Someday We Will Understand

It has been a little over 3 years since I was diagnosed with cancer. Time has not flown when you are having fun. Facing and fighting cancer is a daily, lifetime process of just plain hard work when you choose a lifestyle change and nutritional route. Each day I still face the giant, even though I have won the battle. You just never know how many friends that giant has, lurking in the dark. Today I am grateful that I am not physically suffering the effects of cancer as so many I know are. When I look around I just don't understand why so many have to suffer. My devotions today said this, "Someday we will understand that God has a reason behind every no He gives us through the course of our lives. When God's people are worried and concerned that their prayers are not being answered, how often we have seen Him working to answer them in a far greater way! Occasionally we catch a glimpse of this, but the complete revelation of it will not be seen until later."

When the frosts are in the valley,
And the mountaintops are gray,
And the choicest blooms are blighted,
And the blossoms die away,
A loving Father whispers,
"This all comes from my hand";
Blessed are you if you trust
When you cannot understand.

If, after years of toiling,
Your wealth should fly away
And leave your hands all empty,
And your hair is turning gray,
Remember then your Father
Owns all the sea and land;
Blessed are you if you trust
When you cannot understand."

As a Christian, I believe the greatest trial of our faith comes through suffering. It's easy to trust God when our bank accounts are full, our health is great, our children are loving and serving God and there are no giants in our land. When God makes sense, it's easy to trust Him. Our response to trials and suffering show if we are looking at God through our circumstances, or we are looking at our circumstances through God.
So many of us long to obey the verse that says to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Trusting is not dependent on circumstances or feelings. Trusting is a choice to believe what the Bible says about the character of God, rather than allowing your circumstances to determine the character of God. When we become angry or bitter towards God because of our circumstances, we are passing judgment on God. We then become the God of our life and we determine what is good and best for us. We allow the worlds perspective to become our perspective. If it feels good and makes us happy, it must be good! If it feels bad and makes us hurt, it must be bad. God is not interested in our happiness, He is interested in our character. We want to be like Christ, and yet we don't want to suffer like Christ.

I encourage you to make a choice to always trust God no matter what He allows into your life. Is it easy? No! Will it stretch you? Yes? Psalm 1:1-3 says the man who delights and meditates on the law of the Lord day and night will be be blessed. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yield its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. As we plant ourselves in the Bible on a daily basis we feed our root system that allows us to stand strong when the storms hit.

Are the leaves of your life withered? Are you angry or bitter towards God because of the circumstances in your life? Are you planted in His word each and every day? Are you trusting Him and speaking that trust to others? Are you loving Him in spite of your circumstances or because of your circumstances? Are you trusting Him even if He doesn't make sense? Are you demanding an explanation from God for your pain through your attitude and actions?

I pray you have decided to love God and to show Him your love each and every day as He showed you His love by carrying His cross and dying on it. In Matthew 16:25 these are Jesus' words, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." So many of us want to follow Jesus and yet we don't want to carry the cross of suffering, trials, pain and tears. Following Jesus means denying ourselves the right to understanding, the right to having all our questions answered, the right to doubt his love based on what we feel. We are commanded to "take up" our cross. It is something we choose or don't choose on a daily basis. No one can take it up for you. God gives you a free will to love and trust. I pray we will all be found following in His footsteps, rather than forging our own path.

Today I am choosing to trust. Are you?