Good and Perfect Will

Did you know that if you are a follower of Christ, that even if you aren't in His perfect will, that you are still in His good will?

Some people seem to think that when they make a less than perfect choice or step outside of His perfect will for their lives that they are quickly and eagerly punished by a wrathful God.  Zapped by lightening while He sits up there glaring and fuming with smoke rolling out his ears.

I beg to differ.

The Bible tells us over and over that He wants good for us.  Everything that He made was good.  He sat back after having inspected his creation and declared it good.  Even us.  In his image, were created good.

Yes, there is decay and evil in all of us and all throughout the world that is rotting away at the beauty and perfection that was once our perfect world.

BUT!  If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.  And boy let me tell ya.  He makes all things new!  The moment we choose a life with Christ he steps in, holds an umbrella over us to block the hardest downpour of the rain and protects us like a momma goose.

So even IF we step outside of his perfect will, we are still in his good will.  Let me explain.  Romans 8:28 says that we know that in all things, He works for the good of those that love him.

He is able to take any circumstance, any mistake, any tragedy, and turn it around into something good in our lives.

I say this, not because I think it means that it's EVER ok for us to willfully choose to do what we know is wrong, but because I believe even if we sometimes are caught up in sin and get swept away in it making some terrible choices, that God's grace and love for us STILL covers us and protects us from the full force of what those choices COULD HAVE done to our lives/family/friends.

Also, let's face it.  Sometimes, even if we are trying with all our might to do what we believe is His perfect will, sometimes we make a mistake hearing him.  Sometimes it's just HARD to know the right choice to make.

When that happens, do we still have a mess to deal with?  Yes.  He doesn't step in and take it all away.  He allows us to experience a glimpse of the mess, but never we do see the full mess that He shielded us from.  And He does shield us!

You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.  Psalm 3:3

But just as an umbrella is no guarantee that we won't still get a little wet, having God on our side is no guarantee that we won't have repercussions for our actions and mistakes.

Satan wants to beat us over the head with our mistakes.  Christ wants us to learn from them and become a better people for His name.

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy.  But Jesus came that I may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance.  John 10:10

So next time you find that you've made a wrong turn somewhere along the way, instead of thinking God is mad at you, remember that even IF you've stepped outside of His PERFECT will for your life, that you are still in his GOOD will.  Maybe not the best that He had for you, but it's still good.  Nothing will return empty.  It is all used for good if we love Jesus and seek Him with our whole heart.  Learn from your mistake and seek Him.  STRIVE for his perfect will, but know there's a safety net if we miss the mark.

Planting Seeds

It's planting season here in our neck of the woods.  Well, actually, it's been a process over the last 2 weeks.  Wait, make that 2 months.  Many of our plants we started from seed back in early March.  Other seeds for larger and more durable plants have been put straight into the ground.

It never ceases to amaze me how big something grows from something so small.  I see it all throughout Creation.  A fertilized egg cell so small it can't be seen with the naked eye, grows into a full sized adult, an acorn grows into a mighty oak tree, a corn kernel grows into an entire 6 foot tall corn stalk.  Each of these things mature to produce a replication of itself by bearing fruit of it's own kind, repeating the process.

As I've gone through the process of planting (sowing), tending, and harvesting, I see many imprints of God in it.  We are told in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for everything under the sun.  I time to plant and a time to uproot.  This doesn't always mean an actual physical seed.

Many times in Christian circles we hear about the importance of planting seeds.  Speaking a small truth to someone or doing an act of kindness or simply showing love or grace to another in hopes that it will grow producing another offspring for Christ.  We're told that the world is our mission field!  That it (the world) is hungry for what we have to offer...our seeds (or water, or sunshine, or whatever our specific niche).  That it is part of our life giving fruit that we are to share with others.  As well as how a small seed planted can produce something quite large.  For instance, faith as small as a mustard seed can move a mountain!

I agree that we are to plant seeds, but the world is not always our mission field.  For many of us, our mission field is our home.  Those who are in the trenches of every day life with us.  More specifically, our children and spouses.  It only takes a tiny seed to produce something very large and fruit bearing.  Whether that is something of usefulness or a weed to be uprooted.  It is often in our homes that we slouch off and "let it all hang out" so to speak.  It is there in our homes that we are charged with raising up the next generation of believers and seed planters so I feel it is all the more important that we be diligent in WHAT seeds we're planting.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, not every seed planted will grow.  Many will die just beneath the soil, or be swept away in the wind to no man's land.  Others will begin to grow only to be met with unfavorable conditions and quickly wither and die off.  So is the same with the seeds we sow into other's lives.  Into our children's lives.  Weeds pop up so fast and require so much cultivating that I believe the only way to win the battle is to overwhelm with all the good stuff so as to drown out the bad.  To set my sights on what is important and let the rest go out of focus into the background and die off.

For instance, either I can focus on the wrongs my children do everyday and become overwhelmed with the job at hand and become discouraged, or I can focus on the little things they do right and affirm them, or water, that seed that's starting to show through.  The weeds surrounding it will eventually die off in due time if starved of water.  I think the latter is probably the better thing.  Which is also the basis of Positive Parenting.  To focus and uplift and shine a light on the good, not to dwell on the bad.

Parenting is not all about weeding, but planting as well.  Along with that theme, there will also be a day to harvest from that which we have planted, and a season of Winter to follow.  I suppose that could be when our children have grown up and gone off to college and are no longer living at home.  Perhaps our new Spring will be when grandchildren come into our lives and the season of planting will begin again.

It's surprising the patterns that can be seen all throughout God's handiwork and how we can apply it to our everyday lives if we just take the time to look for them.