I have discovered that whatever I am praying about, on its way to better, it may drop by worse for a visit.

That quote is from a book called “Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something” by Ronald Dunn. I read it years ago, but I’ve never forgotten it. Probably because it seems to be so true!

Why is it that sometimes, the harder we pray, the worse things seem to get? Why is it that God can give us promises and then seem to keep moving the goal line farther away?

I’m on a Bible reading plan that’s been taking me through the first few books of the Old Testament. And I’ve read so many examples of situations that dropped by worse on their way to better.

Abraham had a promise of children – lots of them. But he had to wait 25 years before that promise was fulfilled, and deal with a lot of heartache along the way. Joseph would someday be a powerful leader in Egypt and save his family from a famine. But first, that same family sold him into slavery and he spent years in jail, unjustly accused of a crime. And God told the Israelites they’d have a promised land of milk and honey and pomegranates and other wonderful things. But before that happened they were persecuted by Pharoah and then relentlessly pursued by his army when God finally did let them leave Egypt.

Why? Couldn’t God just answer and provide quickly and painlessly and miraculously?

He could, but I found out why He doesn’t sometimes.

“I’ll use Pharoah and his army to put My glory on display. Then the Egyptians will realize that I am God”. (Exodus 14:4)

God wants His glory on display. And He does that in ways that don’t always make sense to us, because of course, God’s ways are not our ways! God doesn’t randomly allow situations to deteriorate. He isn’t looking the other way when our prayers appear to go unanswered. He’s carefully crafting ways to display His glory.

And we need to be patient enough to wait to see how He’s going to do that. We can’t despair. We can’t give up. We can’t think that the stop by “worse” is the end of the story.

God will get His glory. And I want to be a part of it when it happens. “Worse” isn’t always what it seems.

For one reason only, I’ve kept you on your feet; to make you recognize My power so that My reputation spreads in all the earth. Exodus 9:16

Everyone sees it. God’s work is the talk of the town. Be glad, good people! Fly to God! Good hearted people, make praise your habit. Psalm 64:9-10

Remember every road that God led you on these 40 years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that He would know what you were made of, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2

(*Scripture references are from “The Message” translation – it’s the version I’m using this year for my “Through the Bible in 90 Days” reading plan)

So here we are.

The holiday decorations are put away.  The suitcase is unpacked. The new calendar is hanging in the kitchen.  Back to the routines of life and work and everyday things.

After the whirlwind that is December, it seems oddly quiet.  Maybe that’s the way it should be.  Maybe we need this quiet so that our minds and hearts settle down.   And listen.

This morning as I was transferring important dates from the old calendar onto the new one, I sensed God asking me a question.

“Do you trust Me with this new year, Sharon?”

Simple question.  Not sure why I have to make the answer so difficult.  Why does my mind go automatically to an answer that starts with, “Yes, but….”?  But what if such and such happens?  But what if such and such doesn’t happen?

Doesn’t matter.

God wants me to trust Him with 2013.  Period.  I either believe He’s got it all under control, or I don’t.  I either believe He’s got only the very best planned for me, or I don’t.

It’s freeing, really.  It’s freeing to not worry about tomorrow or six months from now or 12 months from now.   There’s a real peace in simply believing that my God is in control.  Nothing is going to happen in my life that hasn’t passed through His hands first.  There will be difficult days and decisions, questions and uncertainty.  But I know there will be blessings and joys and new adventures, too.

So what is my reponse to the question I heard God ask me this morning?

“Thank you for the gift of a new year, Lord.  I’m going to trust You with 2013.”

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. Psalm 4:5

My times are in Your hand  Psalm 31:15

Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know Him see not His days? Job 24:1

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority”.  Acts 1:7

 

(originally posted 12/4/11)

An older woman whose heart had ached for a baby for years, decades even, but whose arms remained empty and now hope seemed gone.  A teenager who had kept herself pure and hadn’t planned on a baby quite just yet.

Side by side.  Two women in a drama they didn’t audition for, but two women who became part of a story that changed the course of history.

I’ve been reading the Christmas story in Luke, asking God to show me things I hadn’t really seen before.  And this morning, I saw the contrast between Elisabeth and Mary.  But I also saw in a new way how both of them trusted God with the unplanned circumstances of their lives.

In spite of the disappointment of not having a baby, Elizabeth “was righteous before God, walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.” (Luke 1:6)  And Mary, after being told she was going to have a baby – God’s Son! – reacted by saying, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Elizabeth didn’t know that her circumstance was about to change.  She had no idea that God was going to answer her prayers in a dramatic and unreal way. But she still walked with God.  And Mary’s circumstance changed so quickly and so dramatically that she could have reacted with panic and despair.  But she gave her heart with abandon to God.

Two women.  Two different situations.  One common response – trust.

I believe God gives us these kinds of details to get us to think about how we respond to unplanned circumstances.  Whether we find ourselves still waiting for something we’ve been asking for – for years, or in the middle of something we didn’t ask for at all, our response needs to be the same.

Because God always has a plan.  And His timing is always just right.

For with God, nothing is impossible.  Luke 1:37

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.      Hebrews 10:23

Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.  Luke 1:45

“To everything there is a season.  A time for every purpose under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1

It was time for a new baby this week.  Titus John Virkler arrived on December 10^th at 12:43 pm.  He’s my newest nephew – my sixth nephew!  And I can’t wait to meet him.

God had great timing on this one.  Some might think it was just coincidence that little Titus was born at the end of 2012.  But I think God had a plan.

At the beginning of 2012, God called my Dad home to be with Him.  And while it’s been a difficult year, we’ve seen God’s grace and felt His comfort.  We’re all trying to imagine what it’s like to be in heaven at Christmastime!  I know there are theologians who might say that one day is no different than another once you get there, that every day is a joyful celebration of the Savior.  I’m sure it is.  But I don’t think God minds if we picture Dad’s first Christmas season in His presence!

So here we are at the end of 2012.  And God has given us a gift with this new baby.  A new member of the family who reminds us that while God in His providence takes away, He also gives.  He has seasons for our lives, times for every purpose under heaven.

This little guy has brought our family joy after a season of sadness.

And at this time of year, what a great reminder this is of another little baby whose birth brought joy not just to His family, but to the world.  A baby named Jesus who ended a season of waiting and darkness and became “God with us”.

To everything there is a season.  A time for every purpose under heaven.

And He changes the times and seasons.  He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.    Daniel 2:21

Nevertheless, He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.   Acts 14:17

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”  Matthew 1:22-23

Then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.  Leviticus 26:4

And then,  just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can barely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God.  Our eyes are at fault, that is all.  God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.  No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “God Is In The Manger – Reflections on Advent and Christmas”

But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”.         1 Corinthians 2:9

Oh how great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!  Psalm 31:10

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28

I knew someone would ask the question eventually.

Others have skirted it, asking me general questions about faith and waiting.  But this young woman had the courage to actually ask it.

“If you wrote a book about faith and believing God, why hasn’t it worked for you yet?”

So there it was.  The question.  One that I’ve asked myself on occasion, but never really had to answer completely.

I was grateful for her question.  It forced me to dig deeper, to look for my defense, to put into words just how I could still believe God and trust Him when it appears that the big thing I’m trusting Him for hasn’t happened for me…yet.

But that’s the thing about faith.  It’s the evidence of things not seen.  It’s the patient waiting when the calendar pages keep turning.  It’s hanging onto that little word “yet”.

At this time of year it’s easy to get all wrapped up in the sentiment of the baby and the manger and the singing angels and the joy to the world.  But sometimes we forget just how long Israel waited for that moment.  God hadn’t forgotten His promise.  But He had a perfect time to fulfill it.  Not too soon.  Certainly not too late.

And so I can boldly answer that young woman’s question with this: My faith cannot be dependent on what I see, or what I don’t see, or how much time has gone by.  My life and its circumstances are placed in the hands of a God who can be trusted.

Because as the story of Christmas reminds us, God always has a plan, and His timing is always just right.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him to the soul who seeks Him.  Lamentations 3:25

And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. Psalm 39:7

Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him. Isaiah 30:18

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. James 5:7

The box under the bed held remnants of a life I’d forgotten.

There were spelling tests and penmanship practice sheets and report cards.  There were crayon drawings and birthday cards from grandparents and even an award for 2nd place in an elementary school sack race.  Probably the last award for any kind of athleticism I ever achieved!  

My mother has kept all these items in that box under the bed for years.  And while I was home for Thanksgiving, I decided to dig through it.  I sat on the floor in that bedroom for quite awhile, reliving memories I didn’t even know I had.

At the very bottom was something unexpected.  An unfinished “paint-by-number” picture.  Do kids even do paint-by-number anymore?  Why would we have saved an unfinished painting?  Did I plan to go back and fill in those numbers?

Maybe God wanted us to save it so that decades later it would remind me of how He works in my life.

I could tell it was going to be a picture of a big horse and a little horse.  What little girl didn’t go through the “I want a horse” phase?  The baby horse is almost filled in with paint.  The mother horse has a way to go.  And the background has an awful lot of empty numbers where paint should go eventually.

I’m sure the finished picture would have been beautiful.  But the fact that it’s unfinished holds the lesson.

Our lives unfold gradually,too.  God fills in a spot here, a spot there.  And sometimes it seems that we can’t see the big picture.  We can’t figure out what all these little empty places will come together to be.  They seem random.  And it feels incomplete.  We want to know the end of the story.

But this painting in a box under a bed reminded me that God is going to complete my painting in His way and in His time.  He’s got a plan.  He knows what the finished picture look like.

I think I’ll hang this picture up just like it is. And remember that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.  Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

The LORD will work out His plans for my life— for Your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. Psalm 138:8  (NLT)

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

What can I offer the Lord for all He has done for me?  I will offer to You a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord.

Psalm 116:12,17  New Living Translation

I stopped singing in the middle of a hymn in church a few weeks ago.

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay;
Therefore will not say thee nay.

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much;
None can ever ask too much.

There were a few verses after that, but when I sang the part about large petitions, I stopped.  Something had touched a place in my heart that I hadn’t been to in a while.

The place where I hide my large petitions.

God was asking me why I haven’t brought those big needs before Him lately.  And I really didn’t have an answer.  Maybe deep inside I didn’t think He’d answer after all these years.  Maybe I had just gotten weary of asking.  Maybe I really did think they were “too much”.

But when God stops you in the middle of church, He’s trying to tell you something.  And as odd as it was to just stand there with my hymnal in my hand while others around me kept singing, it was a really good moment.  God was speaking.  To me.

He was reminding me that nothing is too big to bring before Him.  He was reminding me that He is the King, and that is exactly why the largest of petitions belong right there at His feet.

I had to do a little research to find out what “prepare thy suit” means.  In the old English it means “an appeal made to a person of superior rank or status or the act of making such a petition”.

Jesus wants my petitions.  Even the large ones.

Maybe even especially the large ones.

(from “Come My Soul Thy Suit Prepare” by John Newton, 1779)

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

For what great nation is there that has God is so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?  Deuteronomy 4:7

It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.  Isaiah 65:24

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  John 14:13

It’s been windy here in Florida over the past few days.  Palm trees bending and ocean waves churning thanks to a brush from Hurricane Sandy.  Not much to worry about, just reminders of being close to a Really Big Storm.

But that Really Big Storm won’t just be close to the northeast part of our country.  The part of the country where an awful lot of people I care about live.  Looks like they will get the wind and the rain and the floods.  And there is a lot of worry and concern and fretting.  Even on my end.

And then I remembered.

I remembered who controls the wind and the rain.  I don’t understand God’s ways, why He lets things like hurricanes and storms simply brush some areas and slam others, why some of us get to watch storms on TV from the comfort of our living rooms while others huddle in dark houses as the elements beat against the windows.

But I don’t have to “get” God’s ways.  I only have to trust Him.  On the blue-sky days, and on the dark-sky days and all the days in between.

All who sail the sea of faith
Find out before too long
How quickly blue skies can grow dark
And gentle winds grow strong
Suddenly fear is like white water
Pounding on the soul
Still we sail on knowing
That our Lord is in control

Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea
But it doesn’t mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child

(from a song by Scott Krippayne – “Sometimes He Calms The Storm”)

For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.  Psalm 107:25

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  Matthew 8:26

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.  Psalm 89:9