I am sitting in my office listening to furniture being put together for our new Woman’s clinic we are opening. Last year at this time I would tell you there were times I thought that I would never see this day happen. Yet, with God’s help here we are. It has been one of the bumpiest adventures I have ever experienced. I often say to people who ask me how it’s going that I probably should have been a circus performer because of all the hoops I have had to jump through.
I love looking back and saying I don’t know how we got here but GOD you Did it. It is so easy to forget that God is on our side. He truly chose us and called us so why would he not be for us. The Children of Israel felt like this as they were trudging through desert on their way to the promise land. Many times you hear them bickering and complaining because the way wasn’t easy and sometimes unpleasant. Yet, God provided for them in everyway possible and never stopped walking with them through it all. I can almost see him rolling his eyes at times saying “HELLO IM RIGHT HERE!”
Psalm 78:40-42
How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,
And grieved Him in the desert!
Yes, again and again they tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember His power:
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
There has been so many times when I forgot all the times he had gotten me through hard times. It seems like we conveniently forget that we have gotten through every bumpy path or slippery slope that came our way. He has always been by our side. I think we start to take matters into our own hands and that is when things begin to fall apart.
I remember riding in the backseat of the car as a little girl as we would travel. I immediately would fall asleep. I knew my Dad was driving and he would get us to where we were going. There was no need for me to worry or fret. Now days it isn’t as easy for me to fall asleep. I think I have become less trusting of people driving as I have gotten older. I miss feeling that peace of knowing my Dad had control over the vehicle. I think my life is much like this. I really am much more peaceful when I allow my Father God to take the wheel of my life and of all the adventures he has laid before me. When I drive I am notoriously lost. My kids and husband will sometimes make fun of me and say “Mom you could get lost in our own back yard.” Yet, when I have my GPS on I never worry about finding my way. I am thankful for God my GPS and Driver of my life.
Yet, how many times do we get ourselves in a bind and start complaining and conveniently forget that God sometimes we have to leave our comfort zones to actually reach our destination. The Israelites didn’t find out until they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna… to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. Deuteronomy 8:1-5 (NIV,
God didn’t abandon them during their wilderness experience he protected and provided for them during it. Yet, while we are experiencing difficult we forget all the things he has done for us along the way. If he just gave us everything we asked for we would be weak people. We would not be able to handle the thing that we asked for in the first place. God will always give us the best way to go but it won’t always be the easiest.
So as I look at this new Woman’s clinic about to open. I am humbled and grateful for the hoops I had to jump. The mountains we had to climb because they have made us prepared for the road ahead of us. What he called us to isn’t going to be easy but the lives it will help and give hope to.
Be encouraged today and sit back and Let God Drive.
Renee’
Expressions of my heart 