Is God Trustworthy?
By Jocelyn
In remembrance of Sept. 11, 2001…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8
On Sept. 11, 2001, Navy wife Deshua Joyce tried to think positively when she heard the news that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, where her husband worked. She thought, “What are the chances that his office was hit?” Still, her heart was heavy with concern for her husband Tom and all others at the Pentagon.
In fact, the plane crashed through the building directly under his floor, completely destroying Tom’s office. Miraculously, he escaped unscathed and was able to notify Deshua of his safety within an hour. Deshua’s gratitude for Tom’s escape was tempered with grief for those who did not. “I remember thinking at the end of the day, ‘People’s lives are changed forever,’” she says. “I was devastated for the loved ones of those who never made it out.”
When Tom reunited with his family after the attack, he read Psalm 91 with his family, which seemed to be written just for him. His oldest son asked, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life that God spared today?” After Tom retired from the military, he became a pastor.
While many lives that could have been lost on that fateful day were preserved, we know the rest of the story. We remember the news broadcasts and the newspaper headlines. If you walked through Ground Zero, you saw all the photos pinned up by friends and family. Ready or not, 2,973 souls were sent to eternity that day.
On that day, and every day, how does God choose which lives to safeguard and which to call into the next life? I don’t know the answer. I’m sure no one does. The larger question is this: Is God trustworthy? Can we trust Him to be in control of every moment in every part of the globe? If we say yes, we admit that He presides over tragedy. If we say we cannot trust Him in all things, we cannot trust Him at all. If He is not all-powerful, He is not God.
God refers to himself as “Sovereign Lord” 303 times in the Bible. Jerry Bridges notes in Trusting God:
The sovereignty of God is asserted, either expressly or implicitly, on almost every page of the Bible. Rather than being offended over the Bible’s assertion of God’s sovereignty in both good and calamity, believers should be comforted by it. Whatever our particular calamity or adversity may be, we may be sure that our Father has a loving purpose in it. As King Hezekiah said, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish” (Isaiah 38:17). God does not exercise His sovereignty capriciously, but only in such a way as His infinite love deems best for us.
God’s sovereignty is also exercised in infinite wisdom, far beyond our ability to comprehend. God’s plan and His ways of working out his plan are frequently beyond our ability to fathom and understand. We must learn to trust when we don’t understand.
When we can’t figure out God’s plan for our lives or for those around us, we must rest in His sovereignty instead.
Ask
Does my belief in God’s sovereignty rely on my circumstances or on what the Bible tells me of God’s character?
Pray
Lord,
When I am tempted to believe that you are only a good God if your plan matches up with mine, remind me that Your thoughts, Your ways, are higher than mine. When I don’t understand what You are doing, help me dwell instead on who You are. Help me to lean not on my own understanding but to trust you with all my heart (Prov. 3:5-6).
Amen.
*The above devotion is an excerpt from the book Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (Moody Publishers 2008). Visit the Web site at www.faithdeployed.com, and purchase the book at Amazon.com.
Weary Hearts
By Jocelynby Marshele Carter Waddell
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen y our heart;
wait, I say, on the Lord!
Psalm 27:14
My marriage is brain dead. There are no signs of life. Only the slow, monotonous drip of an intravenous routine. Surely this is not the God-design for my marriage.
I watch my marriage melt like a snowman, temperatures rising beyond what it is able to endure. Slipping away is everything I desired in life: a romantic, growing marriage. A home where children feel safe and secure. Children who walk in the Truth. A place in community. A familiar land. Though I have worked faithfully to these ends, today in my weariness, I cannot see any of this.
Hopelessness and the temptation to quit nip at my heels today—but deep down, I don’t want this marriage to fail. So I stay and I walk through my house like I walk though my days…alive only because of the drip of the I.V. of daily time spent with my Lord. I mourn the loss of myself. I fear that the storms have finally swept me away.
Perhaps like me, you can identify with David when he says, “O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night I have no rest” (Psalm 22:2). Just a few chapters later, he says, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Though we may feel stuck in the night David speaks of, we must choose to believe that morning will come and the Lord will revive our hearts.
One of my favorite names for the Holy Spirit is the Comforter (John 14:26 ASV). In other translations of the Bible, [the Hoy Spirit] is called the Helper. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). When we turn to the Holy Spirit for help and comfort, He will not only give us aid, but He will give us a richer portion of His presence than we have ever had before. When we mourn, we will be blessed with comfort from the Comforter Himself (Matthew 5:4).
Ask
When I am weary, where do I seek solace? Other people? Food? The Lord?
Try memorizing God’s promises for you: Isaiah 20:28-31 and 1 Peter 5:10 are good places to start.
Pray
Father of compassion and God of all comfort,
You tell me to put my hope in You. You say that nothing is impossible with God. Lord, I need your power. I can say along with Paul that I know whom I have believed…YOU! I am convinced that you are able to guard what I have entrusted to you for that day. I ask you to guard my marriage and my love and devotion for the man you gave to me. Thank you for my husband. Bless and protect him today. Make me the wife you intended me to be for him today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
*The above devotion is an excerpt from the book Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (Moody Publishers 2008). Visit the Faith Deployed blog and bookstore.
Asking for Help
By JocelynFor when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
The weekly Bible study I hosted in my home was two hours away and my driveway was buried in snow. It needed to be cleared before people arrived.
I could just start shoveling, I told myself. But before my husband went underway, he had said, “Remember, if you need anything, the EO [engineering officer] is staying home this time. If it snows, he can plow out the driveway for you.” But I had never asked anyone for help when my husband was at sea before.
Once I finally asked the EO to plow me out, the job was done in about ten minutes. I was ashamed at myself for needing to beat back my pride and allow someone else to help me.
We are called military “dependents,” and yet we have to be extremely independent when our husbands are off serving the country. It’s fitting for us to be self-confident and competent women, ready to tackle the obstacles that crop up in our path. We wouldn’t survive otherwise! But I discovered that I was becoming overly self-reliant. In an effort to not appear “weak,” I was unwilling to humbly admit that I couldn’t do everything in my own strength. Pride was stealthily taking root in my heart.
There are times in every military wife’s life when she could use a helping hand—whether or not she wants to admit it and actually ask for it. Paul had the opposite point of view. “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). When we are weak, Christ can take over for and give us His strength, glorifying His name in the process.
We need to humbly invite God to enable us to live through His power (Philippians 4:13), and the way that we do that is by staying connected to Him as the vine, the source of life. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). If we were to cut ourselves off from the vine in order to prove just how independent we were, it would spell certain death for us.
We also must recognize that when we ask for help from God, he often meets our needs through the community around us. Most people are eager to help—I bet you are the same way. How often have we though, “I wish there was something I could do for that family,” but didn’t follow through because we didn’t know what to do? Nothing will happen unless you let the people around you know your specific needs. When you do ask God and your community for support, you will be amazed at the blessings that have been waiting for you!
Ask
Is my reluctance to ask for help a sign of pride in my own self-reliance?
Is there something I could be asking for help with this week?
Pray
Lord,
Forgive me if I have been trying to live life so much in my own strength that I have been denying You the chance to fill me with Yours. Remind me daily that You are the vine, I am the branch. Without You, I cannot live. Show me how you’d like to bless me through my community, and give me the humility to ask for it.
Amen.
*The above devotion is an excerpt from the book Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (Moody Publishers 2008). Visit the Faith Deployed blog and bookstore.
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