Friday 28 May 2010

God is still God


I loved this timely message from UCB today:-

Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yuncheng. With only one assistant, she led a hundred orphans over the mountains toward free China. During the journey she grappled with fear. After passing a sleepless night she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A thirteen-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Red Sea. 'But I am not Moses,' Gladys sighed in despair. 'Of course you aren't,' the girl said, 'but God is still God!' When Gladys and the orphans made it through they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can still trust Him. Sometimes God calms the storm, other times He lets the storm rage and calms us. Either way, He sustains us and brings us through. We always have a choice: either we give the burden to God or we try to carry it ourselves. How does God provide for us? One day at a time. Remember the Israelites in the wilderness? Each day God fed them by sending manna from heaven. Notice how it worked. The number of people in your family determined the amount of manna you received, no more and no less. And God would only allow you to collect enough for each day; if you tried to hoard more, it rotted. Getting the idea? So trust God for today and leave tomorrow in His hands. 'Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.'

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Holy Discontent


I've just finished reading Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels and feel slightly undone.....what is it with these books that seem to be coming my way at the moment????

Monday 24 May 2010

Plan B


I have just finished reading a great book by Pete Wilson - Plan B (What do you do when God doesn't show up the way you thought he would?)

Now I say it was a great book - and I'd thoroughly recommend it - but having said that it's not an easy book to read - well, I didn't think so anyway. It's left me with a kind of uneasy feeling - a feeling of discontent, although I'm not sure that's quite the right word. I feel as if I have a hundred questions but not enough answers........

The general theme of the book is that God doesn't always do what we expect Him to do - and sometimes such crap stuff happens that we even question whether God is still there. And whilst the author addresses all this stuff, he doesn't provide too many answers. But I found that so brilliantly refreshing. You see - no amount of clever words or theological training can give you the answers to everything. If we knew it all then where would the wonderful mystery of God fit into it all?

I know I'm one of the worst in the world for wanting everything in a neat little package - for wanting things to happen in my timing and in my way - but by doing that I am confining God to the limits of my pathetic little existence.

The truth is I am searching at the moment - searching for God's purposes for me in what I believe to be a new season of life. Some days I even feel quite desperate for answers and desperate for something to do (told you I was pathetic!!!!) but trust is the choice that will get me through this. Trusting my God who has promised to always be with me and never to leave me. Trusting my God who has promised He has a plan for my life. Trusting my God who has me where I am now - not by accident, but by His perfect timing and for 'such a time as this'. Trusting my God who is using this time to shape me for what is to come......

I never for one minute thought I would get to mid-40's and be a stay-at-home mum and wife and even though I am SO blessed by my lovely husband and great kids, this was just never my plan A.

So Plan B it is then.

"I'm asking you to trust that one day faith will win over doubt, that light will win over darkness, that love will win over hate, and that all things will one day be redeemed. I'm asking you, right in the middle of your Plan B pain, to trust the process that is going on in your life. It won't be finished for a while, but it has begun. God will finish what he started. Wait for it."
Pete Wilson, Plan B