Incessant Trust

The book of Ruth is truly inspiring. I love this part in the story that occurs right after Boaz has agreed to go ask the "closer relative" if he will relinquish his marrying rights. Everything is up in the air right now. He needs permission from this other man or no marriage between him and Ruth will take place.

Ruth 3:18 Then she (Naomi, Ruth's mother in law) said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.”

The Hebrew word for WAIT is yashab: to dwell, remain, sit, abide.

The commentary goes on to say: this is often the most difficult part of faith- when no more action can be taken and nothing remains but to wait patiently for God to work out His will. It is at this moment that doubts arise and anxiety creeps in.

Will you allow God to work this lesson in your life? He is asking you, "Will You trust Me and just abide with Me when there is nothing else you can do in the situation? Will You let go and just be with Me? Will you belive that I have good things in store for you My beloved?"

What an incredible quality to posses: a incessant trust. Every moment a moment of restfully being with Him because…well…He loves me.

The Ultimate Prayer Partner

I've been focusing in on Romans 8. This chapter has so much wealth in it that I could spend a week on each verse if I wanted to. Powerful phrases that we hear all the time as Christians show up in this chapter.

"All things work together for good to those who love God."

"If God is for us, who is against us?"

"Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ."

So much brilliant love and promise pouring out of every corner of it! Then I ran across some verses that I knew had more than what I was seeing.

Romans 8:26 - 27

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings toodeep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

As I thought about this I felt the discouragement of my prayer life rush over me. I feel a desperate need to pray more for other people, but so often I feel I just don't have enough information. I get cut short because I only know bits and pieces of their situation and my own guesses at what the root issues may be. I don't know how to pray as I should.

Then it hit me. That's what the Holy Spirit does! He fills in the blanks! He meets me on my knees where I pray for people and situations and whatever I don't know to pray for- He does! I don't have to be afraid that my friend will only get the meager portion I prayed over them just because I didn't know everything. I can pray confidently knowing that the Father hears my prayers as well as the prayers of the the Holy Spirit who does know my friends heart and the real issues going on!

So what was the point of verse 27? It seemed obvious that the Spirit would pray according to the will of God. I mean, He is God. I must be missing something. There was magic here and I just couldn't see it. As I was walking that day I asked God to show me something new in this verse that I had never seen before.

And He did. He put that in there to be an example for us! He's stating the obvious so that we will follow along. Pray according to the will of God! Pray what you see in the Word and pray it in faith! An excitement grew inside me and my pace quickened. I began to pray, right there in some little neighborhood and out loud for any person or squirrel to hear.

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Lisa has an abundant full life in You!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Cynthia is healed of all of her pain by Your stripes and suffering on the cross!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Stephen finds the freedom and salvation that you freely offer him!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that there is a future for me and my hope will not be cut off!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Jennifer's situation will work together for her good and You will bring about the great purposes for her life!

I don't know how many blocks passed by as I went on like this. But it was exhilarating.

Wreckage to Wonder

What would happen if we allowed our lives to be wrecked for God? That word- wreck- may disturb you. It may even strike fear into your heart. If it does it is only because you don’t fully understand what it means to be wrecked by God. Our basic understanding of wreckage on this earth is pure destruction. Something was whole. Something is ruined; rendered broken and useless. The end. That is what we know of earthly wreckage. That is what we understand from what we’ve seen of broken relationships, natural disasters and car accidents. Wreckage is bad and should be avoided. I would like to suggest that the opposite is true with God’s wreckage.

Look at the Bible. Look at the lives. God told Abraham to leave his home, his land, his friends: to ruin everything in his life and start over somewhere else. Joseph had plans of rising up in his father’s household and taking over the family lands. His brother’s sold him as a slave. His life was wrecked. Paul was held in the highest esteem among his peers. No one could outwit him or prove more knowledgeable when it came to the law of God. He encountered Jesus on the road one day and the encounter wrecked all the years of knowledge and experience he had built up for his own purposes. His skill was now useless for his plans.

These lives were undeniably wrecked. But it didn’t end there. There is another factor in God-wreckage that we may refuse to acknowledge because of our own fears. We see our worlds falling apart around us and look into the future imagining the worst. What we see- we think- is what we get. Ruin. The end. But what if while the pieces of our world were falling down around us like debris and ash, we looked into the future and saw the end that God-Wreckage brings: Wonder. Human wreckage and sin-destruction ends at the point of the breaking and ruin, but God turns wreckage to wonder. Abraham walked with God. Joseph ruled a nation. Paul wrote life-fueling words that would span through generations. Through the ash, through the tears, through the impossible thing that God has told you to fearlessly take ahold of, look ahead and believe for the wonder. It is there, waiting for you.