The Box (Mom)

Dec. 24th, 2010

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your eyes: fear the Lord and shun evil.” Proverbs 3:5-7

Yesterday I shared by thoughts about why I felt Kent and I were flirting with fear about Thursday’s test results. Today I went to my ladies Bible Study and God once again told me how it is – I do tend to be a little dense sometimes. We are studying how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and how God puts us in our wilderness times. At the start of this study I told the ladies that it was hard for me to answer all the questions because I was not in the wilderness so my God said, “O.K. Janice, here, I’ll walk you through this wilderness.” Anyway, the leader was talking about how we put God in a box. The box we have contains all we have heard, studied, or experienced about God, and so when something happens we go to our box and say this is what God will do. I feel this message was just for me because I had taken a past experience and put it in the box and said this is how God is going to handle this experience too. Talk about a wake-up call. My God does not live in my box, He is all around my box, He uses my box to help me grow, but my box is not something that confines Him. It was a good lesson. I am constantly amazed at how my God continues to speak to me during this time. He gently but firmly reminds me that He is control of all of it – there is nothing I can do in my own power even if I wanted to. So thank you again for your prayers. I am amazed at the goodness of His people. As I sat in church this morning I felt the words of Psalm 52:8 come to life for me: “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.” Janice