For the past month, I’ve had tunnel vision. Metaphorically speaking, I can only focus on a specific thing, and I’m neglecting an eternal perspective. Heartache, hardship takes center stage. I try to zoom out and look around me. Try to look to the heavens where my help comes from. Then a word or image and I’m back…
Walking through a dark narrow tunnel. I wait for the light. You know…the light at the end of the tunnel. Only, there’s not even a glimmer of hope this tunnel ever ends. Dark thoughts consume my mind. I don’t have the mental energy to keep walking, and who knows how long I’m gonna be here.
A frantic thought seizes me. Maybe there is no light.
“It is the bold Christian who can sing God’s sonnets in the darkness.”
C.S. Spurgeon
Heaven forbid! To give up hope in the Living God? To stop walking by faith instead of sight? To cease believing in God’s goodness and His unwavering love for me? To ignore God’s promises and the countless times He’s proven Himself to me?
Nope! Not gonna happen.I’ve come too far to go backwards. If I’m gonna have tunnel vision, let me focus on You, Lord. Not my circumstances or disappointments. But choosing to be still and focus on Jesus is more energy than I can muster. I can’t do this on my own. Not now. Not in this tunnel where the darkness envelopes me.
Then I remember God’s strength is perfected in weakness. I remind myself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). One day at a time!
By His grace, I stand and take a baby step of faith. Trusting God’s heart when I can’t see His face. Even in this … long, dark tunnel.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4,5
I tried not to roll my eyes as I stood there listening to a man go on and on. He told me everything I didn’t want to know about his life. Normally, I love hearing people’s stories. But, I didn’t care two cents about his riches, the houses he owned, his worldly ambitions, and “the people he knew.”
When we said goodbye, this man (who knew something about everything) didn’t know one thing about the person he’d talked to for an hour. Me!
Not a problem. I’d rather listen to others than talk about myself. Truly. But, it pains me to listen to someone who thinks they know something about everything and can’t be dissuaded to think otherwise. You know what I mean?
Commonly known as a KNOW-IT-ALL.
However, I find great comfort and joy knowing the good Lord truly truly knows it all!
“Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33)
I know every bird of the mountains,
Psalm 50:11 NAS
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.”
Psalm 50:11 NAS
Omniscient is one of God’s attributes. He knows the beginning from the end. When the world seems out of control, God knows and He’s no less in control. There’s nothing that will happen in this world, or my life, that surprises Him. Nothing He can’t handle and use for His purposes and His glory.
God also knows everything about me (Psalm 139:1-2). He knows
the secrets of my heart (Psalm 44:21)
the number of hairs on my head (Luke 12:7)
the number of days I’ll live (Psalm 139:12-13)
my name (John 10:3)
God knows me better than I know myself. And He knows more about me than I wish He knew. Which is why I had a difficult time believing that God would love me with an everlasting love. So how did I learn to embrace the Lord and trust Him no matter what?
By knowing Him!We can’t trust someone we don’t know.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Knowing God is different from knowing about God.
I can tell you many things I learned about the boastful man that I met who could tell me a thing or two. But I don’t know his innermost being or his future. I don’t know him on an intimate basis like I know my spouse.
Do you realize the God of the Universe invites us to know Him on intimate terms. That happens the same way any relationship is developed–spending time with the person so we become familiar.
Read God’s Word. And while you’re reading Scripture, listen for Him to speak to your heart. Talk to God, the same way you’d phone a friend. Be honest. Ask your questions. Tell Him how you really feel. Ask the Holy Spirit to use God’s Words to instruct and guide you.
Instead of asking the Lord to give you the desires of your heart, ask God to make Himself the desire of your heart! The same way you’d long for a true blue friend.
Be mindful of His presence throughout the day and praise Him (same way you’d compliment a faithful friend) for Who He is!
A kind, merciful, loving, forgiving, all-knowing God who loved each of us so much that “He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
As we nurture an intimate relationship with the Living God, our head knowledge about Him will become a heartfelt friendship. And the more we know God, the more we will trust Him and be less shaken.
Do the ghosts of past regret haunt you with the words “If only?”
When Daylight Savings Time ended last Sunday, the sun rose at 6:35 a.m. instead of 7:35 a.m. because I set back my clocks by one hour.
If only I could change my past that easily by switching back the hands of time.
Hindsight has taught me many lessons, made me wiser.
Even so, I’d like to go back and change poor decisions. Sometimes, I wonder how life would be now if I’d made different choices.
There are also things I wish I’d done…..
For two years, I promised myself I’d visit an elderly friend. But she lived “so far away” and “life was busy.” By the time I went to her home, she had passed away.
IF only I had known….
Regret is difficult to avoid…
If only I had taken a different path,
If only I had made better choices,
If only God hadn’t allowed that circumstance,
If only I had known then, what I know now.
But living with “what might have been” paralyzes me.
Before Paul was an apostle of Christ, he persecuted Christians. The memory of watching Stephen being stoned to death must have made Paul cry, “If only I had known Christ then, I would have ….”
Paul experienced remorse over his actions: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
But he received the peace of God. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord…There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Read Romans 7:15-8:1)
“If only” didn’t hold Paul captive to the past.
Instead, he believed that he was loved by God, saved by grace, and forgiven.
And those facts enabled Paul to say, “…forgetting what lies behindand reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Read Philippians 3:8-14)
Like Paul, we get to choose where our mind dwells.
“Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things…..and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)
The only “if only” anyone should regret……is not knowing…..the God of peace.
Even In This 