If you ask me what I don’t understand, the list is very long!

I do not understand trigonometry. If you asked me to define it, I can look it up in the dictionary just like everyone else. When I do, it explains to me that it is the branch of mathematics that deals with the relations of the sides and angles of triangles, and other angles.

Now, I understand triangles! Triangles are shapes with three straight sides and three angles. They are all about the three’s!  A triangle is also a musical instrument and can be a relationship or situation involving three people. A triangle is even the correct term used for the device that positions the balls on a pool table.

However, I am still stumped on the understanding of trigonometry and truthfully, even on the need for studying it. Needless to say, my brain is not a mathematical one. But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to not understanding.

I do not understand why people get sick when they seem to be so healthy!

I do not understand why Autumn is not cool and breezy allowing me to wear sweaters and watch leaves fall and sip warm beverages.

I do not understand why some people are mean and hurt others with seemingly little to no remorse.

I do not understand why greed takes over a person and causes them to lie, cheat and steal.

I do not understand why life seems to favor some and fall hard on others.

I could go on and on and on, the list of what I do not understand is endless!

If you ask me what I do understand the list is very short!

The only thing that I truly understand is that God is God and I am not!

Understanding is a truly difficult concept! 

Last week we talked about enduring. We endure difficult situations and experiences and we survive, but do we understand why?  Enduring is “Faith in Action.”  It is actively engaging in difficult, hard and even unjust situations because we know God has called us to endure. We know that in doing so, no matter how difficult, God is producing His character in us as we endure. Enduring is active, understanding is not.

We may have absolutely no clue as to why we are called to endure certain situations.

Our finite brains can no more comprehend why pain and suffering are necessary than they can why bad things happen to good people.

But we have a Heavenly Father who does understand. Our God is Good! He loves us with a love that is supernatural and cannot be fully understood with our human brains.

Our God is faithful to us, protects us, stretches our faith, builds endurance in us and above all knows, fully understands and does what is best for us!

God’s BEST is not always what we want at the time, and much of the time is not something we fully understand. However, like any loving, faithful, compassionate parent, God gives us what is BEST for us.

Imagine a child out on a boat tour of the Pacific Ocean. You pull away from the shore and out into the rolling, white with foam waves that break into crystal blue water. The child peers overboard and is in awe. They stare into the glassy ocean like it is a mirror reflecting their own image back to them. They jump up and down with exhilarattion and beg you to let them jump in. 

You, as a loving, protective, compassionate parent tell them NO! They raise the level of their voice screaming and crying and jumping up and down demanding you let them jump in. “The water is so pretty,” they say. “The waves are rolling and look like so much fun,” they scream. Still as a loving parent you hold your ground, knowing that they are unable to understand the danger and risks they are asking to take.

God answers us in a similar way, just like any good and loving parent would.

“I know what’s best for you, trust me when you can’t understand it yourself.”

Do you trust Him?  Are you willing to believe that all that He is doing in our lives is what’s BEST for us? Even if we do not always get what we ask Him for?

“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.” Romans 8:28

He is stretching our faith, building endurance in us, and being a good Father that works all things out together for our good.

So, I ask you again, “Do You Trust Him?”

Do you believe that even when you do not understand, God is strengthening you, showing you His faithfulness, and preparing you for the future?

TRUTH BOMB

GOD IS A GOOD GOOD FATHER, WE CAN TRUST HIM EVEN WHEN WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND!

Speak Truth Love

Endurance is not fun! It hurts, it stretches, it pushes! Endurance even pulls at us and sometimes against that push and pull we can feel like taffy! The problem for me is…the taffy seems to go through the grueling process of push and pull, and comes out from under it to become a delicious candy that is not too hard and not too soft. It seems to have arrived at the perfect place of candy perfection!

Why then, when I am pushed and pulled, stretched and challenged, tested and tried, do I come out feeling like I am still on the taffy pull? Am I not complete, am I not finished, have I not yet arrived? 

As much as I would love for this to be a feel good blog post, it’s just not. The Truth is when we speak the truth in love, we must be willing to face both the easy stuff and the hard stuff.

I am at professed optimist who always sees the cup as half full! But even this eternal optimist must face the whole truth of the Word of God and not just the parts that she likes!

If God has truly given me a voice for Him, and I am called to speak His Truth in love, then I must speak the whole truth and trust that because it is from God, it is all in love! God‘s love is not like our love. God knows all things. God knows the beginning from the end. God knows that the tough stuff along with the easy stuff, will make us who He intends us to be! 

The truth is we live in a fallen world where sin has entered and in too many places has taken root! The trials that we face are part of the fact that we live in this world. We will have troubles, and we will make mistakes, we will experience disappointments even from God‘s people. We will also cause disappointment and hurt to God’s people. We will experience loss and we will grow weary, as hard as we try not to! We will also hit spiritual walls and face times that we want to quit. But the question we must face when we come to those times is the one I posed in the beginning…

“Dear Jesus, Why must we endure?”

Jesus answers us back, “endurance is what you need to keep living by faith!”

“Consider it great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces ENDURANCE!”  

James 1:2-3

ENDURANCE means that we are still in it! No matter how low we have sunk, no matter how hard that wall is that we’ve hit, no matter how great the pain of our circumstances is, when we are trusting Jesus and living by faith, Jesus is producing endurance in us! And to endure means that we are getting through it!

TRUTH BOMB

THE ONLY WAY THROUGH THE “TAFFY PULL” OF LIFE IS TO ENDURE!

That is why we can say along with James, that we can consider it joy when we experience trials because we know that it is producing the way through our trials, ENDURANCE!

It is hard to endure. But endurance is a way of getting through something, a certain strength that can only be built when we stay with something and do not quit! 

This is only possible through the power and strength of our Lord Jesus Christ! He alone holds all power and when He is living in us we access His power to endure!

Will you choose to access His power with me and endure? Believe me, I don’t want to sometimes! However, I do know that I want to live a life marked by faith and the only way that I can do that is to let my faith be tested to produce endurance, His endurance, not mine!

Speak Truth Love

Do you have “giants” in your life? I sure do!

A “giant” is that big obstacle, hurdle or roadblock that is standing in your way. It bully’s you into submission, it looks to big to jump over and it blocks you from every side.

It can be a person, situation, mindset, or anything at all that is hindering or stopping you from moving forward.

Every time I think of being stuck and moving forward, I think of the Israelites stuck in the desert with Moses. They had been in slavery and bondage in Egypt for over 400 years!

You read that correctly…400 years!

God miraculously frees them. You would think that for at least one year after they would still be rejoicing, throwing a party, and praising God.

Nope, their human nature had taken over, like ours so often does, and they were grumbling about their conditions. They grumbled about where they lived, what they had to eat, how long it was taking etc., etc., etc…

I can hear the echos now, “Are we there yet?!”

They were even asking to go back to Egypt, back to being slaves!

Has your life ever gotten so far off track, that all you see are “the giants?”

The pressures of life that are so great that you see the “giant” of discouragement bullying you until you feel helpless.

The people in your life that hurt, disappoint and even slander you seem to be the “giant” of despair that leaves you hopeless. And the failures and frustrations in your life that shame you and seem to be the “giant” of disillusionment that keeps you from moving forward.

You may have one, or two or even all three of these giants! Or maybe you have a different giant. No matter what kind of giant we face we have a God who slays them!

If we look to the Israelites and Moses in the desert all those thousands of years ago, we can learn a very important lesson!

TRUTH BOMB 

IF WE FACE OUR GIANTS ON OUR OWN WE FEEL LIKE GRASSHOPPERS BUT IF WE KEEP OUR EYES ON GOD OUR GIANTS BECOME THE GRASSHOPPERS!

After only one year in the desert the Israelites had taken their eyes off God.

As the people grumbled and complained, Moses sent 12 spies to search out the land. Ten of the spies came back and reported that while the land was good and, “flowing with milk and honey,” the people were bad, in fact they were Giants and it was not safe to enter the land! Only 2 men kept their eyes on God and saw that the victory over the “giants,” was there’s in the power of the Lord God!

“But The Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:9

Friends, Moses asked the 12 men he sent out to check out the land, two questions: One, What is the land like? And Two, What are the people like?

All 12 men came back with the same report about the land. They could see that it was good and that it was flowing with milk and honey! A good place for God to lead them to!

But only two men came back with a positive response about the people! They did not see their size ”giants,” as an obstacle, hurdle or roadblock to what they knew there God could do!

Joshua and Caleb knew that their God was a Giant Slayer!

What “Giants” in your life do you need God to slay? Just keep your eyes on him! The Lord is with you! Do not be afraid of the Giants!

Speak Truth Love

If you have been around the church any amount of time, Romans 8:28 should be familiar to you.

“AND WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE.”  ROMANS 8:28

We hear it spoken whenever a problem arises. We hear it recited when we ask for counsel and go through problems. We listen to it preached on and feel like everything should be coming up roses.

Problem is, everything is not coming up roses.

When we are hurting, hopeless and helpless the last thing we need is someone telling us, everything is good. The truth is, everything is not good! Simply because we do not want to face, step into or admit that everything is not good, does not change the fact.

A simple phrase like, “It’s all good,” does nothing to take away the hurt, hopelessness or helplessness. The reality that we do not have the time, desire or ability to change someone’s hurt, hopelessness, or helplessness does not mean we should “All Good” it away!

I am not condemning or chastising anyone. I myself have been caught in situations where I feel desperate to help and powerless at the same time. I would be lying if I did not confess that Romans 8:28 popped into my head immediately. 

What would happen when someone in pain came to us, and instead of quoting Romans 8:28 right away, or responding with, “It’s All Good,” we paused, took a breath and spoke Truth?

IT’S NOT ALL GOOD, BUT GOD IS!

This is the TRUTH of Romans 8:28!  

Life is not good all the time, but God is!

The comfort and reassurance of Romans 8:28 is that WHEN, not IF, we go through hurtful, hopeless and helpless times, if we walk in the light of God’s goodness He will work it out for His good!

The beauty of the scriptures is that they all work together in harmony when we read them as our love letter from God! They make beautiful music in the Truth they speak.

In first John 1:5 we read the Truth about God’s goodness, His holiness is revealed. In God there is only light, no darkness, and He is All Good!

“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you : God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all!” I John 1:5

TRUTH BOMB

OUR LIVES ARE NOT ALL GOOD BUT OUR GOD IS!

In another passage God tells us that we WILL go through trials and hard times but to not FEAR because He has overcome them all!

Life is hard! People we love go through difficult times and so do we. On this side of heaven, it is not “All Good,” but glory to God, HE IS!

So when you find yourself or someone you love or have been asked to comfort, in that inevitable place of pain and hurt this side of heaven, remember for yourself and point others to the good, holy, perfect light that can heal all, God!

Speak Truth Love