Praise You in this Storm

All the way, my Savior leads me,
What have I to ask beside?
Shall I doubt His tender mercies,
Who through life has been my guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell;
For I know whate'er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know whate'er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

I had to be at church this morning early. As I drove down the Southbound 5, blasting my new Switchfoot cd, I reflected on my current less-than-favorable circumstances. Yes, I may have screwed up once again, but God is bigger than my mistakes. I'm not saying that He's like some fairy godmother and whoosh, all of a sudden my problems will go away. Chances are I've created a big mess by being stupid, and stupidity has its just consequences. But He is compassionate, and loving, and has taken situations worse than this and turned them for His glory. So while we may undergo seasons of suffering brought on by our own foolishness and lack of wisdom, we can at least take comfort in the fact that God can make good out of the situation.

I think of the story that took place during the conquest of the land of Caanan- when the Gibeonites, a caananite tribe living who understood Israel's divinely-mandated conquest and annhilation, pretended to be a people from far away and fooled Joshua into making a covenant with them. This was a mistake on Joshua's part-- he did not fully look into the facts of the situation, but simply trusted people he had never met. Yet God used Joshua's mistake-- Israel's alliance with the Gibeonites resulted in the vanquishing of 5 major caananite tribes who wanted to attack the Gibeonites and demonstrated God's glory and power in His miracle of the Sun standing still in the Long-day battle.

God uses mistakes, and though their consequences may be unpleasant, even extremely unpleasant and to the point that it doesn't look like things will ever be the same again, He is glorified.

Dr. Varner preached an amazing message out of Genesis 15 this last semester-- quite possibly the best chapel message of Fall '06. He concluded his sermon with the admonition that we are to love the Giver, even when He takes His gifts from our life. Amazing. We need to be faithful to praise God "when the morning falls" and also when our hearts are "filled with the weight of doubt."

God's love is unconditional, and that is comforting. In their oft-mocked (yet incredible) album "Love Liberty Disco", the Newsboys sang a great line in the song "I Surrender All"-- He doesn't love us 'cuz of who we are, He only loves us 'cuz of who He is.

And that is a comforting thought.