My Faith

In all the setbacks of your life as a believer, God is plotting for your joy. John Piper

Having a permanent disability – In some respects I feel like a second class citizen, in other respects I know my quality of life is far better than many individuals with fully capable functioning brains and limbs. I’ve been para-sailing over Maui, I’ve been in a helicopter rising over God’s glorious glaciers in Alaska, I’ve been around Cape Horn via the Falkland Islands. I have a career and beautiful house and want for nothing. Still, in 2011 I became slightly bitter that the medical profession could have done better by me in many aspects and the insurance industry does nothing to promote preventative medicine. And then I remember that I have been salvaged for a reason, by a Sovereign God.

Romans 9:15-20:    “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

We think, circumstances are the cause and effect of decisions we make or others have made for us. Not always true. Some circumstances, like my CP, is based on what God decides. The hand of a merciful God is upon us. I don’t believe it was mere circumstance that my DPT shot caused a severe life altering reaction. It is God’s will for my life so that He might ble glorified.

The circumstances of my life are due to more than the sum of its parts, it is due to a Sovereign God’s intervention. He wrote the Prologue and First chapter. He has written the ending. And He will be with me every step of the way for every chapter in the middle. This is the life God has chosen for me and I am called to live for His glory. It isn’t about me and whatever deal I may or may not have gotten. This world is temporary and cannot compare to eternal glory. Living in God’s will in this body is far superior to living for myself, in a whole body on earth. The Joy of the Lord is my strength.

Saved by Grace

Ephesians 2:8-10 (New International Version, ©2010)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

My Identity as a Child of God

Psalm 139:13-15 (New International Version, ©2010)
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Jeremiah 29:11-12 (New International Version, ©2010)
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Hardship, Suffering and Direction

2 Corinthians 12:9 (New International Version, ©2010)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Romans 8:28
All things work together for good to those who love God.
When troubles come and doubts arise, I often turn to Romans 8. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” asked Paul. “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (v.35). In that one sentence, Paul summarized his ministry autobiography. He endured trials for the sake of the gospel; yet somehow he had the faith to believe that these “things”—surely not good in themselves—could be used by God to accomplish good. He had learned to see past the hardships to a loving God who will one day prevail. He wrote, “I am persuaded that [nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ” (vv.38-39).
Confidence like that can go a long way in helping overcome discouragement about how life hasn’t worked out the way we thought it would.
He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. —Philippians 1:6
(www.odb.org / Contract Faith
By Philip Yancey on January 13, 2011)

Perhaps life is very hard for you or a loved one, and you are wondering why God has allowed you or your loved one to linger. When Jesus said He was going to heaven, Peter asked, “Lord, why can I not follow You now?” (John 13:37). You, like Peter, may wonder why entry into heaven has been postponed: “Why not now?”
God has a wise and loving purpose in leaving us behind. There is work to be done in us that can only be accomplished here on earth. Our afflictions, which are for the moment, are working for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). And there is work to be done for others—if only to love and to pray. Our presence may also be for the purpose of giving others an opportunity to learn love and compassion.
So, though you may desire release for yourself or a loved one, to live on in the flesh can mean fruitfulness (Phil. 1:21). And there is comfort in waiting: Though heaven may be delayed, God has His reasons. No doubt about it!
(www.odb.org / Why Not Now?
By David H. Roper on January 11, 2011)

But God usually doesn’t show us where He is taking us. He just asks us to trust Him. It’s like driving a car at night. Our headlights never shine all the way to our destination; they illuminate only about 160 feet ahead. But that doesn’t deter us from moving forward. We trust our headlights. All we really need is enough light to keep moving forward.
God’s Word is like headlights in dark times. It is full of promises we need to keep us from driving our lives into the ditch of bitterness and despair. His Word promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). His Word assures us that He knows the plans He has for us, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give us “a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). And He tells us that our trials are there to make us better, not bitter (James 1:2-4).
So the next time you feel as if you’re driving in the dark, remember to trust your headlights—God’s Word will light your way.

The Word of God provides the light
We need to see the way;
It shows us what we need to know
So we won’t go astray. —Sper
You won’t stumble in the dark if you walk in the light of God’s Word.
(www.odb.org / Driving In The Dark
By Joe Stowell on January 17, 2011)

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