"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time."
It's that time of year again.
For resolutions that is. I usually skip it. Making resolutions that is. {you can't really skip time, can you?} It's not that I don't believe in them or think that they aren't a good idea, I think they are a GREAT idea. Striving to improve myself, or rather striving to allow God to improve me, is one of the main purposes for my life.
My problem always lies in the fact that I can be indecisive and to have to choose one resolution for the whole year seemed hard to do. {I know you can choose more than one but really that just complicates things more.} I also think a whole year is a really, really long time {anybody with me here?!} and I just don't know if I can commit to something that I might not be able to get done.
In fact, I know myself and I would probably give up after January!
But, this year I think I'll try a different approach. Instead of choosing a resolution that will probably wear off, {like exercise more, or eat healthier, etc. Not that I won't do these things... just don't want to commit to it. Verbally.} I would rather choose something I know that I won't ever necessarily complete in this life time (that is until I am perfected in my death by God} but wish to improve in continually.
As Oswald Chambers puts it in the quote above, "faith is confidence in the character of God."
Over and over again, in the past couple of weeks, this has come up several times and I believe God has confirmed this as a theme for me: to learn, know and understand who the character of God truly is. And then to claim it. Especially when the lies of the devil are creeping in causing me to fear.
Whether or not you know me as a fearful person, I have become more of one over the past couple of years. You could even say that it has intensified with the birth of E. I know every parent is protective of their children and wishes to protect them from harm in any way. But the fear that I have been battling goes beyond the common dreads of the average parent.
I won't go into detail {it's not the point} and I won't claim to be better than the average parent. I am by far NOT better. But the point is that only God can protect any of us. Of course there are obvious, everyday things that we can act upon to keep safety in our lives. But I'm not talking about those things really. I'm talking about the no good, down right evil that exists in the world we live in. Even accidents claim lives, we are always in a hurry and have to have everything right now. We live in a self pleasing world, myself included. Lets just face it, all anyone has to do is turn on the tv to see the latest terrorist attack attempt or even kidnapping that has taken place. We live in evil times.
God though, my God, is so much bigger. He created all that is living! He is a HUGE God! But He is also a loving parent to His children young and old. Only He can take perfect care of us.
So this next year, and even beyond that, I am committing to learning, knowing and understanding the character of God. I will be happy to share my discoveries along the way, but some things I may choose to keep between my family. I don't know, we will see what God has in store for this next year!
I can't wait.
