowledgement of God has been slowly removed from our country is troubling though. So many people seek fulfillment and identity through wealth, fame, accomplishment, sex, relationships, etc. We were created for intimacy with God however.  Trying to find true fulfillment apart from that is a very frustrating, futile and empty endeavor.