Trials

Did you see the picture?! It finally worked! I am still not sure why, though. :-)

I mentioned a while back that we were experiencing some difficult times. God has been carrying us through, and although it seems like it will never end, I know that this too will pass...eventually. I wish I could say that I have been sailing through this trial with peace and joy, but I have struggled. I have experienced a lot of anxiety. And I have felt guilty for being anxious rather than calmly trusting. It is so much easier to think or talk about how I would respond in certain difficult circumstances than it is to actually go through them! :-)

The following excerpt from today's Elisabeth Elliot devotional has been a good reminder of what I can do in the midst of this trial and where peace is found:

Only a few things are really important, and for those we have the promise of divine help: sitting in silence with the Master in order to hear His word and obey it in the ordinary line of duty--for example, in being a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, or spiritual father or mother to those nearby who need protection and care--humble work which is never on the world's list because it leads to nothing impressive on one's resume.

Peace lies in the trusting acceptance of His design, His gifts, His appointment of place, position, capacity. It was thus that the Son of Man came to earth--embracing all that the Father willed Him to be, usurping nothing--no work, not even a word--that the Father had not given Him.


Lord, we give You thanks for all that You in Your mercy have given us to be and to do and to have. Deliver us, Lord, from all greed to be and to do and to have anything not in accord with Your holy purposes. Teach us to rest quietly in Your promise to supply, recognizing that if we don't have it we don't need it. Teach us to desire Your will--nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. For Jesus' sake. Amen.