Psalm 10:6&11 They say to themselves, "Nothing bad will ever happen to me; I will never be ruined."
The wicked think, "God has forgotten us. He doesn't see what is happening."
Remember that bike from a couple of blog posts back? I am riding it today. My husband and I on separate bikes, but riding together. He lost his job yesterday. So, when he came home to tell me, we had several choices of reactions, nothwithstanding the sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs that cannot be avoided. Choice #1: Complete panic! Choice #2: Crying (not Bill's choice, but definitely mine). Choice # 3: Curse God and die! (Job's wife made this one popular). Choice #4: Hold hands and thank God for whatever it is He is doing. We chose #4. I had make-up on and was going out for the evening with my daughter....didn't want to reapply, so couldn't cry. Panic is way too much trouble. Never had much of a thing for Job's wife and her reaction to his pain. Also, we have been through this scenario several times before after 42 years of marriage.
I remember the first time Bill came home, having lost his job. I was six months pregnant with our second child. I opened the garage door to welcome him home that night, and saw that our little orange VW Beetle was loaded to the gills with all his office stuff. That time I did cry. Had no plans for the evening! However, as has become our habit, we finally calmed me down and thanked our God for His future provision. It all worked out. For the better. It really did! And every time since then. We will not be ruined. Make some adjustments to how we live? Maybe. But ruined? Never. That is a promise we have over those who do not have our Father.
To those who feel no need of God and yet prosper, taking opportunity to use their relative ease to make others uncomfortable at best and ruined at worst, God has a time of reckoning. In Isaiah 47, God has a word for them:
Now listen, you lover of pleasure. You think you are safe. You tell yourself, "I am the only important person. I will never be a widow or lose my children." Two things will happen to you suddenly, in a single day. You will lose your children and your husband. These things will truly happen to you in spite of all your magic, in spite of your powerful tricks. You do evil, but you feel safe and say, "No one sees what I do." Your wisdom and knowledge have fooled you. You say to yourself, "I am God, and no one is equal to me." But troubles will come to you, and you will not know how to stop them. Disaster will fall on you, and you will not be able to keep it away.
The point here is not that I want bad things to happen to bad people. David did. But that is not my point. All of us have problems. If the "lovers of pleasure" tell you they don't have any, maybe you could ask why they spend so much time seeking pleasure then. Those plowing headfirst into a life that is only about themselves will ultimately run into a wall. Not so much a curse as a fact of life.
Here is what our Father says to us who love Him in the next chapter of Isaiah: I have carried you since you were born. I have taken care of you since birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair is gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you. I will carry you and save you.
I just read this to my husband. Because we are old and his hair is gray....don't know what color mine is, really. Relatively certain it's gray, too, but I don't want to know for sure. Our Father has been there from the beginning and will carry us through to the end. So I will trust. With thanksgiving. And be assured that we will not come to ruin. Not because I think I am a god unto myself, but because I am the daughter of a God so much bigger than I that I can only anticipate how He will thrill and surprise us in this new season. (Really...this is what I feel today, by His grace!).
The wicked think, "God has forgotten us. He doesn't see what is happening."
Remember that bike from a couple of blog posts back? I am riding it today. My husband and I on separate bikes, but riding together. He lost his job yesterday. So, when he came home to tell me, we had several choices of reactions, nothwithstanding the sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs that cannot be avoided. Choice #1: Complete panic! Choice #2: Crying (not Bill's choice, but definitely mine). Choice # 3: Curse God and die! (Job's wife made this one popular). Choice #4: Hold hands and thank God for whatever it is He is doing. We chose #4. I had make-up on and was going out for the evening with my daughter....didn't want to reapply, so couldn't cry. Panic is way too much trouble. Never had much of a thing for Job's wife and her reaction to his pain. Also, we have been through this scenario several times before after 42 years of marriage.
I remember the first time Bill came home, having lost his job. I was six months pregnant with our second child. I opened the garage door to welcome him home that night, and saw that our little orange VW Beetle was loaded to the gills with all his office stuff. That time I did cry. Had no plans for the evening! However, as has become our habit, we finally calmed me down and thanked our God for His future provision. It all worked out. For the better. It really did! And every time since then. We will not be ruined. Make some adjustments to how we live? Maybe. But ruined? Never. That is a promise we have over those who do not have our Father.
To those who feel no need of God and yet prosper, taking opportunity to use their relative ease to make others uncomfortable at best and ruined at worst, God has a time of reckoning. In Isaiah 47, God has a word for them:
Now listen, you lover of pleasure. You think you are safe. You tell yourself, "I am the only important person. I will never be a widow or lose my children." Two things will happen to you suddenly, in a single day. You will lose your children and your husband. These things will truly happen to you in spite of all your magic, in spite of your powerful tricks. You do evil, but you feel safe and say, "No one sees what I do." Your wisdom and knowledge have fooled you. You say to yourself, "I am God, and no one is equal to me." But troubles will come to you, and you will not know how to stop them. Disaster will fall on you, and you will not be able to keep it away.
The point here is not that I want bad things to happen to bad people. David did. But that is not my point. All of us have problems. If the "lovers of pleasure" tell you they don't have any, maybe you could ask why they spend so much time seeking pleasure then. Those plowing headfirst into a life that is only about themselves will ultimately run into a wall. Not so much a curse as a fact of life.
Here is what our Father says to us who love Him in the next chapter of Isaiah: I have carried you since you were born. I have taken care of you since birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair is gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you. I will carry you and save you.
I just read this to my husband. Because we are old and his hair is gray....don't know what color mine is, really. Relatively certain it's gray, too, but I don't want to know for sure. Our Father has been there from the beginning and will carry us through to the end. So I will trust. With thanksgiving. And be assured that we will not come to ruin. Not because I think I am a god unto myself, but because I am the daughter of a God so much bigger than I that I can only anticipate how He will thrill and surprise us in this new season. (Really...this is what I feel today, by His grace!).
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