We can get so easily distracted and caught up in our minds in the day-to-day, worrying about people, our futures and things being the broken way that they are. These can so quickly take our minds from the thankful-hearted contentment that God offers us. We try to make some sense of things by overanalyzing them in hopes of gaining some understanding, but one thing I am learning is that knowing more is not enough. Knowing 100 possible outcomes of a situation doesn’t actually give me any more peace or confidence, it only proves to make me more anxious. Proverbs 3:5-6 says to “trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” When I am trying my best with my own understanding, it usually ends up looking like: ‘I can’t do it, I am too weak, or I don’t understand.’ I think the best part about failing is the reminder that my confidence really has to be in the Lord. In the period of waiting that I am in, I have been shown over and over how caring our Heavenly Father is. My own anxiety chiefly springs up when I forget that God CARES. I forget that He is faithfully growing me and tenderly showing me His character and that if I am going in the wrong direction, He is more than able to turn me around.
Forgetting seems to be the biggest danger then because if I always knew that I am fully loved, I would be free to love others because I wouldn’t require anything back. If I were always aware that my needs are fully taken care of and looked after, I would be a walking blessing giving MACHINE because my resources are infinite. And if I could just remember that God is mighty, and that He has an intentional plan to glorify Himself through me, I would not be afraid of being at the wrong place at the wrong time or saying the wrong things, there would simply be no fear to walk because I would remember who holds me up.
In periods of waiting on the LORD, we get to experience learning to trust Him. It is most often when I can clearly see my need for God that I find it easier to depend on Him to work through me. I become unconcerned with the outcome or the bumps on the road because I am just in awe of God and so excited to see what he is doing. There is an amazing contrast that I have the wonder of seeing; my angry, prideful, selfish, judgmental heart, being reminded of the Truth of His love and grace, by His mercy being a reflection of the glory of God. His grace, joy, patience and peace, somehow not always felt but consistently produced, is an absolute miracle, and it happens in me. I am reading a book called ‘Knowing God’ by JI Packer, and the chapter I read highlighted that the real beauty of knowing Him is that He knows you, and the only way we can come to know Him is that He first knew us, and He loves us. We are fully loved, fully known, fully cared for, completely protected in that anything that comes our way, He will be enough. He knows our deepest darkness, and still chose to redeem us. What a good gracious God we have. We all need the reminder that God is faithful, because we so quickly forget.
“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6-7
By: Abby Boettger
