Scripture
7Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me. 8The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.
Psalm 138:7-8
Observation
David isn’t singing this song of confidence in God’s plan when everything is easy peasy and comfy cozy. No, David is literally surrounded by troubles and those troubles are stemming from his enemies. These are real people that really want to kill him. I have troubles like anyone else. I have people that don’t like me for one reason or another. I’ve never had a herd of haters seeking to hurt me. Somehow, in the middle of this melee of malcontents that God is clearly not removing him immediately from, He sees God’s hands at work. Somehow, these bad troubles are a part of the good plan God has for David’s life. David doesn't allow the hurt to cause him to doubt the goodness of God's hands. The same hand that formed him, is the same hand that led him here, is the same hand that is perfecting and shaping him, is the same hand that leading David through. This is what Paul was echoing to the Philipian church when they were encountering trials of their own: “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6).
Application
In the worst of times the follower of Christ never loses confidence in the fact that God has our best in mind! Yet, I often pray that God will prevent the very situations that are actually a part of God’s plan for me. I cry, “Take me out this!” Instead God takes me through it! I don’t like troubles, but God uses them to shape my faith. Like the potter pounding the clay into submission, what seems brutal leads to something beautiful. “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Is. 64:8) I think about how God's hand led our family and I to leave Hawaii to take The Father’s House in the middle of the Pandemic of 2020. The only way I was ready to do that was because in 2019 we were led to hand God back all of our plans. We had thought Hawaii was going to be our forever home. Then, through a grueling process of surrender Jesus walked us through a letting go that the rest of the world would be forced to go through in 2020. Though we were by no means prepared for all the challenges we would face in taking a new church in a time of such upheaval, we had already seen His hand lead us through some pretty challenging situations. We knew that we could trust His hands and therefore trust His plans even if it looked completely different than what we had pictured even just a year earlier. I remember very clearly the rock I was sitting on at the top of the Makapuu trail looking out over the beautiful Pacific Ocean. God asked me, “What do you want more, your plans or my presence?” Though I wrestled much longer then I care to admit, in the end, I came to the conclusion that every Christ follower must come to. “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn. 6:68-69) Though the disciples had no idea the troubles they were about to face they knew the best place on the planet was in the presence of God, in His Good, Strong, and Faithful hands! Honestly, if God had told me how much we would go through to follow His plan through I would have probably stayed right where I was at. I’m so glad He only showed me the next step as He put His hand out to mine because there’s no way I would have wanted to miss out on this!
Prayer
As we approach the 20 year anniversary of The Father’s House this Sunday I stand in awe at how Your perfect plan has included this very imperfect son. Whether we were meeting inside the building or out in the parking lot due to Covid restrictions, Your hand was always upon us. Whether we had a lot of help in some seasons and a little in others, Your hand was always upon us. When we faced the hardships of transitions, the leaving of leaders, the heartache of deaths of those we loved, Your hand was always upon us. In the healing of marriages thought irreparable, the saving of souls who had been far from You, in the healing of bodies and minds so broken, in the restoration of a community of faith that had been worn thin, Your hand was upon us all! As we enter the next 20 years of TFH I pray not to be spared from trouble but to stay humble and submitted to whatever You want to do and however You want to do it and whenever You want to do it. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1 Pet. 5:6)
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