Hand in Hand with God

To be honest, not all our dreams will come true. In fact, not all our dreams are worth pursuing. Sometimes it takes some heart-breaking to discern what’ swarth investing in from what it’s not. Carl Fredrickson and his wife Ellie could not have children of their own. Something like this could cause a lot of strain and suffering in the life of a couple. Children are a blessing. Through them God works in the life of their parents and the other way around. However, without them and without Ellie, Carl is in danger of becoming a selfish,careless person. When Russell enters Carl’s life, he is not welcome but as they travel together Carl’s heart warms towards the fatherless little boy and becomes himself a father figure for him. Carl’s dream has always been to live in Paradise Falls but a much higher dream, that of being a father, is about to come true. Watch the first minute or so from the Credits of the animation UP and you’ll see what I mean.

Think of Joseph. As a teenager, he literally dreamed that one day he will be a ruler and his brothers would bow before him. In his early years these dreams did nothing but to fuel his pride and his brothers’ envy. But as he grew up, as he went through a lot of hardship, those dreams turned into his most treasured possession. They gave a direction to his life. If one day he would be a ruler, he was determined to be a good and wise one. Therefore, while still a slave, he didn’t miss any opportunity to learn how to manage wisely the resources of his masters. The day came when his brothers who had treated him awfully did bow before him, but Joseph understood that the reason he was placed in authority was to help them. Through the skills that he learned while a slave, he saved not only his brothers’ lives, but the life of an entire nation.

Are your dreams all about you, or are they about how you can be a blessing to this world?

Dreams have an extreme power over our lives. They can give us a drive to live, but when we cannot achieve them, they can take away the joy of life. Think of Carl Fredrickson. He’s always dreamed of building a house in Paradise Falls and live there with his wife. Ellie dies before they can afford to travel there. Carl ends up isolating himself from the rest of the world feeling that somehow he failed to achieve anything in life, that he failed to make his wife happy and that there is nothing for him to live for. Only when he looks again through Ellie’s photo album that contained the most special moments of their life together, he realises that he had already given her more than she had ever dreamed of.

Oscar Wilde

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 (HCSB)

Do you want your joy to be complete? Do you want your success to be secure? Let it come from God’s hands. It’s not wrong to pray for success. But it’s wrong trying to be successful our own selfish way. God’s path to success is unusual. It’s not smooth, but rough, with thorns springing out from the ground, with sleepless nights, and hard-laboured days. It may not look like it’s going to take you anywhere. But if walked hand in hand with Him, your success is guaranteed.

This is the day the LORD has made. You couldn’t have reached this day in your own strength. Actually this day didn’t even exist. ‘There is no way you could succeed in your enterprise,’ so many people have said. ‘You’re going against reason,’ others have discouraged you. But still you’re here, after being made successful by God. You rejoice and nothing can still away the joy from you.

After God has shown you His path to success, what is it that puts you off from taking it? The sacrifice involved? The loneliness of walking only with Him? Or the success itself? Come, let’s walk it together!

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever. Psalm 111:10

Until we fear the LORD and follow His instructions, we may think we’re wise and we know what life is all about. But only when we risk everything to obey God for 5 minutes, our head clears off and we begin to see life as it is. Life is tragic and only a wise man can accept that. But when surrendered to God, our personal life becomes a comedy. We begin to take ourselves less seriously. We begin to look beyond our small misfortunes. We begin to see God involved in the world weaving the web of His will in people’s lives. Drawing them towards Him. Only those who obey God begin to see the larger picture that is beyond them and their immediate needs.

His praise endures forever. There’s nothing that anyone can do to prevent God’s will from happening.

Last of all, as to one abnormally born, He also appeared to me. 1 Corinthians 15:8 - HSCB

The Greek word ektrõma translated above as “abnormally born” is greatly significant. It’s not a frequent word in the Bible but when used it always has the meaning of a miscarriage or stillborn child (Numbers 12:12, Ecclesiastes 6:3, Job 3:16). A miscarriage is incapable of seeing the daylight and its appearance may be repulsive. Numbers 12:12 likens Miriam’s leper-striken flesh to that of a dead baby: “Please don’t let her be like a dead baby whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” What Paul is saying here is that as a persecutor of the Church, he must have been a repulsive person but Jesus still took an interest in him. When Paul had no way of seeing the daylight, the grave mistakes he was committing and Jesus’ real identity, Jesus still found a way to communicate to him that he could understand.

I remember I was five years old when God spoke to me in a way that I could understand Him at that age. It was through my grandmother’s death. I had been told by my parents that my grandmother went to be with the Lord and that she was in a very happy place at God’s side. That’s when I prayed that one day I would be at God’s side in heaven with my grandmother.

When did God first speak to you in a way that you could understand Him?

Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.

John 1:4-5 HCSB

Jews believed that the world was built on the foundation of Torah. If mankind were to move away from the moral principles of the Torah, the whole world will collapse into chaos. Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom as someone who was created by God before He did anything else and then took part at God’s side in the creation of the world. This is to say that the lifestyle that leads to happiness had already been created before we first opened our eyes in this world.

But John reveals to us that the way of life God intended for us to follow it’s an expression of His very heart. If He were to be a man like us, that’s how He would live. He wouldn’t want to live in any other way. When Jesus, the Son of God, came to dwell among people that’s how He lived and He had no regrets at the end of His time on earth.

Would you like at the end of your time on earth to have no regrets as you look back to all that you did? Do God’s will and you will be a happy man even in your last hour .

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.

John 1:1-3

If there is one thing that singles Jesus out of the long array of great personalities that would be His words. His words give the blind eyes to see, they strengthen the legs of the lame to walk, and they inspire the hearts of the prisoners to break free.

You may continue to disbelieve that Jesus is the Son of God, but when He speaks over your half-dead soul and the signs of a new life come to the surface, there is no room for doubt any more. You know that He is who He claims to be: the Creator of everything that is seen and unseen.

Only Jesus can help you live up to your full potential as a human being but when He does so, when all your faculties are awaken, you bow down to worship Him.

“And 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

When the way ahead seems unclear, if life and its cares are pressing, when we have decisions to make or things are not quite working out the way we have planned or would like- be assured of the promise in this scripture.

We humans are short sighted. If we do not see an immediate solution or end to our problems, we bemoan our misfortune and lament the unfair hand dealt to us. It is a difficult task to ‘let go and let God’. Our well meaning friends may tell us to hand it over to God and indeed we know we should. However, this is often much easier said than done. Fear, old habits or pride may cause us to try and work it out for ourselves, running around, trying to keep control of the situation. We just cannot see any way that the situation can be resolved; how any possible good can come from such a confusing or messy situation. It is often, then, at the end of our own strength that we finally cry “I submit!” and hand it to the Lord.

Personal Testimony
A few years ago I was engaged to a caring, kind and intelligent guy. Our future was pretty much mapped out as we spoke in a carefree way of the things we would do.  We took for granted we had a future together. However, after a sudden diagnosis of a rare illness, I nursed him for a year before he passed away. I was shell shocked, such a young and hopeful life, to suddenly be over. This was my first experience of the death of a close and beloved person. The Lord had brought me through all sorts of trouble and hard times before but this was the ‘biggie’.

It really made me stare my own mortality in the face, which was terrifying and shook the inbuilt indestructible attitude I had. Death was real and did happen to my loved ones. I feared for losing all my family and clung to my parents like a five year old child. I was terrified to let them out of my sight. Suddenly, my future was gone. When I considered it, all I could perceive was darkness, nothingness, a blank. I could not see past the surrounding cloud of gloom and truly could not conceive any future joy or happiness ever again.

A friend sent me a card with a word from God reminding me of all He had been to me in the past. He had never let me down before and I knew I could trust Him. I had no choice in this matter as there was nothing I could do to bring myself through this darkness. I did have a choice however, to wallow in the grief and self pity or to reach out and grab His hand.

It was tough, lots of fear and tears and pain. Time played a great part in the grieving process. My life was slowly reconstructed, tentatively at first as my confidence was shattered. Through it all, I experienced Christ in a deeper and more profound way. Initially, I felt abandoned by God and was reminded of Jesus’ cry on the cross “Eloi Eloi lema sabachthani” (my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?). I know it was my pain that made me perceive God in this way as He had not moved, only my perception of Him. When I look back, I actually see He was holding me up, in the midst of the pain.

‘Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’ Saint Augustine

I chose to believe that Christ would help me through this time in my life, to believe that something positive would rise from the ashes. He has been faithful in getting me through one of the worst things that could happen and as a result I know that nothing that can come my way will defeat me, if I hide in His arms.

This turn of events in my life has truly sent me down a road I would never have embarked upon. I am now very happily married to a God loving man. We are both at Bible College in a new part of the country, with many exciting opportunities unfolding before us. God has demonstrated to me once again His faithfulness and care, which helped me trust Him even more.”