No matter what God calls us to, no matter what trial He seems to put as a barrier in our way, as Christians we can be assured that He is in charge and our eternity intact. As Romans eight says: “What can separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing! For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angles, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
A well known preacher once said: “Why do we call things “bad” if they possess the ability to draw us closer to our Savior?” Obviously, our all powerful, all knowing God has the ability to remove any or all of the hard things that will come and go throughout our lives if he desired and, he would! He would take our thorns away: the trials and temptations that so often tug, pull, and tear us apart IF that would be best. We may find that a wonderful plan but in reality, He is able to do abundantly more than that. He gives us a gift that is far greater, and that is GRACE which is sufficient for all of our needs. He will use the desert-like times to create a loyal, trusting love in Him.
It’s simple. If we didn’t see our need for a certain thing, we would never go get it. It does not take much to know that we would never eat if we didn’t experience hunger. We wouldn’t drink if we knew nothing about thirst. We would never trust in our Savior if we didn’t have forced reliance upon Him through our seemingly impossible circumstances! So when things get hurled our way and make us cling to Jesus, our immediate response should be, Praise God!
It is us that will say, “God is sovereign, he will not give me more than I can bear” but oh no, that is not true! For God will stretch you, bend you, break you, and crack you until you cannot anymore handle it on your own. This is hard, sometimes excruciatingly painful and yet it brings us exactly to the place God delights in having us...where every true believer wants to be.
He desires for us to demonstrate this dependence-like attitude and raise our white flag in full surrender to His purpose. Anything, absolutely anything is good if it drives us to cling to our God. Though not what you’d originally think, our inadequacy is an asset. God is actually waiting to show what he can accomplish with so little. It frees Him to show His power, using us to our maximum potential, leaving Him to receive full glory. The Bible is saturated with examples of God using the insignificant, the weak, the humble and the young.
Take Noah, who stood out from his culture, building in obedience for 130 years-
Abraham waited decades before receiving his son-
David killed a giant when no one else could-
Joseph rose above undesirable circumstances, proving to be faithful in little-
Job, a set apart man in his generation, lived not knowing how long his suffering would last-
Daniel spent the night in a pit full of lions-
Peter got out of the boat, unsure of the outcome-
But it was Jesus who likely echoed words of these men when he pleaded: “Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me.” All of those men stood at a crossroad in life where they must chose whom they would serve.
What did their actions reply?
It showed that they walked by faith and not by sight-
That they walked by faith and not by feeling-
That they walked by faith and not by fear-
They then discovered that when they walked by faith, they walked in the freedom that comes only when we surrender our all. They were not intimidated. For if you exist in fear and not upon the sovereignty of your all-powerful, all-knowing, mighty God, it will do nothing but hinder you. It will dwindle our supposed personal relationship with God to a diluted substance of what he truly desires to give us, leaving us woefully stunted Christians. He sent all those great men of the Bible to a place where they could either reject the circumstances their all-knowing God had orchestrated or say: “Your strength is made perfect in my weakness”
I distinctly remember my nephew William this past summer being afraid of his birthday candles. It seemed silly that he would be scared of something so harmless. While we were looking only to his best interest, he in turn was absolutely terrified. The plans God holds for us, we cannot fathom. Because he has the ability to see the entire picture, it makes Him trying to explain His will equal to us attempting to define DNA to a two year old. It can’t be done. It says: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for us.” When we believe that, we can then rest, believing that...
"As for God, HIS ways are perfect!"
"Trust and obey,
For there's no other way,
To be happy in Jesus,
But to TRUST & OBEY"
It's interesting what verses will stick to you like a burr if it's applicable in your life during one time or another. I don't memorize easily but I am able to remember these scriptures without hardly trying. They are great promises reminding us that GOD is in control of our lives!
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and NOT FAINT!” Isaiah 40:28-31
“With man, things are impossible, but with GOD all things are possible.”
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, and the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the LORD, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on high places.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19
“Delight in the Lord, and He WILL give you the desires of your heart.”
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul, Therefore I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly.”
Lamentations 3:21-26
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” … “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will NOT delay.”
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me.”
“The Lord of hosts has sworn: As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand…For the Lord has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back.” Isaiah 14:24, 27
After about 2 1/2 weeks of non stop hospital visits and surgery we finally got positive news...After the procedure today, they told us that she was incredibly lucky (fyi: we don't believe in luck :) and that it is looking good and is healing well and that the tissues are adjusting correctly. We still don't know if she will have vision out of that eye or whether or not it will look normal BUT...it's looking a lot better than it was. 
I guess on the good side, mom and I are getting to have lots of 'together time' as we are ...
I could go into much detail of how long you must wait in order to catch a barn kitty but instead I'll just say that I think that Eva will benefit from my patience. :) 
I feel so bad for our Isaac! I heard that he has a surprise for eva when she gets home. Hmmm...I wonder what it is, he wouldn't tell me. :) I told eva that since she couldn't eat until after surgery. that I wouldn't either. How'd that go? Well...when boredom strikes, food is an excellent substitute. So I kinda let Eva down, woops. Sitting here with my 2d pack of animal crackers from the vending machine. The really depressing thing is is that it has 97 calories in it. So dividing that by the 9 crackers-ouch. And they taste healthy...I didn't want to spend a whole dollar on making myself feel like I was eating cardboard. Just for future reference, the 'basil's' brand is much awesomer than the 'Stauffer's'. With much enthusiasm I'm inserting a camel. and a cat. mostly though there are hippos. Maybe little kids like hippos. These are great hippos though!
