Adversity Reed 1

Why does God allow pain? ---“The word of God is brutally honest about the reality of life. Sometimes in the process of growing up in God’s family, we feel the sting of adversity. It doesn’t feel good, and we would not really desire it. But God has a purpose in our pain that we may not see or understand in the present. We can trust that our pain is no secret to Him. Everything that happens to us will become a platform for the glory of Him who” “ ….works all things according to the plan of His will….” (Ephesians 1:11). “ God uses problems in our lives to drive us to Him as our only hope, our only source of dependence.” ----These are quotes from the book “Answers to Questions about Adversity” -- by David Jeremiah, and of course the Bible. I have only started reading his book and I am already benefiting from his wisdom from God. Over the next few weeks I want to share bits and pieces that speak to me with you all. ----Now here is some of my own thoughts---I would be surprised to hear about someone who walks through their days looking around every corner for adversity. I would think they would need to seek some counsel for that kind of behavior. But on the other hand there are people out there that go through their days with the thinking that it could never happen to them. I don’t think that is healthy either. ---We all need to have a healthy respect for life and the gift that it is. We need to also remember that God does allow stuff to happen. It is tempting to throw your hands up in the air and ask God “why” (and I’ve done it) when something comes along that is painful, and that is okay as long as you don’t curse Him as you are doing it. But nothing that happens to us is a surprise to Him. He has all of our days planned out and we only have to seek after His heart for them to be revealed to us. If it is not your desire to seek Him in life you are most assuredly missing out on the best there is for your life. In this reading I didn’t really learn anything new because I was already holding onto His promise that “He works all things according to His plans….”, and I know that His plans are far better then anything I could think up. I have yet to understand how He is working, but I can see bits and pieces of God in the way Reed has been behaving lately. He has been our sweet active Reed for the most part, he just can’t walk, but in his eyes and actions I see peace, love, and acceptance of what life is giving him. Yes he is only 2, but I see Jesus when he reminds me to fold my hands and pray, when he wants me to help him stand so he can dance to Jesus loves the little children and of course sings Jesus Loves Me. ----What the natural world sees and says (Doctors, internet, etc.) in our Reeds case does not look good for his future, but when we put our hope and total dependence in our Heavenly Father, the supernatural is on our side, and isn’t God’ supernatural power something that all of us; whether out loud or quietly hope will step in and here our cry for help? I am driven to Him everyday of my life, even when things are peaceful in life, but when those days of adversity come, I am so glad I have my relationship with my Savior to catch me when life knocks me down.

Reed

March 4 2015 It has been a week since we all heard the devastating news of our dear sweet Reeds disease. We are all in shock and are experiencing fear everyday, every moment of the day. I have shed a ocean of tears and begged God for Reeds life. I am trying so very hard to cling to my Savior; searching for verses in His word for comfort and hope. My moms favorite verse comes to mind often, Proverbs 3:5&6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your way.” What is something in this world that you trust with all your heart? As I sit here thinking about that question it is very hard to think of anything in this world that I can truly trust that much. Love for someone special can be something that we want to put that much trust in, but we all know that people are all faulted and love can fall apart. We long for certain things in our lives with our whole heart and sometimes put trust in ourselves to achieve these things, but alas not all of these desires come true, and may fall apart. God wants us to put our trust in what we can’t see instead of what we can see. If we could see everything that God is working on do you think we would like some of the ways He is working. I would say a resounding NO. I certainly don’t understand what He is doing with Reed and how He is working, but I choose to trust Him because I find hope in Him and that hope is so much better then hope in this faulted world. That brings me to leaning on our own understanding--- do you ever lay awake at night trying to understand why something may or may not be happening in your life? How futile is it to try and try to understand when understanding is not always possible. God brings understanding in His time and wants us to wait patiently for Him. I know, I know when your heart is breaking over a circumstance that may be happening or maybe it is not happening and you want it to; it can be so hard to “wait patiently”. We learn in Psalm 5:3 we are to “wait in expectation for God to answer prayer.” In Psalm 40:1 we read “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He turned to me and heard my cry.” Don’t get me wrong I still don’t understand and I have a very hard time waiting patiently when my little boy is hurting. The last part of the verse is “in all my ways acknowledge Him and He will show me the way, show me what He is doing, help me to understand. I cannot do anything on my own, I am declaring that to all who are reading this right now. Nor do I want to take one step without acknowledging my creator. I know with my whole heart that God created me, he loves me, formed me in my mothers womb and He is the keeper of all my days. He is the keeper of ALL of our days. He formed Reed in his mommy’s womb, He loves him even more then we do and is the keeper of Reed’s days. Acknowledging God and trusting that He knows what He is doing, waiting patiently for understanding can give us peace in this very hard time. Can we give Reed to Christ and trust Him with his whole life—who else’s arms would you want to place your child in. I place Reed is Christ Jesus’s arms of mercy.