Tuesday, March 16, 2010

You won't believe it....

Habakkuk 1:5
Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.

How powerful is this verse. I listen to talk radio and hear debate after debate about this party and that party and this agenda and that agenda. While I definitely have opinions on all of these things, I am made to pause with this verse.

In the verses that follow the Lord explains to Habakkuk how that he is going to allow the Chaldeans to take over and rule over Isreal. He explains that they are a nasty, vile and violent people and He is just going to let it happen...because He was doing something.

So often we are deceived by the current tele-evangelist, or popular messaging of our day that if we just live right, if we just do this, if we just have faith that everything good will head our way. But that is just not been the case historically or bibilically. Sometimes - He allows the bad into our lives for His purpose that we cannot see.

I think the last part of verse 5 is what strikes me the most. "Even if I told you - you wouldn't believe it". His ways are so exponentially higher than our ways, that even if we had knowledge of what He was up to...we would not believe it. Amazing

Friday, March 12, 2010

It's out of my hands....

I am studying in Ephesians right now - I wasn't too sure when I first started the study...but I am now loving it. What is striking to me is the amount of times that the phrase "according to" or "in accordance with" shows up in this book.

"According to the good pleasure of His will" "According to the riches of His grace." "According to his good pleasure", "According to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will", "According to the working of His mighty power", - and that is just chapter one! What I am learning from that is that it is not "according to" ME at all....it is His will, His Grace, His mercy, His power, His might, His purposes that were designed before the foundation of the world....and I have been chosen by Him to be a receipient of that.

There are days like today when I wake up and can rest totally in that. Then there are days like yesterday...when I wanted all control and rest and trust where something I had to wrestle against my own self to attain.

Oh that I might learn to have more days like today.