Advocating True Social Justice: Whose Idea Was It, Anyway?

Part 1 in a 2-Part Series

 Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh, hold them back.
If you say, “See, we did not know this,”
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work?

-Proverbs 24:11-12

Social Justice – A buzzword phrase of the 21^st century that somehow makes people swell with pride for giving to the poor, fighting for the rights of the marginalized (or not so marginalized), and defending the weak. But in reality social justice is not a new phenomenon and might better be understood as God’s idea, carrying with it the truth that man was created in the image of God.  God is the Originator of social justice for all, as was clearly stated in the United States Declaration of Independence, unanimously declared by the founders of this great land on July 4, 1776.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Why do our hearts cry out for justice? Because God is a just God, and He desires justice – and mercy! In Psalm 89:14, the psalmist writes, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.”

Why do our hearts break and tears flow when we hear of abused children or see commercials on television of starved or mistreated animals? Why are we outraged when school girls are kidnapped and forced into slavery and the sex trade? Why does it matter that terrorists burn churches and slaughter innocent people? Is it because we are so good and noble in or of ourselves? Or is it because God placed within us the concept of what is good and what is evil? How do we intuitively know what is right and what is wrong? What is just and what is unjust?

Unlike animals, man has the ability to know, and not only to know, but to know what is good and what is evil. It is because God created man with a conscience. The apostle Paul explains in Romans 2:12-15,

¹² For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; 

¹³ for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 

¹⁴ For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 

¹⁵ in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them…

From the beginning, God called for justice. From Eve’s first bite of the forbidden fruit, to Abel’s blood crying out from the ground, when he was murdered by his brother, the first people were keenly aware that they had sinned. They made excuses for their choices. They hid. They feared the consequences. Then came the time of the flood. We read in Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” resulting in the worldwide flood described in Genesis 6. Yet in God’s great mercy, He spared Noah and his family. Why? Because Noah “found favor in the eyes of the Lord… Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”(Genesis 6:8-9). God “preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5) Noah promoted what was good and right. He was a advocate of social justice in his day. He longed for a world that functioned the way God intended it.

By faith Noah…in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

God calls for social justice, and yet He is patient and kind and good, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” All of the time that Noah was building the ark, he begged people to live justly before God, giving them the opportunity for deliverance from the judgment to come. Unfortunately, no one listened.

Today God lovingly and patiently waits for those who are willing, to turn away from evil (repent), to come to Him, to trust Him, to follow Him, to believe His Gospel. “For God so loved the world, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) But because God is not only merciful, but completely fair and just, one day the opportunity to repent and trust in Him will end, just as in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39) and judgment will become reality. Finally, what we desire through social justice will come true. Finally true and complete Justice will rule and reign. Oh, how we all long for justice and peace in this world! Intuitively we know that the world is not functioning as it ought, and we struggle with the reality of the brokenness and how to fix it. But one day, God will fix it all. It is His promise and He is completely True and Faithful.

I love the description in Isaiah 11:1-10 of the time when God’s promise is fulfilled, when Messiah returns and rules the earth with Ultimate social justice.

 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

² And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

³ And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

⁴ But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

⁵ And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

⁶ The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

⁷ And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

⁹ They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Oh, how I look forward to this day! But in the meantime, God has called us to live righteously and do good, defending those who are helpless, promoting social justice in our society.

¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,
¹⁷ Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

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Won’t you join me tomorrow when we consider courageous women of the Bible and others throughout history who risked their lives to promote social justice. And we will honor some women today who are following these examples, promoting social justice and the care of God’s creation – Women of Wisdom, Faith, and Courage.

 

 

 

First, a note from Kim:

How do I introduce my sister, my best girlfriend, my confidant, the sharer of joys and heartache, the one person who understands what I mean with just a word or a look or a phrase?  She is the one person (besides my spouse) who I can still share a room with and be completely relaxed. We can talk for hours and never have enough time to catch up. We dream of living in the same town and use every reason possible to travel the 1,250 miles one way to get together…or we will meet somewhere in between even for just a couple of days. 

Michelle is an amazing woman for many reasons. First, she is a faithful follower and servant of Jesus, one who fears the Lord and honors Him with her life. She is a prayer warrior, faithful wife, loving mom, and energetic Grammy. She is a successful entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, and gifted writer. She invests in the lives of others through local ministry and worldwide missions. She is a woman of wisdom: faithful, industrious, generous, strong, and kind. I introduce to you, Michelle Cullison, my sister and friend.

Dropping Shoes and Souls with Holes

by Michelle Cullison

 

“I think I will probably go to my grave fighting the feeling, but “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

I confessed this recently to my husband, my sister, Kim, on whose blog this is written, and a close friend.  I wanted to find resolution.

Now, those who know me, understand that I love God passionately and have lived my life on the foundation of trusting God as stated in Proverbs 3:5-6. I pray throughout the day every day. And, He has blessed my life with love and joy. So, it troubled me that to have this nagging feeling, deep down that the other shoe would eventually drop in my life or my life would eventually have some catastrophic event, failure or loneliness.

That’s not what faith looks like.

This feeling of fear was, of course, unfounded. It was false but there it was hidden in the creases and crevices of my heart and mind. The truth is, I’ve experienced the drop of the first shoe (so to speak) on the journey of life. Maybe, you have too. And, it left a hole in my soul.

What life experience has left you with you a hole in your soul?

What shoe dropped that has you stumped, stuck or afraid of the next dropping shoe?
What is your biggest fear or nagging thought that you wish you didn’t have?

Shortly after my true confessions, I got angry that I still have this problem – a soul with the same old hole. I don’t expect to ever be done with growth or not have any holes to fill while I’m still on this planet – but I certainly don’t want to work on this same hole for another 50 years! LOL

The truth is I’ve seen God do some miraculous things for me and for others in my life. So, I decided it was time to ask God for more.

 “Heal me, Lord. Fill this hole that causes this nagging feeling that eventually the other shoe will drop.”

Then, He started to answer through Stormy OMartian, a well-known author of books on prayer, who spoke at a recent event at my church. She shared her family story, which had similarities to mine and Kim’s and she concluded with a concept that was new to me: Go from strength to strength and from glory to glory. Expect your life to look like this!
Strength to strength. Expect it. Glory to glory. It gripped me. The phrases pulled me in.

So I went looking for a deeper understanding.

I found Psalm 84:5-7 that talks about pilgrimage…

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, (a place of weeping)

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools. (blessing)

7 They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

I camped out here in Psalm 84 for a couple of days and explored these verses and those around them. Here is what I learned:

• When you find your strength in the Lord, you will be blessed.
• When you set your heart to be on a pilgrimage with God, you will be blessed.
• THEN, your weeping will become a place of springs (as in fresh water that washes you clean and quenches your thirst)
• AND, blessings will rain down and form pools on your pilgrimage (your life journey: past, present, future)
• Finally, there is the promise that this movement from strength to strength is for the ENTIRE journey – until the end!

Now, let’s look at my life verse, Proverbs 3:5-6. I’ve staked my life on this truth. It has been my firm foundation for living. It talks about a path…

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Take a minute and think about this question:
What’s the difference between a path and pilgrimage? Write it down.

Now, take a look at the definitions.

Path paTH/ noun   

• a way or track laid down for walking or made by continual treading.

Pil·grim·age ˈpilɡrəmij/ noun

• a pilgrim’s journey.
• religious journey, religious expedition
• a journey to a place associated with someone or something well known or respected.
• life viewed as a journey.

See the difference? One is daily and the other life-long.

By exploring these two passages with God I have a new understanding and I am so excited about it!

I have trusted God with my path, my day to day journey. And, His guidance has saved me. THANK YOU, Jesus! When I look back at my life, I see clearly that He has made my paths straight. He has brought me from strength to strength to this point.

But, somehow, until now, I haven’t applied the truth of strength to strength to the future, to the end point of my life. But, now, I see. Do you?

Sisters and brothers in the family of God, if you aren’t already seeing your future as a journey with God from strength to strength to the end, will you join me to live in GREAT expectation?

This is the TRUTH:
He is trustworthy for both our path (today) and our pilgrimage (tomorrow and to the end)!

There is no dropping shoe in the future for me, for you or for anyone who walks in the strength of the Lord. I am fully able, and so are you, to expect a successful move from strength to strength and glory to glory to complete the good works that He has planted in my heart!
The myth has been busted. Praise God!

 

Lord, we trust you with our daily paths.
Make them straight even when we don’t have full understanding.

Lord, we trust you to turn our valleys of weeping into springs of blessing.

Lord, we trust you to move us from STRENGTH TO STRENGTH to the very end.

Lord, help us live with GREAT EXPECTATION and no fear of dropping shoes on our journey to you.

Thank you, Lord, for filling the holes in our souls and walking with us always on this pilgrimage!

Amen!

 

#ThereIsNotAnotherShoe

#YouAlwaysFilltheHolesinOurSoulsWhenWeAsk

#AskMore

#WalkInTheStrengthOftheLord

#Trust #LivewithGreatExpectation

 

Michelle Cullison

Bio (Twitter style)

Love God. On Mission.

Wife of 1. Mom of 3. Grandma of 2.

—and I’m Kim’s sister! 🙂

Operate 2 Social Media Driven Businesses.

Learn more at MichelleCullison.com

 

First, a note from Kim: Last weekend I was in an evangelism workshop learning ways to more effectively share the gospel message. As the group sang this song, it dawned on me how fitting the words are to go along with Susan’s article, “Making God Smile.” I met Susan  Marcus last year in Israel. She was our Jewish tour guide in 2015 as we travelled “In the Footsteps of Jesus.” We were blessed by her knowledge and passion for the Scriptures and for the land. She is an amazing story teller who had us laughing one minute and crying the next. Two of her presentations were especially moving. The first was at the top of Masada, where she eloquently told the story of the Jews who held off the Roman army for months, before committing mass suicide instead of surrendering. This speech revealed Susan’s immense knowledge of the history of her people and her love for the land The second monologue was on the tour bus as we drove into the city of Jerusalem. As we came over the hill and our eyes laid hold on the Holy City, we were all openly weeping. This monologue revealed Susan’s heart – her love for her people, for her God, and for His Word. 

I am thrilled that when we make Aliyah in April 2017, Susan Marcus again will be leading our group as we experience “The Life & Land of Messiah.”  I hope this short portion of Susan’s story and her words regarding Proverbs 3:5-6 will inspire you to join us next year in Jerusalem. For more information on this 2017 tour, please email me and I will send you a brochure.

 I leave with you and with Susan Marcus this blessing from Numbers 6:24-26:

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee;

The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Making God Smile by Susan Marcus

Proverbs 3:6 (KJV)

In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

To me, as a child, it seemed that if I recited the “ Shema” every morning and every evening, that would be enough to say  “hi” and “goodnight” to God. That would be my way of “acknowledging” Him. As I grew up I realized that each action of each day would require me to be in His presence. Was God watching, listening, just to me?  How would He have time to take care of the world? One of the biggest blessings I received from God was my father. A brilliant man of great Jewish scholarship I could always turn to him for the answers.  He would smile, sit me down in the den, pull  out one of his endless books on prayer, sanctity, relationships, and always find an answer for me. We would talk for a long time and then he would give me an assignment to read in Scripture. Each summer before I went to camp we would pick out a book of scripture for me to read and study during my time at camp. One year I remember I chose the book of Isaiah. I underlined a few scriptures that were meaningful to me and we would discuss them upon my return home. The first 39 chapters were really hard. Isaiah castigates the people of Israel for all their misdeeds. I felt awful! But then came Chapter 40 which begins, rest, rest my people and fromthen, on come all the prophetic blessings. It felt so good.

Fast forward in time, I grew up, became a teacher of Jewish studies, moved with my young family to Israel, and have spent the last 35 plus years teaching folks about Israel. The story should end here but it doesn’t.

Early on in my career, I was invited to speak at a church in Grandview, Mo. To prepare my talk, I took down my old Bible, the one I received at my Bat Mitzvah and began to scan through for ideas. I came across the lines I had underlined and it was a lightning bolt.

The verses I had chosen to really understand were the following:

40:1-3; 42:7,8; 56:1; all of 62; and 66:10 to the end.

For me, they traced my odyssey to trust in God, understand my history as a Jew, to realize His calling to me, which in the end is a return to the land of Israel where my history began.

Finally, I realized He was outlining to me His plan for me. He had a plan all along.

His plans have brought me home so that when I read Proverbs 3:6 again I can pray that every thought, idea and action of mine will make God smile. After all, isn’t that what life is all about?

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Born and raised in Boston, educated at university of Hartford, Boston Hebrew College and Hebrew University, Susan taught Russian Jewish History, Holocaust, and Hebrew studies in the Jewish school system of greater Hartford, Connecticut. After making aliyah (immigrating to Israel) in 1977, she became a licensed tour guide. Specializing in Biblical and archaeological studies, the State of Israel has often featured her to represent them on teaching tours. She has been interviewed regularly by television and radio as well as many newspapers concerning current events in the Middle East. Susan and her husband Aaron live in the Biblical city of Modi’in where she actively continues her ministry of teaching throughout the land of Israel. Susan is the author of  Enter His Gates to Your Jewish Roots. There are limited copies available on Amazon.com OR you can purchase them at the Jesus Boat Museum Gift Shop on the Sea of Galilee.

 

Click here to read more about Susan Marcus’s story.

Learning to Trust Again

Dr. Bev Smallwood

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

In Part 1 of this two-part series on trust, I exposed my soul to you about my own past struggles with trusting God due to loss, tragedy, and prayers answered no.  I have the distinct feeling that I am not alone.

In Part 2 I want to take you a little deeper into the scripture that we read in the wisdom literature.  I want you to truly understand what we’re being challenged to do. God has allowed me to unearth some valuable nuggets as I’ve discovered the original meanings of certain keywords in the passage.   Allow me to break it down now so that we may hear it like the writer meant it.  As we do, I pray that we will glean practical steps for maintaining and regaining trust in the Lord.

1.  Trust in the Lord.

Trust is defined as “to be confident, have a feeling of safety and security when you know that you can rely on someone without fear.” I note here the focus of this trust is the Lord – on the fact that HE will be there for you, no matter what.  The trust you’re challenged to is not some rosy belief that when you serve God, every life circumstance will be perfect.  “Do right, and everything will go right.” That myth has been the source of many a person’s loss of trust.

Trust in a person (Person!) is a deep-down experience that grows out of that individual’s consistent faithfulness, no matter what the situation. This is truth: it matters not what this crazy life hands us, the Lord is WITH us every step.  He will never leave or forsake us.  He can be trusted.

2.  with all your heart, and…

I want to tell you, there are some things that happen that you are never going to figure out in your mind.  If you think you’re going to be able to put together all the why’s and how’s and wherefores when life blindsides you with tragedy, you’re going to be stuck for a very long time. You may believe that if you can just understand it all, then you can control it all in the future.  (Not!) Listen, some things will simply never make sense – until we are with Him in person.  Then none of it will probably matter, but we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it with Him if we want to.

Trust is a matter of the heart.  It involves the strong leap of faith into the arms of God.  He is the One Who bridges the chasm between how we thought life would be and how it turned out.  He gives us hope for the future.  Even when your head is spinning and it it seems your life has been Humpty-Dumpty shattered, you can know the truth.  The Holy Spirit can whisper the reality of divine hope and the energy to breathe and to take one more step.

3.  Lean not unto your own understanding.

That word lean originally meant “to rely, to support oneself – like resting oneself against something for support.” The word understanding means “discernment or comprehension.”  In other words, you are not going to be able to use your own smarts and your experience to make it alone.  You may try to do life while leaning against a facade wall (picture the fake walls called “facades”on the movie sets). Dependence on the structure of your own knowledge, comprehension, and power is definitely a set-up for a crash.  Only the principles of God in His Word and the moment-by-moment instructive whispers of the Spirit can provide the wisdom you need to do this very hard thing called life successfully.

4.  In all your ways…

Ways are not simple actions; they are your patterns.  Of course, habits form by the repetition of individual actions, thoughts, and attitudes. However, even this challenging scripture, “in all your ways,” recognizes by its language that our thoughts and behaviors are never going to be perfect.  The instruction is, catch those steps that are outside God’s plan quickly and early so that they do not become habits and so that your ways are not contrary to His ways.  Habits matter.

5.  acknowledge Him,

I love what I found when I researched that word acknowledge, which at first glance seems like a rather mild word.  It almost sounds like, “Just give a nod to Him or speak to Him,” as if someone walked into a room, and you “acknowledged” her.  (This is a good example of why it’s great to do word studies.) No, that word in the original language has a much deeper meaning.  It’s “to know, to learn, to perceive, to experience, to know relationally, to know intimately.”  It’s also the same word that is used in the Bible for sexual intimacy.

When your way is to walk with Him and to know God intimately, then you know His Heart.  (I invite you to go to Youtube and listen to Babbie Mason’s powerful song, “Trust His Heart.”) That’s how you come to have trust in human beings, you know. You walk with them, you really talk with them, and you spend plenty of time with them.

Further, if there’s been a breach of trust in a person, you never regain trust by staying away.  You don’t learn to trust in a vacuum.  You only begin to trust again as you take the risk to be with him or her, really talk with him, and/or spend plenty of time with her.

In a similar but oh-so-different way, your trust in God can also be renewed.  Staying away never does it.  Oh, you can be distant while showing up in church every time the doors are open.  You can talk about God.  But until you talk with Him – a lot – even if what you are talking about is your disappointment – your heart will remain jaded and closed. I did this for years, as I shared with you in Part 1 of this message.

The oh-so-different part is that, unlike people, God is never untrustworthy.  It surely may feel that way, but that perception is based on our limited human understanding.  We’ve already explored the fallacy of leaning on that.  A further difference is that learning to trust an offending individual again can be risky. Opening yourself to God, Who Loves you beyond belief and Who promises to see you through anything – that’s not risky at all.  It’s the only way of security and victory. He will never fail.

6.  and He will make your paths straight.

So we end with the final results.  When you come to the end of your life or the closing of a season, and you look back on all that has happened, what will you be able to say?  The word path denotes “a well-trodden road, a highway, the course of a person’s life.”  And straight?  That means “right and good.”  In other words, your “well-trodden roads,” the experiences with God you’ve had over and over, will have been illuminated by His Word, guided by His Spirit, and bathed in His Love.  Oh, sure, there will have been stumbles and heartaches along the way in this chaotic period of the world’s history in which we live.  Yet, through it all, when you “trust in the Lord with all your heart,” you will be able to say in faith from your depths, “It is well with my soul.”

Oh, Lord, my tears flow as I consider Your faithfulness and Your goodness to me.  I am overwhelmed with Your grace and Your Love.  I trust You with my life, O God.  

 

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Dr. Bev Smallwood is a psychologist who founded The Hope Center in 1984.  Bev speaks to audiences across the U.S. and around the globe on Magnetic Leadership ® as well as on how to rise above difficult circumstances and come out stronger on the other side.  She’s the author of This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen to Me:  10 Make-or-Break Choices When Life Steals Your Dreams and Rocks Your World.  Bev’s been interviewed and featured in such national media as FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, USA Today, Entrepreneur, New York Times, SELF Magazine, and many outlets.  Her devotional blog, Dr. Bev’s New Morning Devotionals, is followed by many (www.drbevsmallwood.com/newmorning). Dr. Bev may be contacted at 601.264.0890 or by email at Bev@DrBevSmallwood.com. 

 

 

First, a note from Kim:

Although I have not met Dr. Bev Smallwood in person, I feel like I know her vicariously through my sister, Michelle, who has spoken highly of her and encouraged me with Bev’s insights and wise counsel.  Michelle is a friend of Dr. Smallwood’s and more recently, a colleague, as they are both consultants for Rodan and Fields products.  Several years ago Michelle introduced me to Bev’s book, This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen to Me:  10 Make-or-Break Choices When Life Steals Your Dreams and Rocks Your World,  which I highly recommend to you, especially to those who have been faced with things that “weren’t supposed to happen” to them – as well as to those who counsel and work with people. This book has provided biblically sound wisdom and practical tools for my own life and my ministry. Dr. Smallwood’s New Morning Devotionals continue to encourage and challenge me to walk daily in wisdom, trusting and leaning on Jesus. Thank you, Dr. Bev, for taking time from your busy schedule to share your heart with my readers. I do hope to meet you one day in this life, but if not I know we will meet when we are forever with Jesus!

It’s a Matter of Trust

Dr. Bev Smallwood

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

The 7-year-old version of me was excited when she handed her autograph book to her Dad to write.  For those of you too young to remember, autograph books were little rectangular books about 1/3 inch thick with blank pages awaiting the messages to be written by the people important enough to you to be allotted one of those pages. Certainly my Dad would get a page. I adored my Dad.  He said he’d be honored, and he took my treasured book with him.  I opened it eagerly when he returned it, and I read (from the only version we knew, the King James):

“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy path.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

I love you, Daddy

I remember being less than excited about that message; didn’t mean a lot to me at that innocent age, except the Daddy love part.  But my innocence about the world being a safe and lovely place would be shattered less than two years later when my beloved Dad, a 38-year-old minister, was diagnosed with esophageal and stomach cancer.  However, I knew he wouldn’t die; God wouldn’t let him die.  I needed him, my mom needed him, and all those church people he helped so much needed him.  He was God’s man doing God’s work.  Of course, he would beat the cancer.  But he didn’t, and seven months later, he was gone.

Trust in the Lord with all my heart?  Really?  While I managed to rebound somewhat and go on and make good grades and have lots of friends, the seeds of distrust had been sown.  How could God have let this happen?

Maybe you’ve been there, too.  You believed, and you prayed, and you believed some more. But disappointment set in and took root – disappointment with your situation and disappointment with God.

Over my teen years, my unresolved grief and anger showed itself in, well, “being a teenager.” My twenties and thirties were filled with activity and productivity – education degree at 20, six years of teaching, grad school, and Dr. Bev entered the world of psychology practice. Despite the external trappings of success, something was missing.  In my spiritual life, I’d run hot a while, then I’d run cold a while. Sometimes I’d even run wild a while.

I remember the day I finally sat in my pastor’s office, and with tears rolling down my face, I confessed, “I just don’t trust God!” Even more life difficulties had occurred.  I detailed some of them in my book, This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen to Me, so I won’t go into them here.  Just know that this girl knows setbacks, crises, and tragedies first-hand.  How could God let these happen? Oh, how I was embarrassed to admit it to my loving pastor, but those words I had quickly read in my Dad’s message in my autograph book were not so easy to pull off.

Maybe you’ve been there, too.  Life has hit you hard.  You can’t make sense of it all in light of your faith.  You’ve wondered, “What’s the purpose in all this?”

As I sit and write this today, I can’t say that I have all that completely resolved.  I don’t know why some things happen on this earth and have hammered my life.  I do know that at this point in the earth’s history, because God is extending the season of opportunity, He has not yet closed that window of time of grace.  As a result, we continue to live in the chaotic world situation first initiated by Adam and Eve, who chose to hand the keys of authority God had given them over to the enemy of our souls.  We believers are not immune from this world’s troubles.  Jesus told us, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome.”

The past two years have been nightmares for me and for my family- a debilitating motor vehicle accident that robbed me of my ability to work and walk for months, the tragic death of my oldest grandson, Joseph. It’s been awful.  But I can tell you with absolutely certainty and with deep faith, I now trust God completely.  I was almost there already, but His work within me during the horrific adversity nailed it down.  Only He sustained me, healed me, and provided for me when all my earthly forms of security were gone.

I have learned by difficult experience that when life has taken everything else away, He is more than enough.  He can be trusted to intimately walk with me, teach me, and Love me.  (I always capitalize His Love, for it’s in a category of its own in the trivialized world we call love.)  I have found out by experience that there is nothing that can happen to me that can permanently take me under when I truly trust Him.

As I lay in that hospital bed, unable to move an inch without assistance and without screaming in pain – I was not alone.  As I faced the ongoing bills at the office and at home when I could not work for months, my God channeled His resources through loving others and through the miraculous appearance of previously uncollectable large accounts.  He was and is more than enough.

He is a faithful and trustworthy God.  After all these years of a long and winding journey of evolving faith, I know that with no doubts in my deepest soul. I wish I could have settled it all much earlier in life, but the Holy Spirit never gave up on me.  He won’t give up on you, either.

I had intended today to go into a word study of the Proverbs passage so that we could better understand its meaning.  As I began to write, however, I was directed otherwise.  Perhaps tomorrow is when we dig a little deeper to learn more about the how-to of trust.  In the meantime, I invite you to reflect on how the challenges of your life have affected your own real openness to and trust of God.  Is it possible that, deep down, you harbor a hidden rift with Him?

Oh, my Lord, when I reflect on how You have patiently and gently led me into knowing You, really knowing You – my heart pounds, and I am so, so grateful to You. You are a faithful and trustworthy God, and I trust You.  I love You with all my heart.  You know that it has not always been that way. Thank You for refusing to reject me or give up on me.  Use me for the rest of my life, O God, to encourage others and to help them know that they can indeed trust You.

 

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Dr. Bev Smallwood is a psychologist who founded The Hope Center in 1984.  Bev speaks to audiences across the U.S. and around the globe on Magnetic Leadership ® as well as on how to rise above difficult circumstances and come out stronger on the other side.  She’s the author of This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen to Me:  10 Make-or-Break Choices When Life Steals Your Dreams and Rocks Your World.  Bev’s been interviewed and featured in such national media as FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, USA Today, Entrepreneur, New York Times, SELF Magazine, and many outlets.  Her devotional blog, Dr. Bev’s New Morning Devotionals, is followed by many (www.drbevsmallwood.com/newmorning). Dr. Bev may be contacted at 601.264.0890 or by email at Bev@DrBevSmallwood.com.