When God answers....

One of the many ways God communicates with His children is through His word.  And sometimes He uses some teaching with that word to make a point with us. Keep that thought in mind, and you are definitely gonna want to read Acts 5:17-41.  Go ahead, I'll give you a minute.

Are ya done?  Or do you need another minute?

OK, now that you're done we can lean in.  The thing the article I read about this passage of Scripture tonight pointed out is that the first time the Apostles were arrested, nothing happened to them.  The jail doors flung open and out they went.  And what did they do?  They went back to teaching at the temple.  They got arrested again, then flogged?  And what did they do?  They went out rejoicing that they'd been persecuted for their faith like their Lord and went back to teaching in the temple.

The idea is that they had a part in Jesus because they were persecuted for their faith.  To them, it was like a badge of honor to be beaten for telling the biggest truth there ever was to tell.  They suffered for doing good.  

There are lots of martyrs of the faith.  God talks about them in the book of Revelation.  They cry out to God about how long before He judges and avenges their blood. (Rev 6:10).  And someday, God will do just that.  When the times He sets are at hand.  Not in our time.  

So back to little old me, trying to digest that picture from the Scriptures I shared at the beginning.  "What does that mean to me?"  I think what I noticed is what the article I read pointed out.  The first time they were arrested, nothing happened to them.  God supernaturally flung open all the doors of the jail and they hit the road.  They didn't run away, though.  They went back to preaching the Good News at the temple.  The second time, they were arrested and flogged.  They were spared worse, but they were still beaten.  To me that says in part, that they knew God could save them because He did.  The second time, well, they knew the first time happened and they trusted God and rejoiced in a share of the suffering of the Lord.  

In my own circumstance over the weekend, I can look back at it and know this.  God told me before it happened that it wasn't going to end the way I thought but that I needed to lean into Him.  God was also faithful.  He was the one that brought us back together.  It was not a back together I had envisioned, but that was His plan, not mine.  He kept His promise.  He did what He said, not adding the part I thought was just implied.  And I did what He told me.  I kept a promise I made to her and I was faithful in doing what I failed to do the first time.  Am I beat up?  Spent would be a better word.  I'm emotionally empty, but in all this, my faith in God's ability to change the circumstances around I kept.  I fought.  I stood and withstood, and at the end, I was able to stand.

Again not of my own strength or effort.  I leaned on God.  I still am.

I enjoyed the drive to Eugene today.  I got hushed a couple of times so I could notice God's handiwork.  The fall colors were just amazing.  Blueberry bushes turn a wonderful color of red this time of year.  I saw some elk.  I found some nice things to remind me of God's word at Hobby Lobby, thanks to the prompting of the Spirit asking me "Where am I?" as I looked at the things hanging on the walls.  Well, God's presence in my home is not hidden.  You see it when you walk in.  It's on the fireplace.  It's hanging on a huge sign in the bay window area.  There's a cross in a perfect spot with a perfect reminder of how I even got this house in the first place.

Psalm 23 hangs on a wall in the hallway.  Proverbs 3:5-6 is hanging above the bathroom door in my bedroom, facing the bed.  This passage of Scripture is life to me right now.  If I was still trying to figure this out, I'd be going nuts, or worse yet, taking matters into my own hands.  

I'm still not OK.  But I am better.  It hurts but I know that from an analytical or outside view, I'm much better off.  I woke up today with zero problems, two bills, and a hurt heart.  I'd have traded the pain for the problems in a nanosecond at a couple of points today.  

But not now.  Because now, I understand on a deeper level that God is working His plan, and after all, it's exactly what I asked Him to do when I prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done."  That's a bold and dangerous prayer.