God’s Loving Pursuit

November Update

Going into this December I am starting to miss being home and am ready for Christmas break coming up in just a short month. This past month has been such a blessing. The weather is starting to feel colder and I am waiting for some snow to stay on the ground. I am still working on the ACBC exams and trying to take all the opportunities the Lord put in front of me to learn more about Biblical counselling from all the wise women and church family around me. It has been such a blessing to have so many great teachers to not only answer questions I have, but to lead by example in how they interact and counsel the young women at Vision of Hope. God is showing me lots about his word and about ministering to hurting people. But what if people don’t want the help scripture offers. I can easily get discouraged and weighted down when I don’t see change in the lives of people, when people walk away and reject help from the word of God. God’s word brings so much hope, why can’t they see it?

This is a question I have been wrestling with the past week. This is something the Lord is teaching me and refining me through. How quick I am to praise God in the midst of victories but less so when I do not see him working. When we do not see God at work does that mean he is not? No. We have such a limited view. Genesis 50:20 is when Joseph is taking to his brothers he says “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God did not want Joseph to suffer and to hurt. His brothers made a choice to act sinfully against him. I am sure in the midst of Joseph going through the pain of his trials, it was hard to see the hand of God. Hard to trust and recognize his sovereignty. But God was walking right beside him and was still in control of all things. God used Joseph suffering for God to accomplish what he wanted in Josephs life and others. At the end of the story Joseph recognized and was able to say that God intended it for good. We can’t see the future we do not know the outcome. But we do have a God who does. A God that is perfect in love, sovereign over all things and wants what is best for us. People may make decisions that rebel against God and his word, but God is still seated on the throne. He still has the power to accomplish what he wants in their life.

The fact is that if God is pursuing us, there is nowhere we can go out of his mighty hand that is far enough away that he cannot draw our hearts to himself. It can be hard when we see someone we love, rejects God and his word, we may not understand, we may feel discouraged and defeated. It is never an easy thing and I would urge us to pray for them. But we can not love the person more than how the Lord loves them and we are not in control of the outcome, but we do have a God who does. He holds all things in his hand. We need to humbly submit to the Lord and his sovereignty recognizing that God is perfect in his timing and abounding in love. So when we are praising the Lord in the victorious he brings, let us always praise him in all things knowing that Christ has already won the victory on Calvary.

“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