“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for Him.’” Lam. 3: 22-24
Our mistakes are our best teachers…if we avail ourselves to “God’s school of growing up”.
You and I mature through a process of obtaining information, then poorly applying this info (thus making mistakes), learning from these hard knocks, humbling ourselves, seeking God’s heart for us, and doing better the next time.
Often these “hard knocks” aren’t necessarily results of poor personal applications, but simply challenging/difficult circumstances/relationships that present themselves in our lives. Challenging circumstances/relationships that God has allowed in our lives and is using to “train us up”… to “tweak our character” into the image of His Son. (1 Tim. 4:7-8; 1 Cor. 9:25; Heb. 5:14)
As God trains us up, He disciplines us along the way. And the cool part with our Father God, is that the freedom of the cross allows us to “train” without fear of judgment: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1! ~~~And God’s chastening is not “punishment for wrong doing”, but rather solicitous consequences that are administered by God in love and for our benefit. Yes, for our benefit, not our demise.
Our family, namely Shaun and I, are CONSTANTLY learning, falling down, getting kicked when we’re down (the devil doesn’t play fair…”Loser”), getting up, learning more, applying this knowledge in God’s way (which is often SO contrary to what Shaun and Betsy’s flesh would do),… and watching God work.
…And when it is GOD doing the work, wow…this is the only word for it. Wow.
No way…there is no way Shaun or Betsy, as talented as we are, could pull off what God does with our relationships, our circumstances, and our personhood the way He does…plus give us intimacy with Himself that is verbally indescribable!
Indescribable intimacy…with an indescribably awesome Father God, now that is neat. Neat with a capital “N”!
May God bless you abundantly this week!
Much love,
Shaun and Betsy
