It’s His Kindness

Lately I have been reminiscing about what God did in me a couple of years ago.  It is no coincidence that today before starting on this post, I felt the urge to read a devotional I had put down for a few months.  And low and behold, the scripture that was next, was one of the words God gave me back then.  When I first moved to Rancho 3M, I kind of thought that was it.  But lately I have been feeling that there is something more, something new God is about to do; not just in my life, but I am praying in this ministry, region, and the nations.  We have all been interrupted from our daily routines and I have sensed that it was God’s kindness that He is calling our attention.  I pray that we are awakened and attuned to His Voice.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:19

These last couple of weeks have been a bit tiring.  Not so much because of the workload, but more so about all the other things that you kind of have to rise for the occasion and do.  Add to that, the inner struggles that we sometimes have to sort through.  We’ve had a few kids leave and that can take a toll on your heart.  As usual, it was sort of out of the blue for a couple of siblings.  The eldest arrived here with a lot of anger and bitterness.  It was hard to love him.  Yet, in the few months he was here we watched as God began to do a work in his heart.  God touched this kid’s life, and even though he sometimes could still be pessimistic, he was not the angry, bitter kid that we met.

Seeing his life touched, really encouraged me.  Not only that, but seeing also how God gave us love for him, even when he seemed unlovable, gives me hope that He is working among and through us.  It is so easy to see how we mess up  and how we and others fail, to point a finger and see where they need to mature.  Yet it amazes me that God doesn’t do that to us.

There have been many times I have felt like a failure and a time in my life when I felt lost.  Didn’t like who I was nor my life and my future seemed aimless.  But even then God led me towards Him.  I remember I had just arrived in Israel, when we went to this prayer meeting at the Alliance Church International Cemetery.  This lady came up to me and gave me a word of knowledge.  I was not expecting it.  It wasn’t in reference to what I had done wrong or anything like that, it was seeing the work God was doing and speaking the fulfillment of it.  As I’ve often thought about that encounter and word, it reminds me to see beyond what is now and to pray to see God’s work in others that I too may see and speak the fulfillment of His work in them and through them.

To speak plainly, sometimes we can get upset and frustrated when we see others fail or their lack of maturity.  My first reaction is to want to set them straight.  But rarely is that the most effective and loving way. What God taught me back at that cemetery, was that He sees beyond our failure; He sees His accomplished work in us. 

Not only does He see it, but I think He wants us to do the same with our brothers and sisters.  Maybe even with ourselves.  Don’t know about you, but I can be harder on myself at times.  Yet, how has God dealt with us in the past?  His Word says that it is His kindness that brings us to repentance (Romans 2:4). So let’s strive to see beyond what our earthly eyes see and ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to behold what He is doing and will do whether in those around us or in us.  That we may join Him in showing kindness and mercy to those around us that they too may repent and turn and marvel at God’s Glory and His salvation.