God Has a Way...

God has a way of working out things in our lives.  For a while now, I have been planning on writing a resignation letter to the Women's Ministry Team at my church.  I had decided that I wanted to concentrate solely on youth ministry.  I couldn't adequately do what I felt I needed to in both ministries, so I went with the one where I felt like God wanted me to be.  I do desire to do some women's ministry, but at this time, I feel like God wants me to stay working with my middle school girls.

I waited and waiting writing that letter though.  I'm not sure if it was just mere procrastination, fear of confrontation or maybe I was actually waiting on God, but in any case, I'm glad that I waited.  This past Sunday I was handed a thank you card and a flower for my service over the past year by the women's director.  Apparently God had been working behind the scenes and the women's ministry was completely dissolved (in the form that it had been).  So now I don't have to worry about writing a letter of resignation, there's nothing to resign from.

Isn't it strange and great at the same time when God takes care of things for you?  I mean, we all say that we trust Him to do just that, but do we really?  Do we really trust that God will handle things for us? Even the things that are the most uncomfortable?  I've been teaching my middle school girls about the different themes of the Bible.  We've been studying about how God cares, comforts and takes care of us.  This past week we were reading Psalm 37 about how trusting God allows him to bring good to our lives.

Look at this...
³ Trust in the LORD, and do good;
         Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
 ⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD,
         And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
      
 ⁵ Commit your way to the LORD,
         Trust also in Him,
         And He shall bring it to pass.
 ⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
         And your justice as the noonday.
      
 ⁷ Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
         Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
         Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
 ⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
         Do not fret—it only causes harm.

Trusting and delighting in God brings us the desires of our heart. In contrast, anger, worry, or being unpleased with life only cause us harm.  Could this mean that being discontented with life holds God back from bring blessings into our lives?   Are we tying God's hands every time we complain or worry about our lives?  Oh my, this really makes me think twice about how I perceive about things !

I was talking to my mom earlier this week about perspectives.  We can look at things through a negative or a positive viewpoint.  There's a mountain directly across from my driveway.  On that mountain there's a wasteland of dead kudzu vines among the bare winter trees.  But there's also some evergreens clinging to rich dark green leaves.  I can choose to look at that mountain and only see dead things or I can choose to look and see that life is still present in the evergreen leaves.  It's my choice what perspective I take, not just in matters of things I see, but also in how I choose to feel about things.  What if we made the conscience choice to alter our viewpoints to the positive side?  What if we found something purposeful or meaningful about everything we go through in our lives?  Would God be able to move more effective in our lives? I'm inclined to think so.

Another thing that came to mind while I was talking to Mom was the differences between boundaries and limitations.  Boundaries are set by God; ie right from wrong, black from white.  Limitations are placed by man (often ourselves).....for nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).  We shouldn't allow man's limitations to hold us back from God's possibilities.  Please join with me in not allowing your own perspectives, fears, worries or complaints to hold you back from experiencing God's best for you.