The Lord is Good

So let me preface this blog by saying that, as cheesy and obvious as this may be, our God is faithful. He is good! So today, I am here to talk about these few things; bitterness, anger, and being content in the Lord and what He has for us. I left off my last blog by quoting Jeremiah 29:11 which says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." And for the first time in a long time, I believe that. I would like to share some of my experiences with all of you in order for you to better understand why this is such an important concept and how the things of this world can hold you back from understanding it. 

Bitterness and anger have ruled over my life for the past 2 years in a number of situations. Sometimes it stemmed from the fact that I didn't understand why the Lord could allow a certain event to happen. Other times it was in conjunction with feeling hurt, abused, or betrayed by people who I thought of as friends. Ephesians 4:25-27 ain't no joke when Paul instructs the church in Ephesus, saying, "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."(NIV, with quote found in Psalm 4:4) A friend of mine recently said something to that stuck in my memory. They said, "instead of saying, 'to be honest' or using the phrase to be 'honest' why don't you let all your words be honest". I promise it was as much a rebuke as it was meant to be. And the Lord used that in my heart and has been healing situations within my heart that anger and bitterness have taken hold over. And I'm here to tell you that the anger and bitterness that you hold in your heart will reflect every action in your daily life and will dictate it until you face the situation and deal with the issues you have against one another in your heart. 

I need to apologize to several people for dealing with issues for so long and letting my attitude towards other people influence their hearts and thoughts. I was wrong. And I need to ask the Lord to reconcile those relationships in Him and through His word. I think that world feeds us so much crap about how we need to be strong and find our strength in ourselves because no one else will do it for us. But I'm here to tell you that it's not true! If we depend on our own strength, we will fail time and time again, and a situation will go from bad to worse. But the good news is that if we find our strength in the Lord, he will sustain us. David speaks to us in Psalm 55:22 (and in many other instances) saying, "Cast your care on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." And likewise in Isaiah, he instructs saying, "The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like on being taught."(Isaiah 50:4 NIV) The Lord will sustain us, but only if we put our hope, faith, and trust in Him and Him alone. I am not saying that he will has not provided for you through those who he's brought into your life, because I don't believe that. The Lord is faithful with those who he brings into our life, whether it be for a season or for the entirety of our lives. 

It is hard being content in what the Lord has for our lives, because as humans we ultimately struggle against it, finding ourselves wanting the things of this world and the plans that we have for ourselves. My struggle right now is to find where the Lord wants me after college and by no means is it an easy thing to try and discern. Discernment itself is another issue. It is important to ground yourself in the Word of the Lord in order to find what He wants for your life. I believe that in order to truly understand what the Lord wants of us, we must first bury ourselves and steep ourselves in His perfect Word. Don't let my words fool you, I am by no means perfect in this, and I know how hard it is to "find" the time in the life of a busy college student. However, it is essential to our walk with the Lord that we both spend time in prayer and meditating in the Word. It's our spiritual soul food and when we don't have it, we starve. I can describe to you more than one occasion when I've fallen away from spending time with the Lord and I've felt empty, hungry, like I needed more. 

In my experience hanging out with the Lord, I find that I'm never satisfied, that I want more and that I can never get enough of Him. He sustains us through the time that we spend with Him and if we don't do that, our hope and faith slowly dwindle away and through this, feelings like anger, despair, and bitterness can take hold and reign over you in place of the King. I've addressed to you the FACT that the Lord wants you. We were created for relationship with the one who made us, our Creator. And the cool thing is, he reigned before any of this world was ever made. Isn't it amazing to think that the Creator of the world made us to be in relationship with Him? Not only that, but he made us in His likeness! His likeness! For me that statement and realization elicits a "wow". My only hope is that we can recognize this on a daily basis and revel in the awesomeness that we were created to live, to love, and ultimately, to be in relationship with one who will sustain us and love us when the world does not. Praise be to that man who allowed me to be in relationship with Him and covered me in the grace that I so desperately need daily. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is no from yourselves, it is the gift of God-"(Ephesians 2:8 NIV) Amen.