Because of Him

In the couple of months i have been in Kenya, I have discovered more
about God and myself than i ever expected. I know that I will continue
to walk through hard times, I know that situations will occur in my
life that i won’t understand and i know that if i lean on God during
those times and depend on His strength then only truth will be
revealed. I gave a message the other day and based it off of Proverbs
3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct
your paths.” We dont have to battle through hardships on our own and we
definitely dont have to figure out the how and why things happen. The
truth is that sometimes we may never have answers. The beauty in the
unknown and unanswered questions is that God knows, He is sovereign and
He is all knowing. The times when i find myself wide eyed in search for
answers; and when i dig through all the knowledge in my mind attempting
to discover answers on my own, I fail every time. I’ve learned that its
in those times I’ve been blindly searching that the Lord sheds His
light in the darkness to reveal His truth. He has already won each and
every battle in my past and the ones i will surely face in my future.
The Lord is not an untouchable being sitting in the Heavens…He’s not
just a God that we pray to when we need His help, He’s not here to
condemn us, and He’s not going to leave us to walk through life on our
own. He’s here, in each of us and surrounding each of us. He cares and
He loves more deeply than we could imagine and He desires a
relationship, a unique, genuine, relationship with His children. Its
beautiful, its amazing, and its absolutely crazy that we are worthy of
that kind of relationship. One so intimate and special that God is
willing and able to carry the burdens of life for us. He not only holds
our hands through the rough patches on our journey, but He is there to
share and delight in the joyous and happy times as well. How incredibly
lucky are we? I was looking at the shapes of the perfectly white clouds
last week allowing my mind to freely wonder and be sucked in by the
vastness of the sky and an image came to my mind. We are all like
stones and God is our sculptor. We aren’t clay that is easily molded
and smoothed…we aren’t liquid that forms into the shape of any
container…we are like stones. God chisels away at us and shapes us
into the men and women He desires us to become. Sometimes its painful
and sometimes chunks of our lives fall to the ground…but God has a
perfect image in mind, an individual image for each of us. Sometimes
the sharp edges, issues that we thought were in the past, need sanding.
So God goes back to those problems, those sharp edges, and sands them
down so that He can create the curves and smooth surfaces that He
desires. Then He polishes us…He polishes the stone so that we shine.
We shine with His Love and handwork and we shine because of Him.