Life is crazy sometimes, isn't it? Sometimes it is not just crazy but simply hard. Heart-breaking hard. Lots of things that have been going on around me lately and to people I care about. Things that have had me thinking a great deal.
One thing in particular is all these articles that have been circulating recently about the number of teenagers who have been brought up in a Christian home yet abandon their faith when they go away to college. Disturbing. I have always told my own children and all the ones I teach that if you don't understand why you believe what you do then Satan will knock your foundation out from underneath you faster than you can say, "What just happened?" He will convince you that you don't need that silly stuff your parents taught you - they only want to stifle you and keep you under their control. Or worse yet he wants to make them think they can find a religion that "suits them and the lifestyle they want". Scary for this momma to think about.
Another thing that has happened recently was a conversation that took place in the Bible class I teach. We are never short for conversation topics in that class! The students were asking me if I believed in Karma. I said "No". "Aw come on, Mrs. Cheney, you don't think what goes around comes around? Don't you wish some people would get what they deserve?"
I replied, "Well I do believe we reap what we sow and what WE ALL DESERVE IS DEATH, but thanks to Christ on the Cross those who have accepted Him won't get what they deserve." Then I couldn't get out of mind that these precious kids I teach, who have attended church all their lives, think Karma has a place in their belief system.
Another student asked if I thought bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Yep. It happens. A darling young lady I have known for many years who went to school with my older children and was good friends with my daughter-in-love is going through the hardest thing of her life right now. Something that seems very unfair.
But I have decided that unfairness comes through the lens in which we in our flesh judge things. We see it as unfair compared to what we want and what we see happen to other people who just might not be in our minds as decent as us. So we end up wondering WHY? So we ourselves have a faith crisis. I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean we all experience things in our lives that cause us to stop and decide if we will trust God is who He says He is or if we will be so blinded by our circumstance we can't see Him. Choices. We spend our lives making them, even in our daily walk with the One who gave His Son for us.
How does all this tie together you may be asking as you read my ramblings? :) I am getting there.
Life is HARD. Circumstances can be HARD. My baby girl is going to face things when she leaves home she has no idea about yet. How do I want her armed? How do I want to be armed? How do I minister to hurting friends? I read this quote the other day, "God can do as He sees fit, we must make the choice to rest in His core attributes." Good stuff. God sees circumstances through a much bigger lens than we do. He sees how things affect His kingdom, not just us. But praise to a Heavenly Father who never forgets about us in our pain.
So Who do we say He is and what is He? I have started sharing with baby girl the following:
God is:
1.
SOVEREIGN - Isa 46:9-10
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
2 .
LOVE - 1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
3.
GOOD - Luke 18:19
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
4.
FAITHFUL - 1 Cor. 1:9
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And lastly to remember
Romans 8:28
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.
Life is hard, crises will surely come, faith will be tested, circumstances can change in a second. But these things NEVER will change:
God is Sovereign, He is Love, He is Good, He is Faithful and He will work it for Good if we trust Him. And then when our faith crisis comes we will be prepared to know where to focus our eyes - On Him. Not on the circumstance - that changes but He doesn't.
Please join me in thanking Him for that today. May you have a blessed week.
