His Grace is Sufficient!

God teaches in mysterious ways. I see this every day in my journey of being a Christian. In the moments where dreams come crashing down, or a loved one is lost, or life is just  topsy-turvy, we all stand back and ask "why?" It's such a difficult lesson to interpret. I said a prayer; thanking God for the little patch of heaven he had placed me in, for my family, and for life's simple goodness.

Our family had gone to a Church Family Camp last week. While on this trip, I had put my necklace that I got for my birthday, inside of my computer case, because I was in a hurry to get in the lake with my sister. Two days after I did this, I went to grab the necklace, and it was gone! I was very sad because this necklace was important to me, because I got it from my dad on my birthday. I had only had it for a couple weeks, and it was gone! Our church camp prayed for me to find it, but I couldn't. I left my information at the camp, in case the staff found it. In some cases, I could say that God didn't answer my prayers… and yet, in a way He did. He may not have led me to the necklace, but He showed me that His grace is sufficient for me! The things of this world shouldn't matter. Everything belongs to God! 

     I remember when our barn burned down in our backyard. Our chickens climbed right onto the heat lamp, and started a fire. We weren't home, until the evening, so everything was ruined… such as, a bunk-bed, antiques, windows, (that were replaced, because they gave us the wrong ones, but said we could keep the old ones) a chicken, some trees, and all kinds of other things were burned. Most of them were un-replaceable. So, what was the good that came out of all of that? We were blessed with money that our insurance covered for our burned thing. We took that money, and used it for someone else’s good. What Satan meant for Evil, God meant for good! 

     But isn't it ironic, that in the moment you are most peaceful and content with life, it seems God puts you to the flames again. I've come to see it as admitting we've grown stronger through his grace; we've proved we can withstand the next purging fire.

"So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though  it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." ~1 Peter 1:7~
I've learned one thing: This painful refinement will never stop. Our initial reaction is "why does God give his servants trials? Haven't they proven their faith and determination?"

Yes, they have. This is why the trials still come; to make us stronger, to make us tougher.  The world doesn't see this. They ask "why would a loving God persecute his people?"

     We’re reminded in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” 

     Yes, I’m still pretty upset that my necklace hasn't been found. If it has, someone might have taken it by now. However, at the same time, I need to realize that a necklace is just a “thing” of this world.  It’s a worldly possession.  It meant a lot to me, but, I've been realizing that 2^nd Corinthians 12:9 says, “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness…”

We can’t see the big picture. But Christianity is about faith, not sight. We don't need proof of God's faithfulness. Because God upholds his promises. 

How faithful would you be?

This past week, I was posed with a question....
how faithful would you be to God, if you lost everything?

Recently, there's been many fires in our area. My sister, who's 11, is deathly afraid of fires. A couple nights ago, you could smell lots of smoke in our house, even though the fires were over 40 miles away. It was late at night, when I was reading on my bed. Everyone else was sleeping. My sister climbed down the ladder and sat by my bed. Quietly, she said, "Cait, could you pray with me." Realizing she was still scared the fire would burn our house, I jumped out of my bed, and said, "Sure!" I held her in my arms and prayed with her that night. She went to sleep fine after that. But, I couldn't help but ask myself what my mom asked me the day before, "How faithful would you be to God, if you lost everything?"

Again, I was posed with that same question, yesterday, when we had to put down, our dog. It was the only death I experienced that I understood what was happening.
We had a fire in our backyard a couple years ago that burned down our shed, everything in it, and one of our chickens. In Job 1:21 Job says, "...The Lord gives, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord." So, what will we choose to do when the time of loss and heartache comes? Will we be faithful to God, and know that His plans are better than our plans?

You can fill in the blank, but, "How faithful would you be if you lost ________"?
This got me to really think!
I looked up all the Bible verses that talked about God being faithful to us. Here are just a few:
Deuteronomy 7:9, "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments,
to a thousand generations."

Deuteronomy 32:4
"The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."

Hebrews 3:6
"but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."

Fire!!!

Fire!!! There are, as of what I know 6 fires in Colorado...2 of which are within 45 minutes of us...scary! One in Colorado Springs area, and the other one in Fort Collins...I've been thinking...We all know that God ordained where the fire goes before it even starts...so, why now? Why here? I don't know about you, but maybe it's time for America to wake up!!! Wake up with the fact that not only is God in control, but he is Sovereign over everything!!!

Our pastor told us that the state of Colorado has more divorce rates than any other state in America...let's think about this for a minute...in the Bible when the Israelites were being taken into the wilderness, it says over and over and over again, "...They did what was right in their own eyes". Could it be that this is happening again? Could it be that God is giving a wake up call as a warning?

Today we found out that a few of our friends are being evacuated from their homes because of the fires. I remember our first fire that we had in our backyard...

We had been going to our church for about 10 months, and it was in the middle of March 2010 and we had been invited to go to a friends house after church for a meal. They lived about 1 hour away, so we drove down there after church. About a hour or so after we got there, my dad got a call from our neighbor..."You barn is on fire! The Firemen have it almost out." Quickly my dad got some more information...they had no idea what happened...but we did! We live in a small neighborhood (yes, we can have chickens) and we had at the time 4 chickens. My mom was very cautious about them getting cold, so we had a heat lamp in their little house at all times in the winter. We think that one of the chickens flew up onto the clip on heat lamp and knocked it down, thus making the fire. The fire burned down our shed, our neighbors bushes, a few of our trees, and also some of our garden. It also managed to get a chicken burned a little. (enough to where it not only was shaken up from the experience, but was blind for a few weeks. We didn't think she would make it.) Apparently our neighbor was taking a walk, when he saw our shed was on fire. He took some quick action, called the firemen, and had many neighbors helping in the mean time getting the chickens to safety.

So...yes, we lost almost everything valuable in that shed. We decided that since the Firemen had it under control at our house, there was no use going back home, so we might as well enjoy the time with our friends. We had windows that we accidentally ordered that the insurance payed us back for, a bunk-bed, some of my mom's antiques, and quite a lot of other things. Guess what? (It was a blessing in Disguise) The insurance covered everything that was damage!!! (times 10!...it seemed like!) We decided to help a few friends out financially, save money towards silver, savings, and of course tithing and other things. God blessed us richly.

So, my point? We may not always see what God is doing...but the end result? (no you may not end up getting money in the end) A closer walk with God!
So, trust him, even when it's to foggy to see ahead!