Trust, Patience, and Abraham

I have a really nasty habit of becoming restless.  I am sure it is not all bad, as it is the restless who often are motivated to get things done.  However, it is also the restless who struggle with discontentment and impatience.  I like new.  And I LOVE exciting.  Put the two together and you have my undivided attention.  Give me too much of the norm, same ol' same ol' thing, and I get droopy, bored, and restless. 

This past week, I found myself once again feeling restless.  I spent some time talking to God about it.  Laid it all out about how I was feeling. "God, I want more and I want to be part of something great and big for you."  The issue took me to my knees and in prayer and tears I become overcome with more, Jesus I just want more of you.  Everything else, my boredom, restlessness, and the many thoughts running through my head began to disappear as I realized my desire was simply for more of Jesus.  But one thought remained.  Jiggling and clanking around in the back of my mind.  "God I want to be part of something great for you." 

I am not going to try and figure out if this is a good or bad desire, because the point is what God spoke to me and has continued to speak to me since then.  Two simple phrases.  Listen. To My. Voice.  Follow. My. Voice.  "That's it?!  Just listen?  Just follow?  But the things you have given me to do, the things I have to do, they are not earth shattering and heaven shaking!"  And that is when He brought a wonderful, faithful, friend of His to my mind.  Remember Abraham?  All He did was listen to My voice and followed my voice by obeying me.  Earth was shattered and heaven was shaken.  My mind went back to what I had read that morning in Genesis.  God asked Abraham to leave his family, his land, his home, his everything and travel till God told him where to stop.  I suppose Abraham could have said, "I don't see the point in this.  What will me leaving my home accomplish for you?"  But Abraham didn't ask that.  He simply listened and followed the voice of God.  Later, God gave Abraham a promise that He would give him a son and make him the father of a countless nation.  Abraham, though he did laugh a bit and question this idea, could have said, "this is unthinkable.  Undoable.  I'm not even going to try."  But that isn't what Abraham did.  He listened and followed the voice of God.  I realize Abraham made mistakes and didn't always do things perfectly, but he did have a measure of faith, trust, and patience that led him into the promise and the will of God for his life. It led him to being called the friend of God.

My point?  I need that.  I want that.  Patience for the ideas and promises God has laid on my heart.  Abraham waiting a LONG time for Isaac.  A long time.  But God was faithful, in His time, to fulfill His promise to Abraham.  I desire to trust that what God has asked me to do, commissioned me to do, prompted me to do is for a purpose and a reason.  It is for my own good, but more importantly it is fulfilling God's purpose on earth through me.  Just like Abraham trusted that God knew what He was doing when He told Abraham to move. 

My encouragement to myself and to anyone who reads this:  God has a purpose for your life.  Those things He has called you to, no matter how small or insignificant they seem to you, become earth shattering and heaven shaking when you walk in them in love and obedience to your heavenly Father.  Those dreams He has placed in your heart?  Don't worry.  He placed them there and He will fulfill them in His timing.  Trust Him.  Listen to His voice.  Faithfully follow His voice.  Patiently wait for the fulfillment of His Word. 

What He has started He will bring to completion in and through you.  And what He has spoken will not return to Him void. 

Patiently Trust.  Listen.  Follow. 

It Is Well

Stop....for just a moment, and join me on a little journey.  Close your eyes, breathe in deep, exhale, and clear your mind of all the have-to's and the long to do list that is mentally ticking through your head.  And now imagine and step into.....the opening of a movie scene.  It is a love story.  The scene opens as the camera takes in a breath-taking scene of piles of fluffy snow blanketing the ground in a perfect winter wonderland.  The air is crisp and cold and as you breath it in, it takes your breathe away.  The trees are covered in shimmering pieces of diamond ice that glimmer in the bits of rays of sun that break through a blanket of fog.  You are taken by surprise by the emotion that rises inside of you as you
take in the beauty unfolding in front of you.  Snowflakes begin to softly fall and you let down your guard, you stick your tongue out and catch a snowflake.  You giggle, open your arms out wide and spin in utter delight and fall down only to land in a powdery spray of snow.  It blankets itself around you like a goose down comforter.  You open your eyes and take in the glory of the blue gray sky and wonder at its vastness and its perfect quietness.  Struck by the peace that is surrounding you, your heart is filled with love and joy for the One who made all of this just for you.

Beautiful, isn't it?  Wish you could actually be transported away to a wonderland of peace and quiet in which you rest in the everlasting Love of the Lover of Your Soul.....no worries, just peace, just joy?

This is what I felt challenged with this morning as I drove home from dropping my children off at school.  That perfect wonderland, created by the One who loves me more than life, doesn't have to be imagined.  It is here, already.  I was overcome by the beauty of the snow landscape this morning, the glistening of the trees, and the mystery of the fog.  Gorgeous!  Cold?  Yes!  But, I am challenged by the thought that it is so easy to miss out on the beauty that is around us because we are focused on the negative side of things.  We miss the beauty of the forest because of that one big annoying tree we can't get around.  Instead of taking in the glory of what is all around us, we sit and stew and pout over that one stinkin' tree......and we miss out.

Listen, I know, this winter has been cold, hard, expensive, inconvenient and we are all getting good and ready for the bright summer sun, green leaves, shorts, and sun tans.  I am not trying to belittle the trouble this winter has been, but I have to challenge myself.  I can focus on the negative and be stuck in an attitude of doom and gloom OR I can focus on the beauty.  It's gorgeous!  It is a perfect, peaceful wonderland glistening with HIS love for me.  That thought puts a smile on my face in light of below zero temps, stuck vans, frost on the INSIDE of my windows, and cold fingers and toes.  It helps me to smile in the midst of all the rest.

I desire to apply this to every area of my life.  Is it not the hope that He offers to us in a world that is less than perfect?  In the midst of hard times does He not still offer us His beauty, His peace, and His love in abundance so that we cannot help but say, "It is well" and  be able to laugh in joy at the future and things to come?

I am going to leave us with the words of a song penned by Horatio Spafford.  It is easy to sing a song and not realize the pain through which the words were birthed.  Horatio Spafford lived through the 1871 Chicago Fire which ruined him financially.  His further business interests were hit hard during the economic downturn of 1873.  During this time, he and his family, planned to make a trip to Europe.  At the last minute, Horatio's plans changed because of business issues he needed to deal with and he was not able to join his wife and his daughters on the SS Ville du Havre.  While crossing the Atlantic, the ship collided with another vessel and sank rapidly.  All four of his daughters died.  His wife survived and sent him a telegram with these words...."Saved alone."  Shortly after, Horatio boarded another ship to meet up with his grieving wife and as he passed by the area where his daughters had died, he was inspired to write this now famous hymn:

It Is Well With My Soul
(Original lyrics)^[1]
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,^a
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
A song in the night, oh my soul! <sup>b

a</sup> "know" (at the end of the third line) was changed to "say".
^b "A song in the night, oh my soul" (last line)
was changed to "Even so, it is well with my soul".