06/22/09

Good Monday Mornin!

My family was swimming yesterday in the next door neighbor’s pool. We were having a great time and I went to do a cannonball off the diving board. When I did, little did I know, Kayla had swam over the top of where I had went in. When my feet hit bottom I sprang up hard so I could get back to the surface. The only problem was that Kayla’s head and my head collided. Hard. I came up with a bloody nose, and she is going to have a big goose egg over her eye for a few days, we are both fine. However, in just the blink of an eye everything changed. No one did anything wrong, no one was at fault, but just in a flash the fun had ended, the pain had begun.

Life is like that at times is it not? Things seem to be going just fine, life is good, all is well. And then out of nowhere, “BAM” we are hit hard by unforeseen or uncontrollable circumstances. Then what do we do? Our tendency is to respond one of two ways, pout, or get mad. We pout because our day has been interrupted and our plans have been put on hold. Or we get mad because we have been inconvenienced. I could have very easily gotten mad at Kayla yesterday. Made it out to be her fault, made her feel like it was. But what good would that do? The truth is it was not her fault, and to make it her fault would have only crushed her.

Have you ever thought how comforting it is to know that God is not taken by surprise?  David wrote in Psalms 139. . .

You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

What a comforting passage of Scripture. To know that we cannot go anywhere out of God’s sight is one of the most comforting things that I can find in the Bible.

When I was a child I never doubted that my parents had things under control. I never once questioned their decisions. I just followed along because I knew that they knew what they were doing, I trusted them. Jesus said once that we were to come to Him as little children. What Jesus was saying is that God wants total trust. And total trust means that no matter what happens in our lives, God is in control of it and we can trust Him.

Today, this week, this month, this year look at all of your life’s circumstances in the lens of God’s Sovereignty. Know that no matter what, God is in control. If you will do this, what will start to happen is that life will be more bearable, it will be easier to live, and make more sense. We have to believe that no matter what it is that comes through our lives, God is not taken back, but He knows exactly where we are.

I love you guys, have a great week.

 Pastor Jason Lyle

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 10:39