Category: Faith

Have you ever given much thought to joy? I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really until this summer. It seems that as I grow, I recognize how little I really know, and how much there is for me to learn. I recently thought about joy for a little while, and I concluded that it would be amazing to be joyful no matter what. It’s easy to be joyful when everything seems to be going well. I was feeling like things were grand this weekend; work went well on Friday, and I got paid. That night I got to talk to a friend on the phone, and it made my day. Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and it’s great to get texts, emails, and facebook messages, but actually talking on the phone just puts a smile on my face! (Thanks for the phone call, Rachel!) Then on Saturday I got to go fabric shopping with my mom. Apart from the eye injury from the lovely bolt of fabric that decided to fall on me when I reached for the bolt next to it, shopping was great! I found fabric that I love for dorm room curtains! Sunday I went to church, and then I spent most of the day crocheting a blanket that matches the curtain fabric really well. It’s easy to be joyful on days like those!

Then there are other days…days that I just feel like crying because work was stressful and exhausting, or something happens to make me feel insignificant;  it can be very difficult to be joyful those days. Somewhere during this summer, I’ve realized that whether or not I am joyful really comes down to where my joy comes from.

I can find joy in things like phone calls from friends, successful shopping trips, paychecks, and good work days, but those things are temporal. When there are no phone calls, shopping trips, paychecks, or good days at work, what becomes of the joy found in those things?  It vanishes.  I’ve come to realize just how important it is for my joy to be found in the Lord. This world is constantly changing–even the most monotonous day isn’t identical to any other day. If joy is mostly found in earthly things, it’s reasonable to say that joy would be up and down like a roller coaster. However, God is constantly the same.  Joy found in Him will remain, even when everything seems to be going terribly wrong.

In God, we find a reason for joy no matter what we face. His mind-boggling love for us is cause enough for us to be joyful. Psalm 31:7 says, “I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.” Because He loves us, we can be confident that no matter what comes our way, He is sovereign and cares about the things we’re facing.

What is the source of your joy? Does your joy come from the temporary things or from God who is unchanging?

“…All who seek the Lord will praise Him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.” Psalm 22:26

As I said in my last post, God has been stretching and teaching me this summer. Some of the things I’m learning are trust, patience, perseverance/endurance, rest, and joy. A major classroom for patience and perseverance this summer has been at work.

Last year I made the decision to quit my full time, with-benefits-job, at a great company, to attend Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. I’ll admit, the transition from working in a professional environment and having an income, to being a student without an income was a little strange. Having been homeschooled through high school, I really didn’t know what to expect at school, so decided not to work until I was more accustomed to being in school. Toward the middle of the semester I started dreading looking for a summer job. But, God faithfully provided and I was able to return to the company I worked for last year. I was hired to help edit their catalog and collect information for it, and to do whatever other random projects they needed done.

My first week back, I told my co-worker, who happens to be a sister in Christ, about something I’d heard at school. In Old Testament, the professor told us that the law contained instructions for entering God’s presence. It told what to do, and what not to do; he compared it to instruction sheets for chemicals. From working in lab supply distribution, I knew the instruction sheets as MSDS’s or Material Safety Data Sheets. It was a great comparison for me!

At work that same week, lab supplies taught me another lesson. The first project I was given was to delete thousands of alternate item id’s. Individually. Days on end were spent copying and pasting the item, clicking delete, clicking “save”, and clicking “okay”. I calculated that I was able to do thirteen item id’s a minute. It was a perfect description of the word monotonous. That first week I really learned patience and endurance.

Days of copying and pasting, and being on hold at work have taught me patience on a moment-by-moment level. But I’ll be honest, there are times I can lack patience in life. Sometimes I wish things would happen on my timetable instead of God’s. Do you ever get impatient waiting for God to act? I do! I’d love to know when God is going to do something and when He’s going to do it. The times that I’ve grown impatient have been times that I don’t see how or when God is going to do something.  It seems like the times that my patience has been tested are really times that my faith has been tested.

James 1:3,4 says,  “For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”  Developing endurance and patience is hardly enjoyable, but being strong in character and ready for anything sounds like a worthwhile result. When our faith is tested and endurance is developed, we will stand firm in our faith (Isaiah 7:9), and we will be able to stand firm no matter what comes.

My co-worker laughed when I told her I was learning patience and endurance through copying an pasting item id’s. She said that learning through MSDS’s and item id’s was a funny way to learn. Maybe it is, but I’m so thankful to be taught!

“We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy,” Colossians 1:11

I really feel like I’ve been stretched this year, but this summer in particular. Not only have I been stretched, but I have been taught. It really amazes me that God doesn’t just use the obvious, major situations to teach me, but He also uses the small, random things—even at work.  Though I’m sure God has been teaching me many more things, and stretching me in more areas, the things that have really stood out to me are: trust (as always), patience, rest, perseverance, and joy.

Honestly, it seems like the lesson I am continually learning is to trust. It’s crazy, because I know that God is trustworthy, I know that He is constant and never changes, I know that He has the best plan, and I know that He loves me; but somehow I still manage to find a way to worry. Despite having seen God provide, and just be faithful in general, I find myself questioning His intent and His plan. While it’s not a very fun lesson to be taught (over and over and over), because it involves being in a time of uncertainty, I am so thankful that God still chooses to teach me to trust. I would save so much energy by not worrying, and just trusting Him. This summer, God has really been helping me to trust Him with everything.

For a while, I had become a little pessimistic toward life…okay, maybe more than just a little. I had developed an aversion to hope. As ridiculous as it might sound, I had concluded that it was easier not to hope, and assume that what I didn’t want to happen would happen. It seemed safer not to hope, than to hope and to be disappointed. I really dislike disappointment—it’s miserable; but so is living without hope.  Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen…” Obviously, God did not design human beings to live a hopeless existence, otherwise He wouldn’t have made faith essential (Hebrews 11:6). However, I think  what we do with our hope is key.

God really opened my eyes and let me see that it is okay to hope and to dream; after all, hope is one of the three things that will last forever (1 Corinthians 13:13). He showed me that I needed to place my hopes and dreams in His hands, trusting Him, knowing that regardless of what happens, He is in control and has a plan even better than mine.  I love a quote by Fredrick Faber that says, “There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.”  When my will is buried in His, I am free to hope.

I’m sure He’ll still be teaching me to trust until the day I die, which just means I get to spend more time in the Potter’s hand!

From both the Old and New Testaments, we see that division is not a good thing. In Mark 3:25 Jesus says, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” A house divided will never succeed, because there is constantly a war within it’s walls. Every attempted step forward is challenged, and there can be no progress.  In the same vein, James 1:6-8 says, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” The double-mind man vacillates between his belief and doubt. Such a person is unsure about every step he takes, and as a result, he takes very few steps.

    It is apparent that unity is prized; it is highly regarded. Because division brings failure and instability, it would stand to reason that unity would bring success and stability. When our house is united, it will stand. When our mind is united, we will be stable. When our heart is united, we will fear God.

    Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me Your way, O LORD, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name.” In order to fear God, we must first know God. Throughout the Bible, and (hopefully) in our own lives, God has revealed His character to us. One of the things He has shown is that He is altogether trustworthy. If our hearts are divided, we may find ourselves with fear (worry or anxiety) for our circumstances or uncertainties. It is easy to say that we trust God, but oftentimes, we are divided in our trust. We can claim to trust God, but we still cling to our doubts and worries. When our hearts are divided, we are unable to focus solely on God and to fear (respect and reverence) Him. When we allow our hearts to be divided, we allow a portion of ourselves focus on something other than God.

  Focusing on God allows us to see that we do not need to be fearful or worried, we need only to fear and trust Him. When we focus wholeheartedly on Him, we will not be focused on our circumstances. Where is your focus lately?

Habakkuk 3:17-19

      “Even though the fig trees have no leaves, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”

      When reading the first two verses, things look bad—the crops have all failed, the livestock have all died! There seems to be no source of sustenance or income. At that point, most people might be a little worried or even begin questioning God. Instead of being fearful or bitter, Habakkuk proclaims that he is still going to praise God. In spite of everything that had happened, Habakkuk does not merely say he is going to praise God, he takes it a step farther and he calls God, the God of his salvation!

      Habakkuk could have written something more along the lines of, “Our crops have all failed! Our livestock have all died! We have noting, we have no hope! God, You saw it all—You let it happen! Don’t you care about us?” However, that is far from what he said. Why was he able to praise God in the midst of agricultural disaster?  It is because Habakkuk knew God’s character. He knew no matter how bad things looked, God had a plan and a purpose. He knew even if there was a sea in front of him and an army behind him, God was the God of his salvation.  Habakkuk had faith in the face of uncertainty and disaster.

      Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things that we cannot see.” I seriously doubt Habakkuk was hoping their crops would continue to fail and their animals continue to die! I doubt he was hoping to starve and remain destitute. No sane person would ever hope for failure. Habakkuk did not put his faith in failure and doom. Instead, he put his faith in God’s faithfulness and salvation.

      In the midst of hard times and uncertainty, failure and disaster often seem to be the only certain things. It is our natural inclination to despair. But there is one thing that is truly certain, and that is the fact that God is faithful. He is our provider, peace, joy, and salvation.

      Where do you put your faith during uncertain times? Do you put it in the seemingly certain and inevitable or in our faithful, all-powerful God?