"17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the locks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!"
A dear friend sent this to me as a verse of the day yesterday, and he sent a translation with it "Even when stuff is crazy, He has a plan at work. Keep your head up." He sent this as a mass text, not intended for me alone; but his verse and translation were something I needed to hear, in fact, something I need to hear daily.
I really have no idea what God has up His sleeves for my family right now. We seem to be living in a limbo land. I mentioned, in an earlier post, that I still am without a job nearly seven months after starting a search. My husband found a job, but isn't making enough money to support us. We've gone thorough a lot of "trials" in the last year, and we thought we were following God's will for our lives. Seven months later we find ourselves questioning that thought. Did we REALLY do what God wanted us too? Was it HIS voice we heard, or just our wants?
I can't answer any of these questions, and circumstances would say that it was, indeed, the wrong choice to make. I do, however, know that my God is good, and He DOES have a plan for our lives. Having these thoughts run through my head, has forced me to confront another idea.
Who are we to say that God's plan was this or that? I mean really; how do we know that we "didn't follow His will"? I've begun to understand that thinking that way is, essentially, putting God in a box isn't it? That kind of thinking implies that God's will can never change; and while I believe that is true, I also believe that our choices can change the way said will comes about. That is where that box comes in. Who am I to say that God can't change the way an event comes about?
The Bible is full of stories of sinners; who even in their sin, were a big part of God's plans. Let's look at David; he was an adulterer and murderer; yet God called him "a man after God's own heart." Paul denied Jesus three times the night He was killed; yet Jesus told him he'd be the rock that His Church was built on. The list goes on and on...and I know that these people were just that...people. If God can take them, and the choices they made, and make something awesome of them; I know He can do the same with me and the choices I've made too.
I like the hope in these verses too, the part that says "18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!". The first verse seems so bleak, and then the author comes back with such hope and faith. Yep, there it is again...that faith that I seem to struggle so much with . This author has faith that his Savior will save him. That no matter what happens to him HE. WILL. REJOICE. How powerful those words can be if we would just live them in our lives. If I could learn to rejoice, and not just go through the motions of rejoicing; but ACTUALLY rejoice in all things; how amazing my life could be!
I've got rejoicing when times are good down pat! I can "dace like David danced" with the best of them when my finances are secure and life is going well. It's when I'm in the valley's that dancing doesn't seem like such a great idea or rejoicing in my God is too hard.
So it looks like I might have another "next step" in this great journey of learning faith. I need to learn to rejoice at all times, to dance with wild abandon even when I'm not sure how we will pay for groceries next week; to sing praise when the car starts doing strange things and to just trust that God does, indeed, "got this". To that dear friend who texted me yesterday; thank you for helping me see something God's been trying to get me to see for awhile!
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