I am still confident of this...

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A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 27:13-14

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.

This is one of my favorite verses. There are times when all we can see or feel are the trials and the burdens of life. Sometimes it feels like things will never change and we are stuck wallowing in self pity. We may even at times be angry with God for how our life has turned out.

I used to live in the shadow of Mt. Ranier only most of the time you could not see the mountain. It was covered by the grey clouds in rainy Washington. When the sun does come out there is suddenly this glorious mountain that appears as if out of no where. It was there all the time - it was simply hidden by the cloud cover. I think the Lord and even his goodness is hidden from us. The answer to our prayers may be a few steps forward on our journey but we feel hopeless because we can't see that far ahead. We have to trust that the Lord is actually going to provide what we need.

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I think the Lord allows the cloud cover in our lives because it teaches us to trust and rely on Him. As we see the Lord provide again and again we learn little by little to not worry but to trust that he is able. You can see to the right the card that I created expressing this idea.
We have to believe and hold on to faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
 We believe when we can't see the thing we are hoping for because our trust is placed not in our own ability to make it possible but in God's ability.

What if it's not God's plan and you don't get the thing you have hoped for. People we pray for do die sometimes. Sometimes we have to go through some hardships and difficulties. Even so it is not that God is not able but sometimes he does have a different plan than what we can see. Sometimes in the fog all we can imagine is the things that our fears stur up in us. The trick I think is to not give up and throw in the towel. I often have to silence the worry and assess what I could be doing. What do I have everything I need to do at this time. Sometimes I just need to be faithful to do the things that are presently at hand to do and trust that when I get to tomorrow or the future that God will supply what I need at that time.

I am learning to more and more live in the moment. The word says give us this day our daily bread. Even in the story about God supplying manna for the people of Israel to eat. They could only collect what they needed for that day. If they tried to gather more and save it for late the stuff rotted.
I often find that I have spent time worrying about things unnecessarily. Cause in the end God did supply and often he did not have to do it my way because he has infinite resources and endless creativity.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you do love us. That you do know what we need and you are able to supply the things we need to accomplish the things you have for us to accomplish. Help us to trust you on grey days when we can't see ahead to the answer or the solution we have been praying about. Help us to make the choice to not worry and to spend our time in some better way.  

I am allowing folks to preview my new  A2Z Devotions e-book this week. If you are getting this in your e-mail you will need to click on the post title to get back to the site to see it. I will be going back and removing these links on Monday and hopefully be posting the link to where you can order your own copy of this e-book. If you happen to catch any typos please let me know the page number and what needs fixed. Thanks, Margot