The Week of March 22-27

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."  Psalm 46:1-3, 7, 10-11

A recently bereaved friend told me that people keep quoting I Thessalonians 5:18 at her, "Give thanks in everything," and that sometimes she feels like she'll scream if she hears it again because her heart is broken and she doesn't feel like saying thank you. That got Herb and me talking about what it means to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (NIV) This is such a thorny verse that my Bible's study notes completely wimp out and pass right over it! I guess we're on our own, with the help of the Holy Spirit!

  So, to the best of our understanding, it doesn't mean to thank God for all circumstances, but in the midst of them.  We need to look for His goodness in the midst of whatever hard and painful things we're going through.  We know He has promised to never leave us or forsake us, so let us look for the evidence that He is with us.  Let us recognize His faithful, loving care in the midst of our trials and thank Him for it, knowing that He is both our Sovereign God and also our loving Heavenly Father, and nothing happens to us apart from His will.

Believe me, I'm not preaching anything because this is a lesson I haven't learned!  It's taken me a week of "each day has enough trouble of its own," Matthew 6:34 style, to get to this point.  But Sunday was a turning point in my thinking.  A friend that I hadn't seen in a while ran after me in church to ask if I was okay and to tell me that God had laid me on her heart all week and that she'd been praying for me.  Both Herb and I were completely blown away that without her having a clue of the trials we were going through, her heart had been available to God and that He had moved her to pray repeatedly for us.  And that, dear friends, is how we can give thanks in all circumstances--because God is so faithful that even when we think we are going through something alone, He is there.  Sort of like the "Footprints" poem!

So in that vein, I would like to thank God for showing His grace through our children and using their lives to abundantly bless us . . .
. . . for loving support from many friends and loved ones . . .

. . . even through our dogs who come alongside us or on top of us when we weep (Hero really wants to be a lap dog!) . . .
. . . for protecting both Herb and me . . .

. . . and that dear little Peeky is still full of life and mischief despite his health problems.