Understading

I'm kind of behind on blogging (not really), but this is from yesterday...

Again, I read this in Jesus Calling...

"Understanding will never bring you Peace. That’s why I have instructed you to trust in Me, not in your understanding. Human beings have a voracious appetite for trying to figure things out, in order to gain a sense of mastery over their lives.”

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

Understanding doesn’t bring peace. I don’t understand anything going on around me. I don’t understand why I’m not in Australia. I don’t understand why God has ordained certain things in my life that involve watching people I’m close to hurting and me hurting. But I do know God. I know He is good, and the things He does are good. I know He is in control. I trust His character because He is unfailing.

I go back to last August. I didn’t understand why I was back at Samford and Birmingham for one more year. I couldn’t possibly see the whole picture and ever even imagine how that would have turned out. And at first, I didn’t trust it. How I wish I would have! The things He has done in my life in this past year have been absolutely phenomenal and better than I could have ever dreamed. I didn’t understand, but God did. He led me here. He is good. His ways are good.

So, now I don’t understand. But I’ve learned from watching His goodness and His kindness to me in the past year that the things He does are good and the whole picture is so much bigger! My viewpoint is so finite and small. I only see a fragmented piece of the picture. God sees the whole thing.

I can’t remember where I heard the story... but it’s about this man who is looking at a tapestry with God. He sees pulled out threads and absolute chaos. “How is that a picture? How is that beautiful? It’s chaos. It’s disorder. I don’t see anything.” Then God takes him and walks him around to the other side of the tapestry, the front, and he shows the man that he was looking at the tapestry from a different perspective. He beholds a beautiful work of art, majestic in size and complete to the tiniest detail. I, too, find myself asking how these chaotic threads make a picture. The Lord beckons me to Himself and gives me just a glimpse into His perspective, the whole picture, a woven tapestry. I can’t see the majesty and beauty from where I am standing. But He does.

God has been speaking to me about faith. What is faith? The word itself implies that we have faith IN something. What is our faith in? Is it faith in faith itself? No. It is faith in the unchanging character and nature of God. It is choosing to believe that He is who He says He is. He is good, and the things He does are good. His is kind. He is sovereign, and He is in complete control. It is choosing to believe, despite our own lack of understanding. He has been showing me that I don’t have to understand in order to choose to believe. And that is faith.

I’ve always read this verse, but I opened my Bible just now, and literally, it was right there:

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Del Tackett of the Focus Institute said, “Our faith is not a feeling. Our faith overcomes our feelings.” Even though everything within you contests it and says no, faith is rooted in the truth claims of God, because of a deep conviction that He is greater.

This has been my prayer in all this:

So, God, every day, wake me up and increase my faith. Faith- not in myself, not in my circumstances, not in my family- faith in you alone- your unfailing character and your truth claims that never change! Build me up and strengthen that faith in YOU. All my hope and all my trust is in you! Amen!