Wild at HOME

I am getting well acquainted with this song by Hillsong United( go watch the video and hear it)  at the moment, which has inspired me to blog about it. In Genesis 22, Abraham  found that God provided a lamb for his sacrifice, much as Hagar  found that God hears when she and her son were dying of dehydration. It is hard to trust God in the middle of our need when we do not see the answers or the provision coming to us. have you ever felt the desperation of being without your basic needs physically, emotionally or spiritually? Sometimes it seems like God is not in a hurry to meet the needs- looking at Hagar, the situation was pretty dire before He showed up. I don’t know that He was slow in answering her prayer. I don’t think that He didn’t see her situation and want to help.. but it is possible that she didn’t know her need was great enough until it reached that point… or perhaps she didn’t call on Him until then. God has a habit of showing up when it will be obvious that the solution could only have come from Him. He is willing to give abundant physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual help. His timing is for a reason though and we don’t always know what that reason is. But know this- He can be trusted to meet those needs. He will bring to life those things which you do not possess within yourself and satisfy, sustain and provide for you.

Prayer in the fire and in trials is hard too. It’s not easy to lean into the refining fire. It is more our nature to curse the pain that God uses to change us. Our woes are Father-filtered. He will only allow things that can be used for our good according to His purpose. Not that the things we go through are always good- they are NOT.  There are terrible tragedies in this world- sin and injustice and evil… but God controls the possible SPIRITUAL EFFECTS of those things, and uses them to make us mature and to complete us so that we might not be lacking in anything. Some of our pain comes from sin, ours or someone else’s. Some comes from just living in this fallen world. We would not look forward to eternity if this life were like Heaven. and let’s face it- relationships, nature, our thinking. all are corrupted by the effects of sin, and that makes our life tough. When we have troubles, it is our strength and faith that grows and is proven to be genuine.

Praising through the difficult times gives us energy, boosts our faith and reminds us that everything is in His hands. He has not left us in our pain and sorrow, but He is right here with us- close to the broken-hearted. No heartache or trial or situation that the Enemy throws at us can defeat what God has planned- they will all pass away, but what God is doing will stand forever. Hold on for one more moment, one more round, one more day, one more year, one more decade. Hold on, He is coming! He is the victory. We are not.

At times, when we are tired and battle weary, we need to remember that through Christ, we are conquerors and that going through the suffering is part of the process of making us ready to reign with Jesus. The battle is not the end, though we may be fighting for everything we hold dear. We need to keep faith and remember that the triumph is on its way and will arrive just when it is designed to.
We have a reason to sing his praises in every season because the Gardener is pruning us so that we will loose that which is keeping us from the best outcome, and our growth can be more focused toward what we were created for.This will always fulfill us and bring us Joy beyond what we might otherwise have had without going through the trial.

There will be a harvest of righteousness for us if we do not give up when we are weary in doing good. On reward day- earthly or otherwise, we will know what it is that got us through the desert- it’s not us, but God. He will reward us for our faithful service. He does not forget what we do for Him, and He knows that we are made of dust and that we sometimes break though we try so hard to keep it together. He rewards effort,  and not just success. He rewards more than the trial seems worth, because he wants us to pass it on.  Do you sow the seeds he has given you? Put that talent, word, experience, or financial increase into the ground and let it grow again, so that others may continue the cycle and also share in the abundant harvest you have been given. The world needs that thing- you know what it is- that one thing God is teaching you or giving you now. Go and sow that seed! I just did:)