Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Where does my help come from?

Sometimes I like to just open my bible and read the first thing my eyes land on. I have a reading plan that I stick to (It's the one year bible in case you are wondering lol) I think there are several good reasons to have a plan when you read the bible but I'm not going to get into that here. Today I opened up my bible to Psalm 121 this is what it says
I will Lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand
The sun will not smite you by day
Nor the moon by night
The Lord will protect you from all evil
He will keep your soul
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever

It just struck me as so beautiful and so comforting. (I almost always think beautiful things are comforting)

This year has been amazing and wonderful and incredibly hard. It was full of great things we weren't expecting and difficult things we weren't expecting. Along with all the great and difficult things we were expecting. But in the end it's always a great encouragement to know that my help comes from the Lord. He never sleeps or misses a thing, He guards my going out and my coming in and he will do it forever. Who else could promise you that?

So I just want to remind any of you that read this. Whatever it is in your life that you need help with. Let your help come from the Lord.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Faithful

Around here we have been reading George Mueller. I was talking to my Mentor a few weeks ago and asked her what she is reading and she said "you know what? I'll send it to you" which sent little happy tingles up my spine because I love to read and books in english are not very common here. I waited (somewhat impatiently I admit) for the package and when it finally arrived it had a the biography of George Mueller in it. To be exact it had the exact one I read when I was a kid. Nostalgically I looked at the cover as Jose was reading because he jacked it from me. ;) But it's ok, I'm reading it now.
It's hard to imagine what it was like for him. His operating costs were about $400 a day and he never asked anyone for money. Only God. He never took matters into his own hands and got a second job he just relied completely on God. Now, I knew that. I had read it and it inspired me when I was 18 and single preparing to go to Russia. I worked hard to save money and told people what I was doing but I never asked anyone to give me money for the trip (as far as I can remember that was a long time ago) I enjoyed the adventure of it and the feeling of what I thought was total reliance on God. But in reality, if I had run out of money or had an emergency I wouldn't have called on God. I would have called on mom and dad. That was the real extent of my faith at that time. I knew that nothing would happen out of my control because my parents were there to help if I needed it.
Now it's 10 years later and I'm a missionary again. This time I'm not single. Now I'm a mom. And this whole living on faith thing is hard. When you are relying on a physical person you pick up the phone, hear their voice, tell them your problem and listen to their audible answer. When you are relying on an invisible God it doesn't work like that. Getting in touch with him is much easier. He never misses your call actually. But hearing the audible answer or seeing the results of your call for help are a little harder most of the time. It exposes you. You realize that maybe you aren't as full of faith as you thought you were. So that's where I am. Struggling to show myself faithful. Faithful to trust in God even when I think there will never be an answer to my call. Faithful to continue running to him when I have a problem instead of running to someone I can see/feel/hear. Just faithful.  
I want to be that person. The faithful, doubtless Christian.

Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy. Philippians 2:14-18

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