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- Written by: Don Goulding
For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18)
Many years ago Dani was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. More recently she underwent another MRI scan and the doctor called to discuss the results. There was no sign of the disease as recorded on previous tests. The mailed copy of the report confirmed this, and we were torn between celebration and confusion over the continuing symptoms.
About three days later, a second report arrived. The first result applied to the neck and the second to the brain, where the disease showed itself plainly. I was ecstatic with the first diagnosis, and grieved by the second.
I’m a chameleon that changes moods according to the events in my life. God tries to mature my fickleness. “Don’t change colors to blend with the pleasures or the problems of the world. Adapt to the blessedness you have for eternity.”
But it’s difficult to adapt to blessedness while I’m down here fighting my way through the jungle. What I need is a bird’s eye view of my situation. Looking down on my tiny life, I comprehend trials in the context of paradise. God doesn’t cause pain, he uses it for refinement, and he limits it to but a few of the years on my unending timeline. All that said, I still don’t like suffering now, but I will later because of the gains it brings.
If I’ve sworn allegiance to Jesus, then glory is the backdrop for my life. It is my unchanging reality. I need to keep my attitude locked on the razzle-dazzle-gold of eternity.
Prayer: Everlasting Father, help me adapt my mood to forever with you.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NETFull)
As missionaries in the South Pacific islands, one of our most rewarding ministries happened on Saturdays. We regularly took a dozen abuse survivors and their babies to a favorite swimming hole. Sparkling water tumbled through the jungle, and emptied into an emerald pool shaded by ropy banyan trees. From there, the mountain stream eased over a glassy lip and dropped fifty feet where it roared into another pool.
Children squealed with laughter, and their mothers played in God’s healing nature. We were privileged to serve this restorative ministry.
That tropical field trip destination is a reminder of how God’s love works. I don’t love other people with my own resources, but rather with God’s love, that briefly swirls through me before it is replaced afresh.
The upper pool never looked down on the next basin to decide if it was a worthy recipient. It couldn’t help but dump into whatever was beside it. In the same way, I can’t choose with whom I share God’s love. The person the Lord puts near me becomes the target of my overabundance. They may or may not receive it well. They might be already clogged with bitterness. Yet, God’s love rushing through me must spill mercy in their direction.
In fact, if I’m not loving others, it can mean only one thing—I’m not receiving God’s love.
Prayer: God of love, pour right through my life.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul. (Psalms 23:2, 3) (NIV)
Our family had a kite and we flew it in California’s Yosemite Valley. We reclined in a sun-filled meadow and felt the yellow aerobat tug into the blue. The world’s madness disappeared behind waving grass, contented oaks, and granite sentries.
Then we discovered a secret beach. A kaleidoscope of greens danced in the river, while birch trees dipped their rooty toes in the water. Behind grasslands with the color variations of a mango, a waterfall cavorted like a playful billy goat.
It seemed that deadlines and worries were unable to live on Yosemite’s crystalline air.
By trusting my Shepherd, I can lie in interior pastures far greener and by waters much quieter than those in Yosemite. Jesus calls me to a stress free life. I am to heed heaven’s music and tune out the nonsense of the world.
The Gospels repeatedly tell how Jesus ignored the placations of Nicodemus, the evasions of the woman at the well, and the accusations of the Pharisees. He jumped directly to conversations of wholeness. He lives within the peace of God, and he invites us to bask there with him.
There’s no need for constant dialogue about what went wrong in the past, or how we’ll make it in the future, or a thousand other needless anxieties. Nine-tenths of what the world has to say has no bearing on my true existence. I glance at social media out of pity, but I must not allow mankind’s fears to reach me. I’m in a green meadow of provision and by a quiet stream of love, and the name of both of them is Jesus.
Prayer: Jehovah Rohi (The Lord Our Shepherd), make my heart a quiet place.