Back in September, I wrote about my frustrations with one of my dear friends. When I tried to be encouraging to her and point her in the right direction, I felt ignored; but now I have some good news.
I think my friend finally listened. I think she finally stopped dieting and learned to enjoy food instead of analyze it. God must have worked in her heart and changed her mind because I think she finally realized the truth that I was trying to tell her. It seemed to take forever for her behavior to change, but it is what it is.
This situation—and others like it—have caused me to ponder the trying question that every Christian asks at one time (or every time):
Why did God choose to intervene now? (In other words that don’t sound as pleasant: why didn’t God choose to intervene sooner?)
In this case of my friend’s change, I have a pretty good idea why God worked when He worked (which is another story for another time). However, usually, we don’t know. We usually can’t understand God’s timing.
Some cliché Christians would say, “Embrace the unknown! Enjoy not knowing because you don’t have to handle everything!”
But I like handling stuff. In fact, I like handling everything I can get my handling hands on. I handle my family’s schedule. By choice. (Or is it by choice? It feels too natural to be by choice…)
As you can gather, I’m a handler. (Others might call me a control freak.)
But we simply cannot handle everything. We can’t know it all.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
I see this verse SO often and get SO annoyed with the unoriginality of the Christian authors who use it, but I included this verse to make an important point.
God doesn’t tell us when or where or how He’s going to work all things for good. He just says He will.
Because—news flash—we are not in charge. We’re in the passenger seat. (Even though we deserve to be in the backseat…or the trunk…) We don’t get to know everything. But we do get to have hope.
God tells us that He will work all things out for our good, but we don’t need to know all the details.
Here’s a little personal example:
A couple years ago, my hands and feet had an outbreak of warts. There were literally fifty warts on my hands, and I was totally insecure and self-conscious about them. I couldn’t escape them.
So I prayed that God would heal me, but it seemed to take forever. We tried one treatment over and over and over, but it never worked. Finally, we tried going to a new doctor who tried a new treatment; and it worked. My warts disappeared!
Why did God wait a year to heal my warts?
I have no clue.
But it is what it is, and I need to learn to accept the what is because it is.
Wow. That was a brain workout.
Accepting your situation is a huge step to contentment. You don’t have to love what’s happening to you, but if you can accept it, you’ll be a lot better off. You won’t be counting down the days until ________. You’ll be enjoying the days God has given you.
He is working in your life whether you can see it or not.
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. (Philippians 1:6 NKJV)
He began a good work in you, and He isn’t a quitter. He’s not going to stop working in you now, friend. Your situation is happening for a reason, and that may be the only thing you can know until we go to heaven.
So try to hang in there, persevere through the darkest days, and always have hope in our Almighty God.
Tizzie's Tidbits of Truth 