Faith

Have you ever given much thought to when you turn to God? I've given some thought to that over the past months, and I think that it is true that as long as everything is going well in our lives, we seem to be pretty self reliant. We think that we actually have control over our lives and that we can make plans and that those plans will actually take place. In essence, I think that we rely only on our own devices and don't necessarily seek guidance from our heavenly Father. Oh sure, we may thank God for our blessings and put forth our supplications or requests to Him; but I am not sure if we put our full trust and reliance on Him. I can say that before the events surrounding Nathan's diagnosis and transplant, the above described me. But what happens when something unexpected comes our way? What if our plans don't turn out to be God's plans? How is our faith affected? I think that there are two choices. Either we can totally crumble under the circumstances and get really angry at God for messing up our plans or we can choose to turn to Him and rely solely on Him to carry us through. Actually, I think it is more of a process. For me, it was more like I initially was angry and so unsure of how to turn to God. Then, as time went on I was able to see that my faith and trust could only be in Him and not on any strength that I had. Because really we have no strength apart from Him. It is almost that through a sense of brokenness, we can fully see our need and desire for a relationship with Christ. I think in this sense that going through a trial can strengthen our faith. A song by Mercy Me, Bring on the Rain has meant a lot to me over the past months. Here is a small portion of the lyrics:

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Can we really say, bring me anything that brings you glory? And what about when we experience pain in life - do we praise Him? If that's what it takes to praise you, Jesus bring the rain. It is almost hard to say that statement. Certainly we do not want to experience trials or pain, but if (and when) we do, will we allow the trial to bring glory to Him and will we lift up our praises to Him? I pray that we will.
Lora