Devotional thoughts - Lent 2013 - day 27

Attended a memorial service for a 2 month old baby girl today.  In my crying out to the LORD about the situation, it was as if He told me, like Jesus told John the Baptist in Matthew 3:15, “Suffer it to be so now...” Earlier, I had thought of, then seen the verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (AMP):

¹³ Now also we would not have you ignorant, brethren, about those who fall asleep [in death], that you may not grieve [for them] as the rest do who have no hope [beyond the grave].

So I really wasn’t surprised to hear the verse during the eulogy.  Grieving, suffering – there seems to be a lot of that going around that is affecting me deeply.  Even more so as I consider the coming recognition this month of  “Good Friday” – marking Jesus’ suffering and dying on the cross …

Later, the message of the Our Daily Bread devotional – to be thankful in all things – and the following urging of the My Utmost for His Highest  devotional both spoke to the way in which we should face difficulty as children of God:

If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings. …

Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).

It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).

… and my journey with Him continues …