Green pastures are limited opportunities to heal up and stock up.
Category: Devotions
Friend, we cannot afford to waste seasons of suffering. Our personal hardships present unique and limited opportunities to learn something new and pertinent about our God. When fear and frustration hit, we handle it best by running to the throne room with our feelings in hand, ready to release them into God’s presence.
In seasons of crisis, we can choose to listen to proven voices. Scripture is the most proven voice of all. We go with the Word instead of our feelings. We follow God instead of our gut. And God promises, the very best is still around the bend.
Even when I suspect the worst and it turns out to be true, I will inevitably experience a wave of disappointment. If I give myself over to that wave, it will carry me out of God’s purpose and off to a place that is me-focused. That sea of selfishness is far from God’s best for my life. Instead allowing myself to be carried away, I handle disappointment best when I lift my voice to the Father and air my grievances upward. Crying out to heaven makes my soul stronger in the waves of sorrow, less susceptible to the drift of self-pity.
This idea of governing our feelings can be daunting. My feelings are loud and powerful: a bit like the Niagara River spilling over the Falls. Even with that analogy, I recall that the Niagara features a series of locks along the way: allowing for the regulation of the flow of rushing waters.
We may not all be shepherds, but we each suffer from first person limitation.
This scripture reminds us: we are being renovated. There is a great transformation taking place in our soul. A great deal of it is immediate upon salvation, but we continue to cooperate with the Spirit of God toward complete sanctification.
We work throughout our marriage and our lifetime to live God’s way.
My husband, in his quiet, revelatory manner, spoke plainly: “Really, the sun is setting all the time. It is always sunset somewhere.”