My heart is steadfast, O God, above the heavens! I will sing and make melody with all my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For Your steadfast love is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (Verses 1-4)
Future grace. When things in the present are just plain rough. When life seems upside down and we don't know where it will all end up. What do we do? Will today to praise like it's already tomorrow and the enemy is conquered. Why? Because our hearts are as steadfast toward our God as His is toward us. So we can choose to thank Him today for all that might not manifest until later. I will give thanks to God. That attitude of the heart is my glory. Losing my own selfish desires in the knowledge that my God loves me and is faithful to me even when I can see no way out of the situation in which I find myself takes giving over to my better me. The spiritual woman. Not the carnal one who tends to complain against and blame God for my plight. She also accuses Him of not understanding her needs. Of not showing up. Winds up sitting down in a pile of ashes having a spiritual pity party.
Bill and I were being hooked into the harness to take our first parasailing ride off the back of a boat in Hawaii. I'm not a fan of heights, so the thought of sitting beneath a parachute four hundred feet in the air was making my stomach tighten and my will waiver. Our children were cheering us on, though. "You can do it, Mom! It'll be fun!" My knees were weak,quivering. "Maybe I shouldn't do this, Bill," I said as the young man latched my harness shut. "I really don't want to do this.." I felt panicky. "Too late," replied my husband with a big smile. I dragged my feet along the floor of the boat as the driver heeded the call to "Hit it!"
Up, up we went. Not fast, but gently lifted into the heavens. I loved it! Though I admit I didn't look down much. Out--out over the ocean and up into the bright blue sky. We floated in the quiet. I could hear Bill breathing. Our children looked like little Lego people set adrift in a toy boat as they waved at us. And all I feared became delight. But only after I walked in shaky courage to the back of the boat. Allowed the unknown to lift me to an uncomfortable place. Took a chance all would be well.
Parasailing is flimsy compared to some of the things we face in life, but trusting God to take us to heights we can't imagine is what faith is all about. Thanking Him that in the place of pain or heart break He will deliver us. Wowed by the knowledge that He can make something out of the nothing we find ourselves embracing. It takes our more glorious selves to make the choice to harness in with God and let Him possibly scare us to death before we float.
There is always grace then more grace. God has walked before us into what's next, prepared a future grace for us to stride, crawl or fall into. I'm learning that if times are nearly unbearable now, He can be trusted to give us a balm down the road a bit. An unexpected grace gift. Like a present in the path that we unwrap and joy in. The perfect answer to the question we asked in our trial. Which is why we can thank Him now, awake the dawn and praise God for His faithful love, even though we wait for the answer in the current situation. We will to thank Him because we know He will do what He promises.
It takes knowing God to have the kind of confidence that gets up in the morning thanking Him in advance for what He will do when our circumstances bid us do just the opposite. Our hearts must experience God's steadfast love and His faithfulness to our wandering souls. Bound to Him because we love Him so much--and because He first loved us. Knowing God's character because we've gone up in the parachute and lived! Gotten through daunting circumstances with trembling trust and found ourselves floating after all. Trusting in future grace because we've experienced grace for today. And in that we find our own glory. The grace to be light among the people. To point the finger at God not as the malevolent enemy, but as the savior of our souls, our sanity and our very selves. In a world turning very dark, we can stand like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the midst of nations who bow to other gods and proclaim His faithfulness to the heavens, then watch as God walks in the fire alongside us. Like Jesus, we can know that the cross portends an empty tomb, a grace unimaginable on the other side of pain.
Future grace. When things in the present are just plain rough. When life seems upside down and we don't know where it will all end up. What do we do? Will today to praise like it's already tomorrow and the enemy is conquered. Why? Because our hearts are as steadfast toward our God as His is toward us. So we can choose to thank Him today for all that might not manifest until later. I will give thanks to God. That attitude of the heart is my glory. Losing my own selfish desires in the knowledge that my God loves me and is faithful to me even when I can see no way out of the situation in which I find myself takes giving over to my better me. The spiritual woman. Not the carnal one who tends to complain against and blame God for my plight. She also accuses Him of not understanding her needs. Of not showing up. Winds up sitting down in a pile of ashes having a spiritual pity party.
Bill and I were being hooked into the harness to take our first parasailing ride off the back of a boat in Hawaii. I'm not a fan of heights, so the thought of sitting beneath a parachute four hundred feet in the air was making my stomach tighten and my will waiver. Our children were cheering us on, though. "You can do it, Mom! It'll be fun!" My knees were weak,quivering. "Maybe I shouldn't do this, Bill," I said as the young man latched my harness shut. "I really don't want to do this.." I felt panicky. "Too late," replied my husband with a big smile. I dragged my feet along the floor of the boat as the driver heeded the call to "Hit it!"
Up, up we went. Not fast, but gently lifted into the heavens. I loved it! Though I admit I didn't look down much. Out--out over the ocean and up into the bright blue sky. We floated in the quiet. I could hear Bill breathing. Our children looked like little Lego people set adrift in a toy boat as they waved at us. And all I feared became delight. But only after I walked in shaky courage to the back of the boat. Allowed the unknown to lift me to an uncomfortable place. Took a chance all would be well.
Parasailing is flimsy compared to some of the things we face in life, but trusting God to take us to heights we can't imagine is what faith is all about. Thanking Him that in the place of pain or heart break He will deliver us. Wowed by the knowledge that He can make something out of the nothing we find ourselves embracing. It takes our more glorious selves to make the choice to harness in with God and let Him possibly scare us to death before we float.
There is always grace then more grace. God has walked before us into what's next, prepared a future grace for us to stride, crawl or fall into. I'm learning that if times are nearly unbearable now, He can be trusted to give us a balm down the road a bit. An unexpected grace gift. Like a present in the path that we unwrap and joy in. The perfect answer to the question we asked in our trial. Which is why we can thank Him now, awake the dawn and praise God for His faithful love, even though we wait for the answer in the current situation. We will to thank Him because we know He will do what He promises.
It takes knowing God to have the kind of confidence that gets up in the morning thanking Him in advance for what He will do when our circumstances bid us do just the opposite. Our hearts must experience God's steadfast love and His faithfulness to our wandering souls. Bound to Him because we love Him so much--and because He first loved us. Knowing God's character because we've gone up in the parachute and lived! Gotten through daunting circumstances with trembling trust and found ourselves floating after all. Trusting in future grace because we've experienced grace for today. And in that we find our own glory. The grace to be light among the people. To point the finger at God not as the malevolent enemy, but as the savior of our souls, our sanity and our very selves. In a world turning very dark, we can stand like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the midst of nations who bow to other gods and proclaim His faithfulness to the heavens, then watch as God walks in the fire alongside us. Like Jesus, we can know that the cross portends an empty tomb, a grace unimaginable on the other side of pain.
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