The Lord has been speaking to me about His capacity to tend to every detail in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones in His faithfulness to us and to them …and out of His response to the cries of our hearts which stirs His burning compassion to move towards us in His radical love of us.
When we are facing challenges, trials, hardships, losses, illnesses, death of loved ones, disappointments, desires of our hearts which we know He specifically placed in our hearts decades ago which we have yet to see come to fruition, relationship betrayals and fall outs, and unanswered prayers we can trust that our Father is working behind the scenes although we cannot or may not be able to see any movement or feel that He is even Present. He has not forgotten us or the details of each day in our situations.
He encourages us to not lean on our own understanding, and to trust Him as we acknowledge Him and acknowledge what He says about who He is and who we are to Him as His beloved children – as we grapple with doubt and struggle with believing Him for the goodness of our hearts and lives on earth when we do not understand our circumstances He will be faithful to His promises – He has the divine capacity to direct our steps and hearts back to believing Him for the resolutions of our situations regardless of the finite outcome here on earth in His passion for our hearts to know His eternal peace and love in all circumstances as we walk with Jesus in His desire for us to know that He and our Father are truly Good, that They are with us, and that They are for us (Proverbs 3:5-6 & 16:9; Jeremiah 29:11; Matthew 28: 20, Romans 8).
I have come to realize that Jesus encourages us to wrestle with Him as we work out our salvations with fear and trembling just as Jacob did. Jacob was afraid of his brother Esau and did not trust that God’s plan for his situation would be what he would want or would choose, and he did not know what God would do for him or not do for him. Philippians 2: 12-13 states it in this way, “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” What I continually see in and throughout Scripture is that our Father is passionate about our hearts and lives and only has the best for us (Matthew 7:11). I have wrestled with myself internally knowing that I cannot trust myself because I know I am a finite being…this conscious existential awareness of my finite limitations so vividly ‘in my face’ used to scare me. The fear propelled my mind to think if I can take charge and control of the details in my life and of the details in other people’s lives which I was in relationship with – believing this effort to control and manage will somehow create and cause the outcome I think I want – as I have wrestled with Jesus not trusting Him with my life I have noticed by hindsight that I cannot see the awesome Eternal Plan He has for me down the road just as He had for Jacob because I am so busy creating, controlling each detail at all cost sometimes to my own destruction and to the destruction of others by dismissing, dishonoring them, and trampling over them as I so desperately need to hold onto my control and hold onto the managing of all the details truly thinking that my attempts to control the details of life will bear the outcome I want. I have come to realize that this ‘outcome’ is only at best a pseudo-false sense of safety and security (Matthew 7:9-11 & Genesis 32: 24-30).
Wrestling with Jesus for years I have come to realize that Jesus never tires and it is impossible to exhaust Him; and that He is relentlessly trustworthy. I can truly trust that Jesus is walking right beside me (us), shoulder to shoulder, sometimes even picking us up and carrying us for a bit of the journey when we can no longer endure the path which is before us or when there is danger before us that we cannot see in His intent to protect us from ourselves in our schemes to manage our lives and from any scheme of attack which is looming ahead of us in Satan’s desire to destroy us. He has been reiterating to my heart that we truly are conquerors in Christ – that He will help us to be victorious in Him as He walks with us to the other side of victory through the seasons of the valleys of darkness which we face along the journey of life (Psalm 23:4; Habakkuk 3:16-19; Psalm 107:10 -16; Psalm 139; Isaiah 55, 61). He is always looking after us – sometimes redirecting the paths which I construct in my ignorance which would always take me to places which were not good for me, which were dangerous, and which would raise barriers between He and I, and between my brethren and I in my faith walk with God. I have come to know that my plan and its outcome always pales to the grandeur of His plans for my life which are in His will and in His pleasure for my life in His extravagance.
As I continue to see and experience Him being faithful in each increasing measure of letting go of the need to control in my finite understanding He establishes an increasing trust in Him bringing me into the measure of faith that will bestow the peace and stillness of Christ, and into the greater increasing measure of knowing the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge, that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God, which our hearts ache for, indeed (Ephesians 3:19).
There have been numerous seasons in my life with Him which I have felt like He has vanished! ….thinking what happened to the God who says He is with us, never leaves us, and will never forsake us….shaking my fists toward the heavens and shouting with all of the bravado I can muster, “Where are You?!!” Although I may not hear, see, feel, smell, or taste His steadfast presence I can know that He truly Is Present and uniquely tending to my life’s details just as He was when He appeared to the disciples in their loss, despair, disappointment, hopelessness, and thoughts that He abandon them and did not do or fulfill what He promised to them that He would do. He never leaves us nor forsakes us, nor leaves us alone to our selves and in the places of darkness which we take ourselves, or which life circumstances of the fallen state take us to (Psalm 139)….
He cannot leave us because He loves us (Matthew 28:20b). He is the God Almighty, the Alpha and the Omega who knows all things – we can trust that He has good plans for our lives which are neither for calamity nor of evil (Jeremiah 29:11). He will be faithful to tend to our hearts along the way as He redirects the paths of our hearts into the measure of faith Jesus desires to give to each of us so that we can remain steadfast to Him regardless of what we face on the road of our journey of life with Jesus and others along the way (Proverbs 3:5-6 & 16:9).
If you would like to please read Luke 24:13-35, you will be blessed, and for those of you who want to read it now I have copied and pasted it here. Here are some verses of the passage which speak specifically about His passion to make known to us that He is Intimately Present, indeed!
Luke 24:16: The disciples could not see Jesus although He was walking right there with them shoulder to should and talking to them.
Luke 24:31: The disciples were finally able to see Him as He ministered to their fears while He listened to their concerns on the road…press on and persevere in your wrestling with Him, He will make a way for you to eventually hear and see Him.
Luke 24:36-39: He is present and tending to our hearts and lives even when we are so afraid that we cannot recognize Him, or hear that it is He who is tending to our hearts and lives in His radical passion of love for us.
John 20:24-28; Hebrews 4:14-16: Our doubt does not turn Him away, in fact it compels Him towards us in His compassion for us – He understands in His affection and love of us.
Here is the Luke passage: Bask and Enjoy your Jesus and His Heart for you as you read this story and how it demonstrates His great love and affection towards you!
“And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.” Luke 24:13-35