Good news and bad news: Part Two.

"Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16).

Depending on what kind of a day you are having this verse may strike you as good news or bad news. Do you read this verse as a comfort, or as a threat? If you are loving life you may be thoroughly convinced when you read this verse that God must just completely favor you over all of his other children. :) (I'm smiling at myself right now because I am thinking of myself in high school when I was "da bomb!") If I read this verse my Senior Year of High School when I did everything right (according to myself) and I loved me more than anyone else in the world (I lacked quite a bit of self awareness still at this point) then I would have thought, "WOW! GOD REALLY REALLY THINKS I ROCK BECAUSE...look around you... MY LIFE ROCKS!" If; however, you are going through a tough day, week, month, or season in your life and you are struggling to see a way out of your tough spot, which ya know...happens sometimes even to GREAT people...please allow me to take a moment to briefly share why this verse can be a comfort even to you...

You can rest in the Almighty God who has plotted out your life and gone before you. This verse is your reminder that He has already determined your days. In our human thinking, if we are going through a really traumatic experience, or a hard time that lasts too long, and we read a verse like this one, we might be tempted to be upset with God, asking Him "WHY?! Why God, if you knew that you could do ANYTHING with my life would you allow it to turn out this way?" but God is not a "small picture" God. He has plotted it all out before you were even a fetus so that ALL things could work out, come together, mesh, make sense eventually, that the bad can be redeemed, and be used for His glory, etc. etc. Your life was meant to bring HIM glory. I am not really sure who I was bringing more glory in High School, to be REALLY honest, when I was busy being "da Bomb" strutting my stuff from class to class ...ya know? Our lives are meant to bring God glory and sometimes in the process of bringing God glory we have to stop bringing ourselves glory a little bit. I heard an ironic quote by Mark Buchanan the other day that I liked a lot. It was in one of Susie Larson's interviews about Sabbath rest and she was interviewing Mark when he said this:

"We become more like God when we stop pretending we are God."
-Mark Buchanan

He was referring to the pace of our lives, and how we must resist the thinking that we have to run the world and manage all things or the world will fall apart. The whole interview was inspirational, in my opinion. I love all of Susie Larson's interviews, but this one TRULY ranks up there as one of my top ten favorites so far. It's so good!!! Such a great reminder!!! Here's the link to the interview...

::One of Susie Larson's best interviews ever, in my opinion: The Importance of Being Restful.

Okay, so, what does that mean for you? It means you can rest! Even now. You can rest. God's got it covered. He is God, and you can trust in His Sovereignty. Someway, somehow, the rough places will be made smooth again. Resist the temptation to put an exclamation point where God is trying to put a comma, and remember His promises to those who seek God in Isaiah 42:16...

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16)

PRAYER.
Thank you Lord, for your unfailing Love towards us. Thank you for your patience, your grace and your mercy and the way you make all things new. Thank you for leading us and guiding us on the journey of life. Thank you for new seasons in life...the ones that are meant to teach us, the ones meant to build us up, and the silly fun ones too. Thank you for the gift of life. Be glorified in our lives as we rest in you today Lord, trusting in your Sovereignty, carrying out the work you set before us to do today. Amen.