Tag Archives: God knows

Life Lessons

Why do Bad things Happen to Good People?

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                                  Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

    A good friend of ours was ill for a couple of weeks and in the end she went to the doctor when her breathing became difficult. After numerous tests, she was told that she had an aggressive type of lung cancer. Needless to say this left everyone who knew her in a state of shock. “Why her?” people were asking, “She did so much good around the place!!”    People often ask this question….it just seems that life isn’t fair!! We do the best we can and then things go wrong for us! I got to thinking about this age-old question and then thought about a man in the Bible whose name was Job (pronounced Jobe). He was a good man who always did the best he could and then he lost everything. But reading this story  will give us a picture of why this happened which will help us to see things differently and put them in a wider picture when things go wrong for us too.    Let’s turn to the book of Job in the Bible and see what it says about him….

  In chapter one, verse one, we read….”there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one who feared (respected and reverenced) God and who hated evil.” So we see that Job always did his best and as we read down the chapter, we see the things that he did for himself and for his family. Let’s turn it into a story……

   One day, God’s team of angels came to report to Him. God noticed a shiny, glistening, sneaky looking one among them who  didn’t usually come, and recognised him instantly. “Where have you come from, Satan?” He asked. “I’ve been walking up and down all over the place,” Satan replied shiftily. “Have you seen any person as good as My servant Job is?”, God asked, “No-one else is as good in the whole world as he is….he loves Me and hates everything evil! He makes me an offering every day, not only for himself but also for his family.” “Ho”, sneered Satan looking at God, ” No wonder he is so good! You look after him on every side, and have given him all he’s got! I bet if you took it all away from him it’d be a different story! He would curse You to Your face if that happened!!”     God knew His man, and He knew He could trust Job to do the right thing. “OK,” He said to Satan, “We’ll see. I’m allowing you to take away everything that he has. I know he will stand firm for Me.”  Satan chuckled gleefully. ” I’ll make him sorry for following God’s ways. I can beat him!”    So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD…..

So you can see that more goes on behind the scenes, than we know about, and next time we will see what happened.

Morning Musings, Uncategorized

Thoughts from Psalm 139

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The  Ever-present One.

O Lord, You’ve searched and known me, From in the past eternity; You know me from the outside in, You know my ways and all my sin; There’s not a word You do not hear, You know my every secret fear; You are behind, before me too, You watch all things I see and do. I cannot know such knowledge great, Until I get to heaven’s gate. I know You’ll judge in future days, So keep me from all evil ways. Search me O Lord, and know my heart, Try my thoughts, keep me apart, From wicked ways and thoughts in me, And lead in ways that uplift Thee

      What a wonderful psalm this is! We can have the confidence that God knows all about us….we should pray that prayer continually…”Search me O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts”! He knows how we feel at all times so it’s no use pretending we are something that we are not. If we are angry, tell Him! If we are disappointed or discouraged, tell Him about it! We are told to take everything to Him in prayer, and to be anxious about nothing (Philippians 4:6-7)…. this is the only way we can know His peace.                                                                                   As we read this Psalm, we see how that God knows all about us, regardless of whether we know Him for ourselves or not. Just because we might not believe that He exists, it doesn’t make a scrap of difference to this fact. There is nowhere or no way that we can hide from His all seeing eyes, and He has the last say in our affairs whether we believe it or not.

                                                                      

Morning Musings

More of What the Bible Says….

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We have already seen the analogy that is used in the Bible of our bodies being the Building and Dwelling place of God, but there is another aspect that is used too, and that is of what we DO with our lives. This is spoken of as what we are building for God and His Kingdom. In 1 Corinthians 3: 9-16, we are reminded that not only are we the BUILDING OF God, but that we ourselves are BUILDING FOR, His Kingdom. Paul reminds his readers here that he has laid the foundation for them when they came to the Lord Jesus, but now it is up to each one of them to build on that foundation. This goes for us too….what we do with our lives now, all goes into that building.

     Whatever we spend our time doing these days will one day be tested by the fires of the Lord’s eyes (Revelation 1:14). We must remember that He can see into our very hearts to see whether what we are doing is for His glory or just for our own glorification. We are told too, that whatever we do, we must do it as unto the Lord, and He knows  how pure all our motives are. This doesn’t mean that we are to live a hermit’s life just contemplating the future, but if we can’t take the Lord with us where we go and what we do, it is better left behind.

    People watch us to see if our lives measure up to what they hear us say….for instance, there is no point having a bumper sticker on your car that says “Jesus Saves”, if we drive in an unsafe manner!!   So let’s make sure we build with gold, silver or precious stones that will withstand the fires of judgment and not just with wood, hay and straw which will all be burned up at that day.

We are all builders for our God,  Building with gold or merely sod, The day we stand before His face, What can we give Him for His grace?

Life Lessons

Storms of Life.

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When the disciples experienced the worst storm of their life, they had been sent across the lake by Jesus Christ. The disciples were experienced fishermen who could read the weather signs and knew how to handle these sudden storms that whipped up the lake surface into a frenzy. Jesus knew all this, but He knew a storm was coming up that would test them to the maximum.  They hadn’t made a mistake that brought this upon them, they were there for the purpose of seeing God’s protection and power..

    Remember this….Jesus Christ knows the storm we are in at any given time. He could have stopped the storm coming to the disciples, but He wanted to show them His power. He knows the storm that I may be in right now, but He wants me to go through it so He can show me His power and refine the dross out of my life and strengthen the faith I have in Him.

     The Lord speaks to us in these three ways ….

In the storm….He comes to us through the storm, walking on the water…”I will never leave you”, He says.

Through the storm… He reminds us that He is there with us…”don’t be afraid”, He says, “trust Me”.

The storm within you….often when these storms come, they attack us from the inside. We are all in a turmoil because of circumstances beyond our control, and wonder where we are going to turn next. We must not be afraid of being afraid….storms always have an end. There will be a period of calm when it is over and then another one may come but because we have proved our Lord’s help with the first one, we have confidence within the next one.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)”

      Then we were reminded of the two houses that were built….one on the rock and one on the sandy beach edge. When the first storm came, the one on the rock stood firm, but the one on the sand fell and was destroyed.  So it is with us in life’s storms….we cannot build our house during the storm, we must have it built before the storm comes!  Remember…Jesus Christ is the Rock we must build on……He is the Lord of all our storms. Anything else is like shifting sand!

Life Lessons

When Things go Wrong!

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     It has not been an easy year for most people. Events have had to be cancelled, and other family things like funerals and weddings have had to be put off due to the lock down levels, and depending which one we happen to be in at the time. People have lost their jobs, and others have lost money they have paid for overseas trips that could not be taken. None of these things are easy to put up with.

    It reminded me of the time we had some visitors from another area, and were taking them around the local sights. One of these was a glass blower at  work behind the gallery that was selling a lot of his work. There were some beautiful pieces on display, all brightly coloured and different shapes. The man was in his workshop at the back of the gallery which was open for people to watch him at work.

    We went in and up the stairs where we could look down on him plying his art. The furnace was heated up and the tongs he was using were red hot. As he pulled the shaped vase out of the heat, he pulled and twisted at the neck of it to form a shapely edge. But time and time again, he had to put it back into the heat because he wasn’t satisfied with how it looked.

    It reminded me of the Master Glass Blower at work in our lives, as He moulds and perfects His people to make them become what He wants them to be. We may not like the heat of the fire we have to go through, or the pulling and twisting that we are subject to, but when it is all over, we are more like the finished article that He wants us to be….a thing of beauty and fit for His use.

   So when we think of the events of this year and how disrupted many of them have been, let’s remember to allow them to make us better, and not bitter. Just one little letter different, but what a tremendous difference in the end result of our lives!

Uncategorized

The Trials of Life.

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Trusting in God….“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”.

    As I read those words in my morning Bible reading recently, my mind went back many years ago to the time when we HAD put confidence in what people had told us and were badly let down. We were contemplating buying a commercial building with two tenants leasing it. The tenant downstairs seemed reliable enough, but the we had some doubts about the ones upstairs. We asked them how long they were likely to need the lease for, and they said as long as they didn’t expand, there was no likelihood of them moving. So with that assurance, we bought the building.

   For a few months, everything went well, and then the tenants upstairs gave notice that they were moving but would continue paying their rent until the end of their lease in six month’s time. This was a blow that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to face. Once the lease ran out, we were left with only half the income we had reckoned on, and as time went by we were unable to lease out the top floor. It was either too big, or there wasn’t enough parking. It was certainly never classed as being too small by any prospective tenant!

    Things were not easy and we began to wonder if we had made a mistake in “putting our confidence in man “. We had prayed about the proposition before buying it and done our homework as thoroughly as we could, but now the only conclusion we could come to was that we must have made a mistake in buying the place.

   During this time, my morning Bible reading was about the time when the Lord told His disciples to row across the lake, all the time knowing what was going to happen. He knew the storm was going to come and toss them about. Yet He still told them to go. They hadn’t made a mistake in setting off across the lake….they went at His bidding. He didn’t divert the storm, He allowed things to work out their course.  He knew He would meet them in their hour of desperate need and calm the storm.

    After reading this story, my mind settled down somewhat. We hadn’t made a mistake after all, the Lord just wanted to teach us that He was in control and would release us from the situation in His good time. It didn’t happen overnight but the building eventually sold and we were released from the situation we were in. How relieved we were and overjoyed at not having to go through this hard time any more!!

    I now know that whatever comes our way, God is always in control. If things are easy, we must give Him thanks, and when things come tough, we are to tighten our belts (figuratively) and still give Him thanks that things are no worse than they are! Above all, we are not to put our confidence in what people tell us, but to always trust in God and what He says. �����

My Life, Uncategorized

My Heart, God’s Home, Part Eleven.

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    Have We REALLY Handed all to Him?

On one of my morning trysts with my Lord in the living room before anyone else was stirring, we were reading together His promises about me in abiding in Him. I was sure I WAS abiding in Him….after all, here we were together enjoying fellowship together over His Word weren’t we?

Then He turned me to that verse in the Old Testament where the psalmist was asking God to search his heart, and know his thoughts, and try him to see if there was still some wicked way in him (Psalm 139:23-24).

I started to squirm as I thought how scary it would be if He turned those pure and holy eyes on my innermost being! I couldn’t trust myself to be totally one hundred percent honest. I knew what I ought to be, and I knew that I wanted to be that, but WAS I? I knew that my heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked  and that only God could know it (Jeremiah 17:9-10).  I didn’t even know it myself!                                                                                                                      ” I know that you want to follow Me with all your heart”, Jesus said, “Would you mind giving me your smart phone for a while?”

What would I do without it? I shrunk back, keeping it in my pocket. What if he went on to the log, and saw what I’d been looking at? And read those catty comments I’d put onto Facebook? And read some of those suggestive remarks my friends had sent to make me laugh?

Suddenly those things didn’t seem quite so clever or witty as I’d thought they were when I got them! Besides, what would I do without the phone there at my fingertips? Someone might try to get hold of me, or worse still, maybe the Lord would answer for me! What would my friends think if they got Him on the phone?

It came on me in a flash, that He already knew all those things! There was nothing at all that I could hide from Him! He didn’t need to get the phone to know those things…the point was, was I ready to hand all those things over to Him too? Those little resentments and excuses that I always made, refusing to take the blame. Being offended if I thought I was being overlooked?

“Oh Lord”, I cried in repentance, “You can see me through and through, you know every little rotten thought I’ve ever had. Help me to walk in Your way everlasting, beginning now so I won’t be ashamed before You as I go into eternity!”

“My child”, He said with that beautiful smile of His, “That is what I’ve been wanting to hear from you all along!”

He handed me my phone back again, “Now use this for My glory, speaking of the things of Myself to build others up, sending words of encouragement to them, and praising others”.

My desires were now what He desired, and He was giving it all back to me! What joy! What blessings He bestows!

“Oh Lord!” I cried, “Help me to be each day what You want me to be, and to do only what You want me to do!”