Provision

Recently, I found myself thinking about how God will provide for our needs. The theme is mentioned over and over in Scripture how God provides for His people and how He is Jehovah-Jireh, God Who Sees/Provides.

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

The Greek word used here for "will supply" was often translated as "fulfill" as well. God will FULFILL our needs! Not just provide for them or meet us halfway, but entirely fulfill our needs.

Until recently, I kept telling myself that God will provide for our next step in life. We've been looking towards the future and have wanted to start arranging our lives for that purpose. We've been praying and seeking God's plans and talking about what we believe His will is for our lives. But as time kept passing without seemingly any real, concrete movement in some direction, part of me became discouraged. That is until I realized it had nothing to do with me and what we were trying to do.

At one point recently, instead of telling myself "God will provide", I found myself thinking "God HAS TO provide!" When I stopped to consider that thought it occurred to me that I/we could do nothing past a certain amount of effort to move in the direction we believe God is leading us. It's up to Him to take my meager efforts, offered to Him as completely inadequate, and make something wonderful from them. He does indeed have to provide if this is, in fact, His will for our lives.

So we keep plodding along, waiting in faith for something beyond our control to happen, partnering with God to do what we can. Our trust is in Him and His love for us as His children. I know He has to provide in this case. For now, the struggle is to throw off my ideas of how that should look or what time frame it should follow. His ways are not my ways.

They are significantly better. :)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Heavy Heart

Friends, today my heart is heavy.

Yesterday, I drove down to my parents' house to attend a baby shower with my mom at her church. It was a lot of fun and the mom-to-be and her husband were radiant and so excited. They are due in March and are expecting a little baby girl. I knew the mom-to-be in high school and through church and we are really excited for them. I enjoyed celebrating with them as they prepare to welcome their little one. I learned though that the father-to-be is going to be deployed for six months and will miss the birth of his little girl.

Then today I found out that an acquaintance I'm friends with on Facebook and her husband were told that their baby boy, due at the end of January, has a brittle bone form of skeletal dysplasia. They've been told that they will probably have an hour at most with their little one after he is born. It broke my heart reading her blog posts about what they are having to go through. I can't even imagine what it must be like and it's hard to think of words to say when something so life-changing happens, especially when "We're praying for you" sounds so feeble in the light of the situation.

These past two days have been a rollercoaster of emotions. To top it all off, one of the ladies at church that I adore sang Laura Story's song "Blessings" today. I was pretty close to bawling in my seat. Here's the chorus:

"'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise"

My prayer today is that God would be with those hurting and give them comfort but also with those who are rejoicing and give them peace as they prepare to be apart. The witness of these two couples and what God is doing in their lives is speaking volumes to those around them. Praying His strength for them both as they walk the road ahead.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm four days late. No, that's not going to stop me :)

I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year. We were grateful to open our home to friends for a time to fellowship and eat lots of yummy food (seriously a LOT...I made way too much). I hope the year ahead is a blessed one full of God's abounding grace and wonderful plan for your lives and ours.

Happy New Year!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan