God's Sovereignty

This has really been hitting me lately. God is in control. God is enough. God knows the future. God knows what I need. God will use others to produce fruit in me.

Jason has been listening to Trusting God Even When Life Hurts as we are traveling. I haven't concentrated on each part of it, but one truth - God's sovereignty - has stuck out to me the most.

Feb and March were very busy months for us. We were only home for seventeen days. Yes, 17. Needless to say I was behind on pretty much everything. Homeschooling. Cleaning. Thank you notes. Laundry (my baskets are almost perpetually filled with clothes, albeit clean). Clutter. Paperwork. Life in general. Gavin had a birthday party that we crammed into a short stay at home. My grandpa ended up in ICU with sepsis - for the 4th time. Our basement and garage flooded a couple times. We would come home from a trip to clean up a mess and move boxes.

Then a bright spot! We got invited to Field Prep Seminar even though our percentage did not meet the required level. We were ecstatic with the answer to prayer! Momentarily. The day before we left (and my birthday) we found out our team leader is coming home permanently this summer. We were disappointed. There is now only one other ABWE missionary in Slovakia. We left for Field Prep disheartened, but not beaten down. Five days later a family member critiqued us. We pushed on. Two days later we found out our mission board was being accused of mishandling a case of se*ual abuse in 1989 and 2002. We were disturbed by the proceedings. Five days later we got home (after being away from the boys for 2 wks.) to find out that someone had misrepresented us and caused us to lose support. Wow! Then in the past few weeks we've been keeping tabs on the situation with our board and how it was or was not being dealt with. We had some grave concerns which we took to our pastor. We were wondering if we'd be finding a new board and starting from scratch.

I can't say I was excited about each of these things or that I didn't shed a few tears. I did! I can't say I wasn't at times discouraged or concerned. But I'd like to share some of the things I thought about/learned. Some of it was specifically because of the audio book.

1.) God is sovereign. Nothing takes Him by surprise. All of it is for our good.

2.) God uses situations and people in our lives to do a work in us. Even if what happens is not positive or if the people are not acting in a Christ-like manner.

3.) God is in control. He knows what has happened and knows how it will all end.

4.) God asks me to respond with a right attitude and actions. Our pastor gave us some great counsel through all of this.

5.) God's evaluation of us is not based on others' opinions.

6.) God wants to grow us! We cannot grow spiritually without some exercise!

7.) God wants my dependence to be on Him, not on others.

8.) God created the Slovak people and He loves them more than I do.

9.) God is sovereign. Nothing takes Him by surprise. All of it is for our good. (Yes, it's worth listing twice!)

Another book that has helped me greatly is Finding God's Path Through Your Trials by Eliz*beth George. The ladies' Bible study I'm in covered that book this school year. I would highly recommend it as she uses lots of Scripture in the accompanying study guide.

I'm glad to say a lot of this is behind is - either because the situation is over or because we've moved on. April is a little slower for us (we were home 6 days in a row last week!) so I've been able to get more projects done in addition to every day survival. We are still moving forward in faith, hoping we can leave for Slovakia in July. On Friday we submitted two pieces of paperwork that are needed for our visa application. Thankfully things with our mission board are now moving in the right direction. They have submitted to a third party investigation, which is what we were hoping for. We of course have no idea what the outcome of this all will be, but we are praying ABWE will survive and its missionaries can continue spreading God's Word around the world unhindered.

Posts like this are exactly why I wanted to get back to blogging. They are great reminders the next time I go through a similar experience. Unfortunately this sinner struggles with a lot of the same temptations very often!