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September 17 - October 7, 2023
Living in the messy middle between two gardens is so trying at times. Teach me to wrestle well between my faith and my feelings when life disappoints in ways I never imagined. My disappointments don’t feel like a gift at all, but I’m going to trust You—the Giver of good gifts. Release an atmosphere of hope in my right-now life, I pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
When His timing seems questionable, His lack of intervention seems hurtful, and His promises seem doubtful, I get afraid. I get confused. And left alone with those feelings, I can’t help but feel disappointed that God isn’t doing what I assume a good God should do.
God isn’t ever going to forsake you, but He will go to great lengths to remake you.
I always want miraculous fixes without pain.
we all want quick results with no pain.
Feeling the pain is the first step toward healing the pain. The longer we avoid the feeling, the more we delay our healing. We can numb it, ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist, but all those options lead to an eventual breakdown, not a breakthrough.
disillusioned, devastated, let down, or driven to the brink of utter frustration. Whatever it is, the roots of all these feelings can be traced back to disappointment.
“God longs to help me.”
Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered.
Oh, dear God, help me trust You beyond what my physical eyes can see. As the winds of all that’s uncontrollable whip around me and thrash against me, I need something to ground me. Steady me. Hold me together when circumstances are falling apart. I want to trust You beyond what my eyes can see.
Obedience is the daily practice of trusting God.
the only way to gain the kind of trust in God we must have to survive and thrive in this life between two gardens is through the things that we suffer.
God doesn’t want you or me to suffer. But He will allow it in doses to increase our trust.
To save us from a life where we are self-reliant, self-satisfied, self-absorbed, and set up for the greatest pain of all . . . separation from God.
God loves me too much to answer my prayers at any other time than the right time and in any other way than the right way.
God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge it would give them was a burden God never wanted them to carry. And maybe that’s why we don’t have all the answers about our situations. God isn’t trying to be distant or mysterious or hard to understand. He’s being merciful.
“hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).
Some things won’t be fixed on this side of eternity; they just have to be walked through.
But when my brain begs me to doubt God—as it most certainly does—I find relief for my unbelief by laying down my human assessments and assumptions. I turn from the tree of knowledge and fix my gaze on the tree of life.
The enemy wants us paralyzed and compromised by what-ifs, opinions, accusations, and misunderstandings.
Who told you that? Aren’t they broken, vulnerable people, with their own hurts and heartbreaks? Might you have compassion for them but not be overpowered by their thoughts? And might you have compassion for yourself? Who told you that you were naked? And who told you that you in your naked form are anything but glorious?
When you live slow for a season, the Son has access to the parts of you normally covered up by everyday put-ons.
