The Learning Curve: Day 5
…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12, 13
No matter your stage of life, your health or wealth, your interests or aptitudes, you fit somewhere along a learning curve. That learning curve is called Life. Some will explain their life’s journey as a combination of luck, breaks, fortune and karma. For the believer, it lies in believing with all your heart that God is intimately involved in everything that comes into your life and that everything--the good, the bad, and everything in between—will be redeemed for His eternal glory and your ultimate sanctification.
One of the most difficult lessons we learn on our life’s journey is that the “how,” “when” and “why” of that work is God’s eternal business. To cling tenaciously to our outcome, our timetable and our view of how things should be isn’t faith and it doesn’t alter God’s plan; it only places painful impediments on our progress to glory.
As those of us who have lived some years can testify, many of the things we thought we had have right away could only be accomplished over time. It is only in learning to trust His ways, to accept each day’s “assignment” with grace and humility and trust that God has the bigger picture, will we see Him and His work in our life.
O Eternal God, although I cannot see you with my eyes or touch you with my hands, give me today a clear conviction of your reality and power. Do not let me go to my work believing only in the world of sense and time, but give me the grace to understand that the world I cannot see or touch is the most real world of all. My life today will be lived in time, but it will involve eternal issues. The needs of my body will shout out, but it is for the needs of my soul that I must care the most. My business will be with material things, but let me be aware of spiritual things behind them. Let me always keep in mind that the things that matter are not money or possessions, not houses or property, not bodily comforts or pleasures, but truth and honor and gentleness and helpfulness and a pure love of you.
John Baillie (A Diary of Private Prayer)
Nancy Shirah
