State Street Community Church
Monday Morning Hangover | 3-8-10
Yesterday at State Street, we talked about feeling abandoned by God. Jesus, on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I’ve gotten a few emails and had a some discussions after the services yesterday about abandonment. It’s a huge issue among many in our community. It’s an issue that I hold close to my heart because I lived in it for a few years.
Why God? Why go through this? Are you even there? Please God, I can’t deal with this any more…
God is restoring me and I’m learning about trust. This verse in Deuteronomy comforts me, “And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”
The book Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning has been foundational in my spiritual development. In it he says,
The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise.
May we learn to trust the promises of God even more and follow His movement even closer and be His church. Amen.
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about 6 months ago
If I had to choose between extreme sorrow and extreme happiness, I would always choose sorrow, for when you are happy you forget about spiritual things, you forget about God.But in your sorrow, He is always with you
I did not write this quote. I heard it on a TV show of all places. I thought it was worth repeating because it is true. In difficult times you search for God and in good times He is easily forgotten.
I was talking to a woman after church yesterday and she told me some of the things that she has gone through in her life. It makes me question why some people have more to “bear” than others. My only thought is that God wants to make each of us more and more like Christ and He needs to take us through these things in order to do that. Who can question God and his ways?
I was thinking this morning that it is easy to think that God is “Blessing” me in the good times and taking away His “Blessing” in the bad times. That is Biblically untrue. We are already blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and NOTHING will ever change that. That is why it is impoortant to KNOW your God because He does not operate like we do. This is exactly why my daughter did not get to take her cell phone to school today. I was withholding my blessing of the cell phone. LOL.