Background:
I have often felt frustrated with "last minute" things that are done "by God." Sometimes, wondering---were they from God or did people just make it happen and it finally did. Ok, more than that, let me go even farther and say that I have chatted with the Lord(once or twice) about "why don't you do things ahead of time and prove Your Hand is in things, instead of being so last minute---it does terrible things to "God's reputation" when people think...well, you just have to wait for Him to act and it won't happen til the end." Yes, I did have this conversation with God---nope, He didn't take my advice:)....He didn't need to. I had this conversation before coming to Russia, b/c I felt that everything--well, visas...and invitations and such weren't falling into place until the month before coming...and oh, I almost forgot---our house had not sold---it was on the market for over a year!! Why??? Why did it have to sell in October??? Why didn't God show His hand earlier? Was it because it was His plan all along? Sometimes, these "plans" are called into question when they don't happen earlier---sometimes people may have thought...we shouldn't have come here to Russia b/c everything didn't happen earlier. Were we forcing things to happen so we could come to Russia? Yep, people thought things things and sometimes even voiced their concerns to us, we even wondered about it at times.
Ok, so on to another story---Corrie Ten Boom---seemed to question God's methods too. Her father used the example of not giving her a train ticket that he had bought for her until they reached the station. Why did he wait...she didn't need the ticket beforehand. He had done the prep work, bought the ticket, brought the ticket and yet, still had Corrie wait to get it in her hand. He said that God doesn't give us things until we need them. (By the way, we do the same thing with Katie and metro tokens)
On hearing this story told by John many times this year, I have felt much better about God's ways, but still thought that God should spare himself the "last minute" reputation til today.
We have been praying a lot lately and have both been hearing separately and together and from others that the Lord has our work set out, He will make it clear, and He is doing the prep work for it, but that we are not to worry but to wait, and trust Him. Vague? I thought so, but I WILL follow Him. So, on that note, John was praying and he felt that God said to him this morning...Trusting Me means also trusting my methods. Whoa!!! So, enough said...that's what we are doing!!! Trusting Him and His ways(b/c don't we always say that His ways are higher than ours???? Well, now we get to trust in them too and not knock the way He does things!).
Trusting Me means also trusting my methods.
God was speaking about that to me too because I hate waiting! I want to have a plan and be prepared. He reminded me of the verse "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding, acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your path."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHad a thought while reading your post... In Ge 15:13-16 God was telling Abraham what would happen to his descendants, their slavery in Egypt, etc. In vs 16 He says "In the 4th generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." God was not just working with the Israelites at the time, who were wondering "God where are you? Why don't you rescue us NOW? What are you doing??" He was also working in the midst of the Amorites, giving them a chance for repentance before their final judgment and removal from the land.
ReplyDeleteIn short, it's just not always about us.