Dear Reader,
Since we are moving house in the next few weeks, blog posts may stop until the end of December. If I’m not able to continue writing the blog this year, I wish you ‘Merry Christmas 2023’ and a ‘Happy and Blessed New Year.’ I hope to welcome you again in January of 2024.
Thank you for your visit, your understanding, and your faithfulness in reading my blog.
In His great Love and Mercy,
Carmen
The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
But deliverance is of the LORD.
(Proverbs 21:31)
We praise You, LORD Jesus, for Your amazing love and kindness toward us. Forgive us, O God we pray, whenever we murmur and refuse to wait any longer. Enable us to completely trust in You and what You would do for us. Guide us to be patient in our trials, and open our eyes to see what it is that You want us to learn through it all. Forbid, O LORD, that we would come out of affliction the same way that we went in. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen
2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us to, ‘Walk by faith and not by sight.’ This is not so easy to do, right? When do we stumble and no longer walk by faith? Is it not so, that once we make sure that ‘the horse is prepared for the day of battle.’
The LORD just made a way for us to move to the area where we want to settle. It is a little village, just a few miles south of where we used to live. We would love to buy a piece of land there and have a small cottage built on it. The plan is to rent the beautiful cottage we are moving into for about 1-3 years and then buy our own.
All the preparations for the move are made, the time is set, the people involved are notified, and we checked everything beforehand. The transfer of the electricity account, the setting up of a contract with the waste bin company, and the availability of the internet are all clear. Right? Wrong!
A major challenge appeared on the horizon: our current internet provider does not serve the area (even though the website said so), and the second one said they would have to send a worker there to check first. It might, or it might not, be available at the cottage we signed up to rent.
Oh my goodness! ‘Now what?’ I asked my hubby. He said that we will proceed, and he trusts that the LORD will make a way for us to get connected to the internet. Since we are both working from home, we do need to go online. Otherwise, we could live without it or use a mobile one.
Let’s review today’s verse again,
‘The horse is prepared for the day of battle.
But deliverance is of the LORD.’
We can prepare everything for the day of the event. If the LORD is not in it, we will fail. Also, if the day is not within God’s timing, we will not succeed.
According to Proverbs 3:5-6, we need to trust in the LORD with all our heart, and not lean on our own understanding. In all our ways, we need to acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths.
If God promised to make a way for something to work out in our lives, we have to cling on to that promise. While we are waiting for Him to move, let us be careful not to allow doubt, disbelief, and despair into the whole situation.
Press on and know that deliverance is of the LORD today.
My brethren,
count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.
(James 1:2-4)
LORD Jesus, we praise You for Your goodness and mercy. We thank You for all the wonderful works You do for us. Forgive us, O God we pray, whenever we keep our focus on our troubles and trials instead of on Your promises and love for us. Help us. Guide us. Make us believe that You are right there with us in our troubles. Calm the storm and make the waves still. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray. Amen.
In today’s verses, we are asked to count it all joy when falling into various trials. Joy? Am I serious? Yes. Why? Because God says so.
In the last blog post, I asked, ‘Waiting on God to move can be so hard to do, right?’ Now, waiting ‘patiently’ for God to work things out while the situation seems to go from bad to worse is even more of a challenge, is it not?
Why do we so often fail to wait with patience? Could it be that we want to influence the outcome and the steps involved in the whole matter? Do we not often fail to wait patiently because we would like to stay in control?
His Word continues and tells us to remember (know) that what we are going through (the testing of our faith) will produce patience. Seriously? Patience? Yes, patience.
In the next verse, we read,
‘But let patience have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.’
Let patience have its perfect work? We need to be – or become – perfect and complete and lack nothing.
Matthew Henry comments on James 1:3,
Now, to exercise Christian patience aright, we must, (1.) Let it work. It is not a stupid, but an active thing. Stoical apathy and Christian patience are very different: by the one men become, in some measure, insensible of their afflictions; but by the other they become triumphant in and over them. Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience and not passion, be set at work in us; whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it: let us not allow the indulging of our passions to hinder the operation and noble effects of patience; let us give it leave to work, and it will work wonders in a time of trouble.
Psalm 107 tells us that ‘those who do business on great waters see the works of the LORD’ (vv. 23-24). God provides for them an abundance of fish in a calm sea, but ‘He commands and raises the stormy wind’ also. This storm ‘lifts up the waves of the sea’ (v. 25) and makes their boat rock. When great storms arise, the sailors become afraid. Now what?
Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
(Psalm 107:28)
God hears them,
He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
(Psalm 107:29)
Oh, that we would give thanks to Him for His goodness, His wonderful works, and His mighty power. Let us exalt and praise Him today!
God can turn rivers into a wilderness and the wilderness into pools of water. He blesses us and multiplies us greatly. It is He who will not let our cattle decrease (v. 38). He will set the poor on high, far from affliction, and make their families like a flock (v. 41).
Wait patiently and understand the lovingkindness of the LORD today.
