The Eleventh Hour

God is such a good Father, He really is and I guess today that’s what I want to reflect on; His goodness and His purposes. He has been working in my heart a lot over these last few weeks and teaching, always teaching. But He reminds me, that even in difficulties, even in trials He is still working, sometimes even orchestrating their very existence because of something He has purposed to work out in me or maybe someone else. That even in difficulties God will still turn them around and use them for our good and He does, He really does. “And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

It makes me think of Peter, when he and the other disciples were out on a boat in the middle of a storm (see Matthew 14) and here comes Jesus, walking on the water – yes, even in the middle of a storm and Peter seeing him goes out to meet Him, eyes on Him. It isn’t until he takes his eyes off of Jesus that he then starts to sink, noticing the waves around him, yet even then Jesus catches him, “I will not let you sink,” He says, or this is what I imagine He would say when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm, “I will not let you sink.” Christ is there and He holds our hand, we need only to keep our eyes on Him until He returns us to the safety of the boat and then, did you notice what happens? The storm ceases to exist.

You see, even in the midst of adversity, trials, or whatever we might find ourselves in, God will not allow the winds to blow forever, but while they do, we need only keep our eyes on Him.

From my journal the other day:

When we are in the thick of it – God comes. He takes us by the hand and upholds us. He speaks comfort to us. He is our strength. He gives us understanding, and though it may not be complete it is enough to sustain us. He is gracious and knows what we can and cannot handle and when it is we start to lose our grip on it, when it feels as though we ourselves might come undone, this, this is when God comes; and it is “The Eleventh Hour.”

Living in Impossibility

Don’t ask me why the title for this post, it just popped into my head but maybe it’s because we have all, at some point or another, found ourselves living in what appears to be an impossibility.

Have you ever experienced that? Faced with some insurmountable problem, something you desperately longed to be fixed? But how? Perhaps you’ve even tried numerous times. A broken marriage you can’t heal, unmended relationships, some addiction you’ve tried to kick, who knows, but no matter how hard you’ve tried you just never can seem to get it to that place of a “permanent” fix.

Yeah, living in impossibility. It seems like such a loss doesn’t it? (and it’s here I’d like to take a very long pause because I think it’s when we get to this place, when it feels like all hope is lost, well, that’s what it feels like, a very long and silent pause). Okay, moving on! Living in “possibility!” because God is all about removing the “im” and He truly is… the God of “all possibilities!”

There is always a reason and a rhyme to everything He allows to come into our lives, and maybe, just maybe, when you find yourself faced with “impossibility” it’s because He’s hoping you’ll then turn to Him to be what you need: your “permanent” fix.  For “happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” Psalms 146:5. Happy? Yes, happy.

You see, even in the midst of adversity, if you keep your eyes on Him, then God can take your “impossibility” and remove the “im.”