ramblings of my heart

 

Have you heard the common Bible verse, “Let not your heart be troubled…”?  I have wondered before how one could “let” their heart not be troubled… like flipping the ‘worry’ switch to ‘off’.  Impossible, right?    The verse is found in John 14, and goes on to say, “You believe in God, believe also in Me.”  Jesus was speaking to the disciples, telling them he was leaving and they could not go with him.  The disciples were confused and distressed and Jesus’ words were calling them, and are calling us still today, to have confidence in Him and in God’s plan.

Recently, some dear friends were getting toward the end of their apartment lease, and needed to relocate closer to church and better schools, but they were not going to be ready to do that yet when their lease ran out.  We gave them a ride to church for a couple months and would cook a meal (I use the word “we” very loosely here – Sandy is a far superior cook than me =) and fellowship with them every Sunday.  After dropping them off every Sunday, I would pray that God would prepare us to help them however we could and to use us for His work; even though we didn’t really have extra money, and I wondered how we would be any help at all. 

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  A while back, Mark started sleep walking and I was afraid he would fall down the steep stairs, so I moved him downstairs into Susie’s room.  Hmmm.  Sandy and the girls needed a place to stay and we have an empty bedroom.  We forged on without hesitation and five people crammed into our extra bedroom.  God had answered my prayer and prepared our hearts; even though people around us were warning us that this was crazy, we couldn’t afford it, or it might ruin our relationship with our friends. 

But since God prepared this work for us to do, He worked it out.  Our hearts were not troubled.  They moved in.  The girls started school.  We cook together, eat together – live together. Sandy probably just thinks we are helping her, but she is the strongest, most hardworking and faithful woman I know and I am sure that she is helping me grow as well.  I hope a lot of her qualities will rub off on me.  =)  And with Sandy closer to our church family, she has been surrounded by help and support as God’s love flows through His people.

Even though your mind may worry and fear and tell you to shy away from something, pray for His will, and pray for him to prepare your heart to do what it is that He has prepared for you to do.