Time to Turn the Page!

March 18, 2009

It must be time for a new chapter in the life of our family. I feel the page beginning to turn and I greet it with cautious expectation and excitement. What does God hold for us in the future?

I was reading Joshua chapter 3 today and I realized that God brought this scripture to encourage me about this time last year when we were crossing the Jordan into waters and things unknown to us.

How marvelous to watch the faithfulness of God at that time. God went out ahead of us and provided firm dry ground for crossing just like he did the Israelites. He carefully guided us through the flood waters to deliver Danni safely to the other side. For that my heart sings songs of thanksgiving and praise.

But now there are other floodwaters not only for us but for every community across the world. People are experiencing the wrath of God on so many levels and fear has become a constant companion to many. I’m so thankful that we have a God who is in control.

Does this mean we won’t have to suffer? Hardly not. God didn’t spare his own son suffering and he won’t spare us either but we have faith and trust in a loving God who has our best at heart always! We know that the potter is shaping us and molding us with his capable hands.

I think of how in awe I would have been if I were an Israelite at that time crossing the Jordan on dry ground and seeing a wall of water with the knowledge that the hand of my Father God was holding it back. How humbling that must have been!

I was also reading in Habakkuk 3 today and it speaks very plainly about praising God through the hard times. Habakkuk was in awe of the power and might of God coming to the aid of his people. We serve a God who can deliver us mightily but even if he doesn’t do it in our way or timing he is still to be praised no matter what chaos is going on around us.

Hard times reveal what you are made of and how genuine is your faith. It is the point where you must decide to push through the circumstances and man, does that make your faith and trust in God go through the roof!

Habakkuk says in chapter 3 verses 17-19… “For even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom and no fruit is on the vines, even if the olive tree fails to produce, and the fields yield no food at all, even if the sheep vanish from the sheep pen, and there are no cows in the stalls; still I will rejoice in Adonai,
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Elohim Adonai (Sovereign Lord) is my strength! He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer and enables me to stride over my high places.” ( CJBV)

I love this because it is God, the Sovereign Lord, who is our strength! He is in control and it is he who makes us able to do things that we in ourselves are not able to do! Praise Adonai!

In 1Corinthians 1:8-9 it says this… “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, IS FAITHFUL!” (Emphasis mine)(NIV).

Guess what?! God is in control and he will keep us strong until the end; that is enough to keep us praising him all day long for the rest of our lives mortal and immortal! Praise God!