Level Ground

After going through a very difficult situation, a well meaning Christian woman looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Well it was God’s will that that happened to you.”

I remember feeling stunned. I was hurting, I felt betrayed and now I hear that this was God’s will?  What kind of God would want me to suffer?

This occurred many years ago and her words have rung in my ears ever since.

How do we know what God’s will is?

I believe that the only way to truly know God’s will is by getting to know God. And we can do that:

• through prayer.

• by searching the scriptures

• listening to the Holy Spirit, and

• seeking confirmation from wise and Godly people

It’s through drawing near to God that God’s guidance and direction becomes evident.

So after doing all of the above, I believe the dear woman had it wrong. It was not God’s will for that situation to occur. It was not God’s will for me to be abused and hurt by another. However, what was true was that God was in the midst to carry me through, to direct me and to put me back on level ground. The adversity forced me to grow and to lean more on God, that was clear but what occurred was not of God.

So what would my response be?  I found myself crying out to God. I needed strength and God’s wisdom to handle this situation. I wanted to do God’s will even though I knew it would be hard. Psalm 143:10 was a powerful verse for me:

Teach me to do your will, because you are my God.  Let your good spirit lead me on level ground.

The Psalmist is praying for God’s divine direction and God’s guidance. I found myself doing the same.   

“You are my God” the Psalmist declares. I love how this expression shows us the intimate relationship the psalmist has with God. A relationship that I too desire.

What would happen in your life if you asked God to guide you, to direct your step, to correct you? I believe that God will do for you what God did for me…that God’s spirit would lead you on level ground.

What's the story of your life?

So, I was heading into a coffee shop recently and I saw a woman, through the glass doors, holding a tray of coffees and a couple of small bags, presumably some yummy treats. There was no way she was going to manage the door so I swiftly opened the door and held it open for her. She thanked me and proceeded through the open door. Just as she made it outside the strap of the purse she was carrying slipped off her shoulder causing her arm to jerk and with that her entire purchase tumbled onto the sidewalk. She looked back at me and said, without skipping a beat, “That’s the story of my life.”

Have you ever heard anyone say that?  Have you?  People usually say that after some mishap.  But when I thought about it, what a terrible way to define ones life story.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 12, tells us how to tell and articulate a better story of our lives.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is such a powerful verse. It is gives us a clue to how we might get to the will of God, that I believe we all secretly want.  Paul says it is going to be proved in our lives as we learn to think and speak the actual story of our lives. He says, to have your mind renewed, transformed and revolutionized - think caterpillar becoming butterfly - we have to think differently.  You see it is of this world to see a bad thing happen and say, “that’s the story of my life”. It’s negative thinking, it’s being pulled down to this low level.

The thing is, we can’t live right if we don’t think right. That’s why the bible puts a huge emphasis on how we think. None of us wake up in the morning and say ‘I want to have a bad day’ but at times we allow that kind of negative thought to move us toward the very type of day we don’t want to have.

So today, let’s work on our thoughts being pulled toward heaven. Keep telling yourself the actual story, the Gospel story, that you are loved, you are cherished, you are valued, that you are a child of the king.  That is the story of your life!

You may think, ‘well Mona, that is just half glass full, half glass empty kind of thinking’.  I beg to differ, your glass is not half empty, your glass in not half full, in Jesus’ name your cup is overflowing!

Overflow with Hope in 2024

Have you ever been low in hope? Have you ever had days when things just seemed hopeless?Have you ever been in a situation when you thought ‘There is no way that this can turn around, there is no way anything positive can come out of this’.

Take a look at this verse:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13

One of the things I love about this verse is… it’s actually a prayer…is that Paul calls God the God of HOPE.

Scripture calls God the God of hope because that is the result of a relationship with a God like this.  Hope is the expectation that good is on the way. That this good God is working things out for our good.  And I love that God is called the God of Hope because it’s not like we are asking for something that God doesn’t know anything about.

Hope is something that God specializes in.

Hope is something that God gives to His people.

Sometimes we have negative feelings about God — maybe we may think about God as a judge, or waiting for us to mess up. We shouldn’t associate God with feelings of burden or sadness, quite the opposite, we should think about God as a God of hope, because that is what God gives.  And Paul says that God will fill us with all joy and peace and that we will get that as we trust in God.

When we trust people, very often trust and peace is not what comes up because people can let us down, they are human and here’s what’s different about God…God always keeps his promises. You can trust God.

God is a promise keeping God.

And the more we trust God the more we are filled with joy and peace because God always keeps His promises. The result of that is, what Paul says, “so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.”

You know those times when things are hard and you start to feel a little bit hopeful? That is not what Paul is praying for, Paul is praying that we would overflow with hope. Paul is praying that we would experience an abundance of hope— more hope that our hearts can even hold!

Earlier in this chapter, Paul points to one great reason to rejoice and that is God sending His son Jesus as our Saviour.

We have so many reasons to hope!

As we move further into 2024, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.