Well, for those of you who know me, you know that it’s really easy for me to tell lots of jokes and say funny things, so it would be really much more natural for me to blog about something humorous (such as eating free chick-fil-a today...twice...or about the hundreds of ants we found on our bedroom floor the other night, and the list goes on). But I find that far too often I’m distracted by the things of the world and neglect to focus in on and share what’s going on in my heart. Perhaps it’s not so much that I’m distracted but it’s that I prefer to be comfortable and I suppose the right way to describe it is that I prefer not to be vulnerable. So I hope to encourage myself and some of y’all with a few things that God has been teaching me over the past few weeks. I say encourage myself because while I know we’re in a really neat stage of life, I feel like there has been temptation to be discouraged, overwhelmed, and burdened by things in life also.
Lamentations 3:22-24. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ “
That’s really encouraging. I have thought on and prayed through this verse many times in the last few weeks, and I don’t really know what led me to it. I think maybe listening to Grace’s Bible verses dvd “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” got me started. I read an excerpt from a John Piper book about that verse in Matthew 6 and it also referenced Lamemtations 3. God gives us grace and mercy to meet whatever faces us each and every day. So tonight, I don’t need to worry about how in the world I’m going to meet the troubles of tomorrow. I just need to have faith that God’s mercies are new every morning and that He will be my supply.
Ephesians 1:4-6. “..even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
I don’t really presume to understand this because I know I don’t and won’t ever grasp the depths of the sovereignty of God until I’m in heaven. But it’s pretty incredible to think about the fact that before the foundation of the world, God already knew that I would be His follower and He in fact predestined it. I just started reading The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul and he spends the first chapter discussing God who created the world out of nothing. Nothing! What does that mean? What is nothing? If we think of something, then it’s not nothing. So we don’t even know what to describe nothing as (except he said that “nothing” is what his junior high son said he did in school every day. Haha.). But God created the universe “in the beginning” out of “nothing”. And yet, before that, we were chosen to be adopted as a son or daughter of God. I don’t really get that. But I know that I can be encouraged that I believe in a God who is so incomprehensible, so indescribable, so far beyond anything that I can even imagine...and also so loving, so gracious, and so merciful that He sent Jesus to bear my sins in his body on the tree, that I might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). That’s really amazing. It is my prayer that God would move in our hearts to understand more and more the depths of these truths and that would lead us to more worship. I want to be able to say with my whole heart that the primary reason we are going to do overseas missions is because I want to see Jesus worshipped by every tribe and tongue and nation and that nothing would give me greater joy. But I don’t really truly get that--I’m just being honest. I mean, it makes logical sense in my head and sometimes I think I get some glimpses of really knowing that in my heart, but I need to pray that God would just open the eyes of my heart to see more and more of His glory and that would drive me to desire all peoples everywhere to get it too!
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?‘ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?‘ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36).
Thanks for reading. I’m not much of a writer, but perhaps God will grow me through an occasional blog and that He will use it to draw my heart closer to Him. And maybe He’ll use it to encourage your heart also! On another note, we have to send our computer in to get fixed because something (I believe the audio jack, if I’m correct) doesn’t work. So we won’t be able to update the website in the next few weeks. So in case you’re hoping for more, you’ll just have to patiently wait. Thanks to everyone who has supported us in so many different ways over the last 7 months. We love you all so much and are so appreciative!
For the glory of Christ,
Kate
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