So as I lay in bed tonight, with my sweet husband cuddled up beside me, I couldn't stop thinking of the verse in Acts..."He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else...For in Him we live and move and have our being." I just started thanking God that my precious husband lay next to me, that my mom and dad and sisters are all healthy, that I am alive!
I have felt a little overwhelmed this week with the burdens of those around us. This week marks the one year death of our precious friend who now still has 5 kids and a precious wife left here. A sweet couple from our church, that I hold so dear to my heart, are still fighting through his cancer after so many options failing. One of our youth kids ran away from home and hasn't been heard from. So many of our kids are spiraling out of control bc of horrible home lives, abuse, divorce, drugs...My heart has just been aching for so many people and in the stillness of the night God gave me this verse. Acts 17:25-28.
What a reminder to me that He is the One in control and while it hurts to watch others hurt, He has their lives in His hands. "We have our being" kept ringing in my heart and I couldn't help but stand in awe and be overwhelmingly thankful that I serve the One who has my very life, and the lives of all these dear people, in His hands.
Our very existence is dependant upon Him! A year ago to this week I remember laying in bed with my hand on Jacob's heart, thanking God for his very life bc he is so, so precious to me. The very next morning we found out Jeff was in coma on life support. After a long day of prayer for his miraculous healing and many tears for their precious family I lay in bed again listening to my husbands breathing. It was then that I began to really understand how fleeting and precious life is. Just the night before life was "normal" for this family and now the unimaginable was happening. That could have been us. That could have been my husband. My heart hurt so deeply for a wife that would never feel her husbands heartbeat again or hear his reassuring breath next to her while they slept. How often do I take it for granted? How quickly I forget that with a snap of His fingers God could call any of us home?
It's so hard not to have the answers to why things happen? "Why Lord take an incredible, Godly man away from his sweet wife and 5 young kids? Why do You take a wonderful couple through this horrible journey of cancer with no cure at the end? Why are kids born into such broken homes? Why not vividly show Your face to youth that are struggling with Your very existence bc their surroundings reflect nothing of this loving God they hear about at church?" And then I find myself asking..."God why are we still here? Are we hearing and obeying? Are we following Your plan for our lives?"
With all these questions my heart finds no comfort, but God is faithful to tell me once again..."I give you life and breath; you live and move and have your very existence bc of Me! I do things so that people will seek Me, reach out, and find Me (vs. 27)." I do find comfort in knowing that while I have no control over ANYTHING, He has all of our lives in His hands and will bring glory to His name however He sees fit! I am so blessed to know these incredible people bc their lives are such a testimony to our Savior. And while there are no answers now, here on earth, one day the Lord will say to them, "Well done My good and faithful servants" (Matt. 25:21) and the heartaches of this world will "grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." (Helen Lemmel)
Acts 17:25-28...He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, bc He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and reach out for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.
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