Skip to main content

Promises, Promises


My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.  (Psalm 119:50) 

          This is one I know something about. I may not know where I am going, but I am sure that He will see to it that I take the right “exit.” That is the only reason I can call this blog “Mission: Faithwalk.” Years ago, as I whined about not knowing what I am to do with my life, and about being afraid that I would miss an exit (I am notoriously afraid of not finding my way somewhere. I was crying for a GPS long before they existed) God asked me if I had missed the exit when He sent me to Penn State, and when He introduced me to Helen, and when He had brought me home, gotten me a job at the library, and then took me back to school. Each time, I had to answer, no, I hadn’t missed those exits. Then He asked what made me think He would let me miss the next exit. “Um, well, since You put it that way….”
          I didn’t miss the exit when I went to the church I’m going to now. I didn’t miss the exit when I got my last job, or when I quit my last job to take care of Dad and finally start to approach my dream of writing. 
          Recently, I’ve been struggling with both those things. My inner critic tells me that I’m fooling myself. Actually, my inner critic is telling me I’m fooling myself about everything – that I’m a miserable failure, etc. The truth of the matter is that I may be a miserable failure at everything I do all my life. That won’t matter as long as God keeps keeping me from missing exits. That may be the only promise that I ever manage to really grasp, but it is in that promise that I will find comfort, and life. 
          Heavenly, all-wise Father, You know how frail we are. You lovingly make many promises to each one of us. Help us, today, to find the promise we can cling to that comforts us and keeps our faith in You.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...