I’ll not stop praying.
For tiny Emily, this precious, miraculous, hero of a little girl.
For Madison, who is singing like the rest of her family from her new home in heaven.
For their parents, who need an incredible amount of hope and strength right now.
For Cathy, who loves these children as her own and would do anything to protect them.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
[ Zephaniah 3:17 ]
My city runs along either side of a large river in New Brunswick. I’ve lived here almost all of my life, and so I think nothing of the river running through the middle of my hometown, besides to complain about it taking so long to get to Joey on the other side. It’s hit me quite a bit lately though, that we are very blessed to have this river.
God is so glorious. He sees us through our darkest times, and celebrates with us when we feel on top of the world. God’s glory is shown to us everywhere we turn, if only we take the time to truly look for it. In the power of a storm, the beauty of a child, or the magnificence of time, God takes our breath away, removes the words from our lips, and we take a moment to be caught in his quieting love.
When a friend visited for a weekend in the fall, she was amazed by the beauty and greatness of it. I was taken aback at the mere thought of it being breathtaking in the first place! Then, again this week, I was out for a drive with a friend when she began talking about how much she loves the river, even after living here for thirty years. The past few weeks I’ve spent babysitting in a home that overlooks the river, and as I sit and watch the current pass by, I am quieted by the stillness of the water on a clear day, or by the anger of the water on a cloudy, rainy day. It really is more beautiful than what I tend to see on a daily basis. God shows His love for us in so many ways — in this case, the simplicity of water running between two banks.
In this and in so many other things every single day, I take God’s love for granted.
Today, while I am struggling through a relationship that needs a drastic overhaul, while I feel imprisoned in my own house by my own overbearing family, God is here. He peeks at me through the curtains that I’ve drawn, and won’t take no for an answer.
I’ve been struggling with prayer lately. Years ago, I would pray for hours a day; often an hour or two in one sitting, which is quite the feat for a fifteen year old. I’ve felt for the past few months or so that I don’t even know how to pray anymore. That I’ve been without it so long that I’ve simply forgotten, or perhaps I don’t have anything to talk about? [Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I don't often have nothing to talk about.]
And doesn’t God have great ways of showing us what we need to hear or learn?
Romans 8:26-28 says this:
“The moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless signs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”
God does not send people to hell for not believing in Him or for any other reason. God doesn’t send people to hell at all. Rather, people choose go one of two ways - heaven or hell. Hell is simply the place that is absent of God, void of God and all His goodness. I don’t believe that God desires anyone to be there or punishes anyone for not believing in Him. I believe that we are given free will to choose our path and the path that leads to hell is the life that we’ve chosen to walk away from Him, to be void of Him in our lives.
Hell is the place that is absent of God.
Heaven is God in all His glory.
I’ve got a friend who has always found it difficult to believe in God because she doesn’t see how a loving, caring god could send people to hell. I think this excerpt is one of the more well-put viewpoints on the matter.
I believe that if you are a follower of God, if you know Him and serve Him, if you attempt to align your walk with the path He has set out before you, and if you give yourself, sins and all, to Him to be forgiven and washed clean, you will spend eternity in Heaven.
God doesn’t banish anyone to hell. One does that all on his own by choosing to live his own life, separate from God.
The choice is yours. No one else can make it for you.
