He's cool like that! In His Word 3-20-23
It is kind of a cool thing that God loves us so much. I mean literally none of us deserve His love, and yet He took on sin for us, cleaned up our
act for us, and set us up to do good. Sometimes I just want to say, “Dude! That
is so totally awesome!” in my young voice. I know it may sound odd coming from Teresa’s
voice now but that is the best thing about God, He knows each of our hearts and
knows just how powerful that statement is.
Have you ever thought about that? How much He knows you or I
individually? He knew us from before we were born. Jerimiah 1:5 and He saw
Jacob and his twin brother fighting one another in their mother’s womb, Hosea 12:3
He knows the number of hairs on our heads, not even our hair
dresser knows that! Well, maybe some of you have less hair and it could be
counted but as mine falls out from time to time I would not be able to keep
track; and yet God does.
But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O
Israel, the one who formed you says, do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
Isaiah 43:1
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to
Christ Jesus. And because you belong to
him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin
that leads to death. The law of Moses
was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did
what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we
sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by
giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just
requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow
our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about
sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about
things that please the Spirit. So
letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the
Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to
God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are
still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. Romans 8:1-8
When we have things happen in our lives that do not make sence we have to stop and think about the fact that God knew about it already. That is sometimes hard to take when the thing is really heart wrenching. Like when a loved one passes away in what we see as an untimely fashion. We may even cry out in frustration or anger to God asking Him where He was when we our loved one suffered and died. This is when we have to remember that He is not only greater than us, not only knows us through and through, but our God knows what is best for each of us. We do not know how strong we really are until we are tested. And while we may be thinking that God has done something rotten in allowing the person to die we have to concede that our God knows better than us. He knows if our loved one would have gone through something even worse, or that we would have to suffer more as well if they remained alive even a moment longer than they did. He knows His perfect timing.
This is evident on the cross. Jesus hung long enough to cry
out asking God why He forsook Him. But God knew just when it was complete.
Jesus knew He was going to have to suffer and realy suffer, and yet He chose to
follow the Father’s will. HE did this in example to us.
I know some people who can just accept that things happen
when they do, they trust that God knows what He is doing. Perhaps that is because
they know the scripture?
For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:8
We can try, but it will be futile, to know God’s thoughts
and know what is going to happen when but we wont know it.
So, what can we do? We can love one another as He has loved us. We can trust He
knows best, and we can spend the time we have each day wisely.
Take every moment and make the best of it, then when the bad stuff comes, and it will from time to time, we can know that God has placed us on the path we are on for His purpose, for the kingdom. After all it is not about us, our lives are redeemed for the good of the Kingdom of God.
Let’s work at trying to accept the things we cannot change,
and gain wisdom from His Word and via His spirit to know the difference today.
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for
you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing
forth [b]fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the
grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also
declared to us your love in the Spirit. Colossians 1:3-8
In Jesus’ name,