This morning I face one of those “couldbes” of which I have been writing. Actually the trial began last night and my family and I are traveling the road of uncertainty today, at least until we hear one way or the other concerning the situation which has popped up.
It seams as though we all face a little skirmish here and there nearly every day, but it is only so often that the intense battles of affliction take form on our horizon. We can see them up ahead, yet we cannot veer out of their way because very God has set them on our path. We cannot turn around and travel the opposite direction because all that lay on the path behind us is the past, so we must trudge forward, knowing that we face trouble and possible heart-ache. That is where the couldbes come in—though the substance of a battle may lie ahead, outbreaks of fighting sorties spot our immediate landscape, so that a particular battle of affliction normally spawns itself into smaller manifestations which we’re bound to run into first; like tentacles, the battle extends its boundaries and we are attacked by preliminary forces so that we can actually consider the couldbes a type or shadow of the substance of the trial we see ahead. But God is good regardless.
Sometimes we travel the path God has laid out before us, and we know we can see the battle ahead, but as we come up to the crest of the hill we find a sharp turn in our own path, so that the battle we once thought was going to be ours was actually on another path but because we cannot see all the future we inevitably do not trust Him who can, so we make ourselves fight the sorties and outlying skirmishes of a battle that is not ours at present…but God is good regardless. I pray we shall only have fought the forays of this battle.
It seams as though we all face a little skirmish here and there nearly every day, but it is only so often that the intense battles of affliction take form on our horizon. We can see them up ahead, yet we cannot veer out of their way because very God has set them on our path. We cannot turn around and travel the opposite direction because all that lay on the path behind us is the past, so we must trudge forward, knowing that we face trouble and possible heart-ache. That is where the couldbes come in—though the substance of a battle may lie ahead, outbreaks of fighting sorties spot our immediate landscape, so that a particular battle of affliction normally spawns itself into smaller manifestations which we’re bound to run into first; like tentacles, the battle extends its boundaries and we are attacked by preliminary forces so that we can actually consider the couldbes a type or shadow of the substance of the trial we see ahead. But God is good regardless.
Sometimes we travel the path God has laid out before us, and we know we can see the battle ahead, but as we come up to the crest of the hill we find a sharp turn in our own path, so that the battle we once thought was going to be ours was actually on another path but because we cannot see all the future we inevitably do not trust Him who can, so we make ourselves fight the sorties and outlying skirmishes of a battle that is not ours at present…but God is good regardless. I pray we shall only have fought the forays of this battle.
Here is a poem of which my present difficulties reminded me :
Holiness be to the Lord our God
The Mighty Savior of all creation!
He resists the pride of haughty men
but He comforts the weak and the afflicted.
Oh, how we praise His name
how we lift it up before the gods of earth.
Hallelujah He will save us
Hallelujah praise His name!
The name of the All Mighty we will proclaim
Sovereign over all His creation!
He is good and wise and powerful
yet He stooped down to share in our distresses.
Oh, how we praise His name
how we lift it up before the gods of earth.
Hallelujah He will save us
Hallelujah praise His name!
He came and died and He rose again
All creation must worship the anointed!
2 comments:
Jason,
I'm praying that the God of Proverbs 3:5-6 will make your paths straight.
If you crest the hill and it is on your path, press on brother.
Prayerfully,
Greg
Thanks for that Greg. Thanks for bringing Proverbs 3:5-6 into the mix!
jAsOn
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