Sunday, September 13, 2015

Using This For Good

A dear friend of mine recently learned that her son has leukemia and they began the fight of their lives. As she shared her thoughts this week, I found they gave words to many of the thoughts that have been rattling around in my brain for the past few months, so I asked permission to share them with all of you.
Please enjoy these amazing words of truth as penned by Amy Reid.


"I've learned through various trials in my life that I can control very little - but there is one thing I DO get to control.  I get to control my response - to trials, to God's leading, and anything else life brings my way.  I can choose to let my feelings and circumstances dictate to me how I will respond, or I can choose to claim His Truth through His Word.  My feelings and circumstances are not a stable foundation on which to build as they can turn on a dime.  On the other hand, God is always on His throne and can NEVER change!   He is ALWAYS kind, compassionate, gracious, merciful and so much more.  He CANNOT NOT be those things!  That is a much better foundation on which to build than feelings and circumstances! Does that mean my feelings are wrong or useless?  Absolutely not!  God has wired me with those feelings.  I am made in the image of Him!  It just means they are not always trustworthy.  

So, from the beginning of this trial, I've chosen TRUTH.  Have I had tears?  YES!  But never once have I wept without hope.  Never once have I had a moment of paralyzing fear.  Is this all because of some great strength I possess?  A resounding - NO!  I am so incredibly weak.  Apart from Christ, I would be a basket case right now.  But I have spent hours saturating my heart and my mind with HIS Truth and am choosing to claim the promises He has given us.  One of those promises that we talk about a lot, especially with Tate, is that "We know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28, emphasis mine).  Tate surrendered his life to Jesus over a year ago.  He has a personal relationship with Him, as do all of us in our family.  Tate knows God is good - all the time - and to know what God is like, we just need to look at the life of Jesus, who was God with skin on.  Jesus healed.  He cared.  He cried with others.  Cancer was not a part of God's original plan, but we revolted against His plan and sin entered the world.  So God did not cause this cancer to "teach us a lesson".  But the amazing thing is, God can take something Satan means for evil and bring wonderful things out of it for our good and His glory.  In fact, He promises that in Romans 8:28.  He HAS to bring good out of this.  I don't know what that will look like, but I choose to trust Him.  God HAS to be faithful.  He can't be any other way.  He HAS to fulfill His promises - promises for hope, for peace, and to glorify Himself.  But, unless I know those promises, I'm more apt to buy into what my feelings and circumstances are telling me I should be doing - which in this case would be freak out!  Instead, I choose to trust.  It's not a blind trust.  I can look back in my life and see how God has been in and through every aspect of it, and He's batting 100 in the faithfulness department and in making me more and more like Jesus.  I read a quote once that said something like this:  "God is more concerned about my character than my comfort."  His desire is we all look, act,and be more like Jesus every day.  My prayer and heart's desire through this journey we are on is this:

1) God is glorified.  It is the ONLY thing that will give any value and worth to this horrible thing.  I want people to see how great, how good, how amazing God is - however that needs to be done.

2) I don't want to be the same person on the other side of this journey.  I want to glean every once of worth out of this trial.  I want to be refined.  To be molded.  To look just a little bit more like Jesus"

These words touched my heart and I echo them.  I want God to be glorified through my trials and I want to look a bit more like Jesus each and every day.  I can already see glimpses of the ways God is using this for good.  I just pray I can hang on to that and not find myself engulfed by the tidal wave of CANCER and all that has now entered my life.

Thankful thoughts for today:
HCC
Grandparents
Grace
Master Chef

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