Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass;
it's about learning to dance in the rain.
We have so much to be thankful for! God loves us so much that He has been so good to give us "the bread of adversity" Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
I was just reading Isaiah 30:19-21 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction........
This part hit me, because again I see His goal is not to give us smooth lives, but lives that are being molded and shaped to be able to live in heaven for eternity. We can't enter heaven with pride, selfishness, hate, grudges, anger, lust. Even minor sins cannot enter into heaven. Jesus will clean us completely and prepare us, but sometimes that saving grace and preparation will come through adversity, affliction, prison, loneliness, health issues, losses, trials, family problems. He uses everything in our lives, bad and good to mold us, to clean us, to prepare us. He has plans for our good not for woe. Plans to give a future full of hope. Jer. 29:11.
We spend so much of our time trying to avoid the storms, trying to protect our children from problems in their lives, or trying to make our families or our life as smooth as possible. Then when the problems hit, we question why, we do everything we can to fix it, and we beg God to heal, provide or take away the problem. But can we learn to "dance in the rain"? Can we give thanks in everything?
It's an amazing transformation in our hearts when we can thank Him for everything. When we can thank Him for our pain, trials, and afflictions. Knowing, trusting He has a good purpose. Knowing He truly loves us and will only do what's best for all in the long run. For all eternity.
Thank you Jesus for your great love and compassion. We truly have so much to be thankful for.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Here is a song that goes along with my thoughts today:
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things
Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe
Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
When friends betray us, When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,
It's not our home
Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You‚re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can‚t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise
Welcome trials as friends.
I am sending them to you to grow you up in Me.
They are sent to show you the faith you already have and to strengthen that
faith.
My plan is working out perfectly!
Persevere, dear daughter.
Perseverance makes you more mature.
You will end up perfectly mature and complete in the end...lacking NOTHING!
Rest in Me, God your Father
