Sunday, July 4, 2010

The beginnings of true submission

Thank you dear friends for washing us in a flood of your prayers. They have been a source of comfort that we cannot quantify.
Please know that while we have sorrow, we do not have any fear and we know that we are following God's will. I like to be in control and know exactly what the plan is. I think of the passage James 4:13-17:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say , "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

How does that apply? God has sent us on a mission. I pridefully believed I knew what it was. I knew some, but just like I always do, I took over and believed I was directing every step. The Lord knows what is going to happen and the steps ittakes to get there. I left no room for His real plans. We were then faced with a choice: Do we embrace God's will and trust Him when we cannot see the way, or do we continue to push for what had become OUR PLAN?
This is a very humbling position to be in. With eventual contrite hearts, we repented and we submit to the Will of the Father. We are in the center of many many unknowns. With God's help, I am resisting the urge to commandeer these next days and weeks, and rest in God's peace. Comfortable in the knowledge that we are where He wants us. Not only that, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Nastia is in His hands. How could I question that? While it is not what I would have willed, I could not dare question God's wisdom. He knows we love her, but how much greater is the love our Father has for her?

From the Charles Spurgeon devotional I read this morning:

"Seeing that we have such a God to trust, let us rest upon Him with all our weight: let us resolutely drive out all unbelief and endeavor to get rid of doubts and fears, which spoil our comfort, since there is no excuse for fear when God is the foundation of our trust. A loving parent would be sorely grieved if his child could not trust him: and how ungenerous, how unkind is our conduct when we put so little confidence in our heavenly Father, who has never failed us and who never will."

I have asked this before on this blog: Who is your Father? Don't you trust Him?"
I stand before you asking this of myself.

God is my Father. I will not fear.

7 comments:

Sha Zam- said...

Huggs and thank you! Still praying for you all.

Julia said...

PRAYING FOR YOU....

"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

When darkness seems to hide His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne."

traci said...

thank you Julia. Exactly.
Tomorrow is a big day. We are praying for good news, but praying more for a submissive heart.

Kevin and Sue Krippel said...

Tears and prayers for all of you. God is refining and strengthening your faith as painful as it is.
He is close to the broken hearted.


The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:1-3

Holly said...

oh how I wish I could give you a big hug, and I realize that we are virtually strangers though we share some amazing friends in common. We also share a Father in common. I wish I did not understand your pain at all, but I do. I too have thought I had it all figured out before and found out that Father's plans looked vastly different than mine. He had the child's best interest at heart, and mine, but it sure hurt like the dickens.
Prayers for your faith to be built up and for God to continue to work behind the scenes. I am so proud of you for turning to Him in your distress. He wil not forsake you.
Praying for BIG turnarounds and for God's glory to be seen in big ways,
Blessings,
Holly

Deanna said...

WOW what a great post...Love you Traci and can't wait to hear and learn from your test which will be your testimony soon....love you and praying for you...

Lauren said...

You are truly a living testimony, living a testimony and sharing it. Your courage is so encouraging. I loved how you said you will resist the desire to be commander. I will be stating that daily now!! We will pray for you guys.