Sometimes I think I have more challenges than I can handle and I frequently wonder why difficult things happen. I do not think I am alone in wondering.
Everyone who knows me knows that CS Lewis is one of my favorite authors. I recently discovered a new blurb of his. I have never been in country at war and this is from a collection of his letters to others about war time- TO BEDE GRIFFITHS: On fortitude and trust in God in the face of war; and on ecumenical differences dated 29 April 1938:
“I have been in considerable trouble over the present danger of war. Twice in one life—and then to find how little I have grown in fortitude despite my conversion. It has done me a lot of good by making me realise how much of my happiness secretly depended on the tacit assumption of at least tolerable conditions for the body: and I see more clearly, I think, the necessity (if one may so put it) which God is under of allowing us to be afflicted—so few of us will really rest all on Him if He leaves us any other support.”
What he writes rings true with me. I want to be comfortable and much of my happiness depends on it. To tell the truth, if I was not forced to depend on Him, I am not certain I would. Sad though, really. Why is this so?
I ask myself this question daily. Is He my First Choice? What is the Bible filled with? The answer is – God’s love for us, His faithfulness, His ability, His all knowing and all seeing, His care, His desire to answer prayer, His wanting us to see Him as He is and not as we are – broken, frail – and His true desire to have us trust Him with everything every moment.
Is 40.26 reminds me “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.”
The God that named the stars and keeps them, keeps me and all that concerns me.
Romans 8.15 tells me “the Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.'” Abba is a very tender word that means ‘daddy.’
There isn’t enough paper to add how Jesus says He is my Shepherd, He is the Truth, the Way, the Light, the Bread, the Eternal One, the Living Water, the Resurrection, Counselor, Prince of Peace, Wonderful. He is Everything.
He has called me by my name and knows every detail about me and my life and what has hurt and what has made me happy and will make me happy. He reminds me “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…” Psalm 24.1. He owns all the animals in the forest and all the cattle on a thousand hills. Psalm 50.10. And He tells us how He gives us great and precious promises to care for us and love us.
This means He owns all the jobs, all the money in the world, all the homes, all the physical things and spiritual things available to us. He gives us all things through Christ.
To tell the truth, what more could I ever want? Why would I go to any other source for anything when He never runs out of anything. He never runs out of patience with me and for that I am eternally grateful to Him. I want to make Him my First Choice in every situation.
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