God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
He does great things beyond our understanding.
Job 37:5

Our God is a marvelous God. From the heavens He waits. He watches our every move. He discerns our thoughts. He sees our path of which He Himself has set before us. He is interwoven in the fiber of our lives. He abides in our heart, He holds us in His hand. He places a protecting wing over us. Our God is truly marvelous.

There is evil that lurks. He seeks a small crack in our armor. An armor that is fortified in hope and trust through a faith in our unseen God.  This evil swirls about us trying to confuse. We keep our path straight, our eyes are forward. Ever-forward we walk because we have set our heart upon this path of faith and have made agreement with our most powerful God that we hate evil along with Him. (Proverbs 8:13)

We hate darkness. Yet if we are distracted for but a moment, we succumb to the very thing we hate. Distraction is practical from evil’s perspective considering  our nature. We are seeking the Lord in one moment then seeking the pleasure of darkness of the world the next. We vow an undying love for our Father then curse an angst we walked into charged by the fleeting whims of the world. Our lust, our avarice, our hate.  But we have His grace. We need not stay hidden in a shadow. God sees us anyway. Come forth and confess!

The evil world is confounded as it pounds against our armor of faith. Pounding that resonates in our hearts that we allow to empty as easily as a glass of water poured to the floor. The echo of temptation in an empty heart. Our reason changes. We rationalize. “Just once!”, we say. The toe-hold of evil thus exposed at these words. We cannot be sustained in these two worlds. (1 John 1:6). God sees and evil lurks.

Surely in our refining process both worlds lie before us. Free will. We fall, we get back up. We succumb to evil, we remember God. He welcomes us back every time we cry for Him. “Help me!” My heart aches, my mind swirls, my eyes wander, my mind doubts. We are all there in our own times, but our God is a marvelous God who is holding the hand of a child that is obedient one moment and whose mind is distracted the next. Pull away, come back.

Each time we pull away, we  have a trial in our life. A lesson in life. The imparting of wisdom our consequence of self-inflicted straying? That is how good God is. We will not return empty. God sees us grow. Then we do. It takes us a little longer for us to realize how marvelous He is. He works in our lives. He leads us down His path. He holds our hand. So, fear not, child of God. He is with you.

Artist: Tracy Wandling

Life does not go the way we plan always. We walk one way and a brick wall changes our course. In a field of bramble we, in one moment, declare our ownership of our lives. (Judges 9:15).Then our skin tears in a thorny mistake. We have strayed. But can we remember where we came from?  God knows.

Remember there is God and Flesh as one. He wore the thorns of bramble on His head. He died for us. He is Jesus. When we feel the weight of a burdened trial, remember Jesus. He fills our hearts. The pounding on our armor. “Let me in!” cries the evil one whose pounding  now is muffled because we are full of His spirit. Evil lurks, then slinks away. “Another day” he says.

Feeling down? Is hope fleeting? Maybe you have doubts about how God works in your life. First know He is with you then know He loves you. Fall back on your faith in Him as trust and hope follow closely. Agree with God: Hate evil.

Things in our life work out. We look back and know. We made a mistake and God turned it to good. Did we change paths? No, we are ever on His path. Straightforward and faithful. When you feel down, see the face of God with you. He does marvelous things in your life. Be expecting and be assured.

Rick Stassi

March 16, 2012