Reflection

 WE CAN PUT SO MUCH PRESSURE on ourselves to live fruitful lives.  We forget fruitfulness comes from allowing God to work in us through our circumstances - instead of our ability to make everything work out right.

When we can trust God with our necessary endings, we discover He can carry us.

We'll see the beauty of leaves falling and understand we can experience this beauty in our souls.  We learn that God's love sustains us and new seeds of faith can be planted and grow.

                                                               -Bonnie Gray,    Faith Barista

Recycled Page     Fall2014

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God is the man with the plan.

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From: lt
Subject: FW: Reflection - Oct 17
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:45:07 -0500

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From: j.engelhardt@sbcglobal.net
To:
Subject: Reflection - Oct 17
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:07:39 -0700

Call It Good?

Read: Psalm 13

I have trusted in Your mercy. —Psalm 13:5

Can we really know whether to label life’s circumstances as good or bad?

For instance, your car breaks down right before you are to take a family road trip. But when you take the car to the shop, the mechanic says, “Good thing you didn’t take this out on the road. It could have caught fire.” Is that bad because of the inconvenience, or good because of God’s protection?

Or perhaps your child decides to pursue interests that aren’t all that interesting to you. You wanted her to play basketball and run track in high school. But she wanted to sing and play the oboe. You feel frustrated, but she excels and ends up with a music scholarship. Is that bad because your dreams weren’t fulfilled, or good because God directed her in ways you could not have predicted?

Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is working. His mysteries don’t always reveal their secrets to us, and our journey is often redirected by uncontrollable detours. Perhaps God is showing us a better route.

To make sure we benefit from what might seem bad, we must recognize and trust God’s “unfailing love” (Ps. 13:5 NIV). In the end, we’ll be able to say, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me” (v.6 NIV).

The circumstances in our lives
Seem random and unplanned;
But someday we will surely see
The order of God’s hand. —Sper

We may not be able to control events,
but we can control our attitude toward them.

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Published  10/18/11   ust1611  multiply
Web Page:  Reflection - Oct 17