God is Always on the Job~

Greetings brothers and sisters; peace be unto you!

“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 

This passage of scripture points out five things:

(1)  Life gets really difficult

(2)  We shouldn’t jump to conclusions about God

(3)  We should be glad that we get to experience what Christ experienced

(4)  Our struggles are a spiritual refining process

(5)  Glory is just around the corner

I wholeheartedly understand number one.  As far as number two is concerned, I repeatedly have to remind myself not to jump. More often than not I fail at number three. At least number four tells me that my problems are not in vain, and amen for number five!

Today let’s tackle numbers one and two. 

It is so easy to assume that God has turned His back on us when we go through tough times, and that’s when the questions start. “Where are You?” “Are you listening?” Do You even care?” “Are You going to help me or not?” 

I want to answer these questions with something Rick Warren said: “When you make a request of God, He almost always wants to answer in a bigger and better way than you’ve prayed.  Sometimes God denies your prayer requests because you’re thinking and asking too small.  He wants to give you something bigger and better.  But first, he has to prepare you for it.  So God uses delays in answering prayer to help you grow, to help you get ready, to help prepare you for a bigger and better answer.”

What if every day that passed that we were waiting on an answer from God, waiting on a miracle, a healing, peace, joy, hope, a new job, a baby, a spouse, income etc…what if every day of waiting for the difficulties to end we were to say to God: “Dear Lord, Thank You that You have not answered me yet because You want to do something bigger and better than I can imagine.  Thank You that You are preparing me for the greatest blessings of my life.”

What if instead of jumping to the conclusion that God is on vacation we accept, once and for all, that God is always on the job?  Psalm 121:3 “He will not let you fall. Your Guardian will not fall asleep.”

I am preaching to myself, people.  My current attitude could use an adjustment as I wait upon the Lord for some answers.  I am going to retype the above-

prayer below as well as print it out and attach to my monitor so I see it daily.  Most importantly, I am going to take God at His word!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You that You have not answered me yet because You want to do something bigger and better than I can imagine.  Thank You that You are preparing me for the greatest blessings of my life. Amen.

God Works Overtime~

Happy Monday J

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. This past Friday I was headed back home on the Sawgrass Expressway when in the middle of my 70 mile an hour trip, my car started to die out—literally—right there on the road. “Jesus, take the wheel!” suddenly took on a whole new meaning.

Jorge and I, along with his parents had just left a party together, and Jorge suggested that he drive his parents’ car because it was late and suffice to say, his mom and I were in my car, and he was in the car in front with Chini—my father-in-law.

So here I am cruising along, and my mother-in-law and I are laughing our heads off at some nonsense or the other when I notice that my car has ceased to accelerate. “Say what?”

I think to myself, “Please, Matilda, not now.” My car’s name is Matilda, and she is usually very trustworthy.

Next, every single warning light that could turn on started flickering, and I automatically start honking the horn so Jorge could help. But the horn would not work. So I start blinking the lights, but they were gone as well.

Jorge, God bless his soul, noticed from the rear view mirror that the lights were slowly dimming, and he knew right away there was trouble. Thank God we were all able to make it safely to the side of the road just one exit away from home, and I am so glad that I didn’t engage in my usual “I am going to beat you home because you are a Sucker race.”

But it was what my mother-in-law said right there on the side of the road with cars whizzing by as Jorge pushed Matilda to safety that inspired today’s DEVO: “I have God working overtime to take care of this family!”

Amen and glory! I can totally relate to that statement! God can never take a break from watching over me or my kids because we’d be in big trouble if He did. The awesome news for us today is that He never does.

Psalm 121:3 “He will not let you stumble; the One who watches over you will not slumber.”

You sleep, I sleep, we all sleep, but God does not sleep. That is so comforting to me.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You that You are wide awake watching over us. We invite You to hover right on top of us, our spouses, our children, and over all those we love so that none of us stumbles—ever. In Jesus’ name, AMEN~