Consider it joy when you face trials.....REALLY?.....

So this past week we've been in Job.  Yeah, I know, right.  Not exactly the most uplifting and encouraging way to start the year.  I mean, it starts off well, but then again, if the Lord INVITES the enemy to take a look at one of His servants.....that certainly can't end well.  As I talked with my Sunday school class this past week one of the things that they loved (and I did too) was the thought that the Lord would think enough of me to say to the enemy...."Have you considered my servant Valarie?"....To think that the Creator of the Universe would think so highly of me as to know that whatever the enemy tried to sling my way, I would continue to honor Him through it all.  Wow.....

The thing that really got me as I sat listening to these, not even 18 year old, girls say this was, Lord how different would my life have been had I understood this concept at their age?  How many choices would've been made differently?  How many situations I got myself into would've turned out differently?  I could spend ALOT of time beating myself up (because I'm certainly good at that) over the should have's...the could have's....but right in the middle of it all I felt the Lord gently say..."You're right where I want you girl, the past is just that - the past - I wrote it that way for a reason.  You just keep doing what you're doing.  I'll take care of all that - in fact, I already have."

He's ever so gentle with me, ever so patient.  I certainly don't deserve that.  I certainly have brought Him pain, disappointment, even shame.  BUT GOD....my two favorite words ever....in His love and compassion and patience with me still welcomes me home, still takes me in His arms, still holds me up when I stumble and picks me up when I fall.  That's His specialty.  I love that about Him!  So, when I feel the enemy shaking things around me, tugging at what I love and hold dear, trying to steal my joy, I will remember, he's only done so because my Abba Daddy has said "Have you considered Valarie?  There's are some things in her I need to work on.  You can't have her.  You can't destroy her, but why don't you shake things up a bit.  I've got some work to do to make her more like my Son."  and I can rest, I can trust, I can face whatever he brings because my God - He's a big G God and HE has got this thing!!!