Being Content Growth

Bring The Rain

(I’ve been doing a little mini-series on trials. Sometimes these mini-series are unplanned and just happen because of what God has placed on my heart. Hopefully for those who are going through trials, you’ve found them encouraging. For those who aren’t, I hope they’ve been encouraging to you as well. :))

I’ve lived in Southern California for over 25 years now and I still marvel at the weather.  It’s a wonderful gift that we can wait for sunshine to go grocery shopping, because if it’s inclement today in all likelihood it won’t be tomorrow. Recently, however, we’ve had a spate of storms. These storms weren’t just “big for Southern California” – they unleashed a bucket load of rain that would impress a mid-westerner. And while I enjoy an occasional downpour as much as the next person, sometime around the 6th day straight of rain, I was over it. Just like the refrain in the child’s lullaby, I was wishing for the rain, rain to go away (and was really hoping it didn’t come back another day.)

Sometimes, however, the rain lasts much longer than we think we can endure. This is true of the drops that fall from the sky and the storms that we face in life. However, in their song “Bring the Rain,” MercyMe gives us a different perspective to consider when our lives are caught in a downpour. They sing:

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Did you catch that? Instead of asking God to take away the rain, they ask Him to bring it – if it brings Him glory. I know people who pray to avoid painful situations, and those that pray to have pain removed, but to tell God in advance that you are o.k. with the heartache if that through it, His goodness is shown takes a faith and a confidence that is rarely seen.

As I’ve written previously, I don’t think we need to go looking for pain. However, I do think we need to offer everything to God, even our comfort and contentedness if through it, His goodness can be put on display.

May our hearts increasingly be not only willing to endure what life brings, but may we offer up whatever God needs to use even if it means some rain.

 

[This post contains an affiliate link.]

Continue Reading

Being Content Hope Purpose

Waiting with Confidence

My dad was a huge fan of Christmas. Because of this fact, every year he had a contest with himself to see if he could outdo his gift-giving from the previous year. Now, before you get the wrong idea and start thinking that I was given ponies and other extravagant presents, his challenge wasn’t if he could give a gift of greater expense, but rather his goal was to somehow bless us to a further degree. Whether this was in the way that he surprised us with the present – hiding it until all the gifts were unwrapped  or in giving us something that we didn’t even know we wanted, he sought to demonstrate how much he loved his family by giving good gifts every Christmas.

Knowing this about my dad, it always made the Christmas season full of eager anticipation. We often didn’t know what blessing would lie in wait for us, but we knew that whatever my dad had plotted and planned, that it would be good. After all, he loved his family dearly and this is just one of the many ways he showed it.

In the Christian life, I think some of the most difficult times are when we are waiting on our Heavenly Father to reveal what good things He has planned for us. Like a child waiting for Christmas morning, we don’t know what lies ahead in those unwrapped boxes. Sometimes, we spend so much time worrying and struggling with the anticipation of the unknown, that we forget that we can approach those times confidently, just as my sister and I approached the waiting gifts underneath the Christmas tree. Because although we may have to wait to find out what’s in store, we know that our Father desires to bless us and give us good things (Matthew 7:11).  We also know that just as my dad plotted and planned for the perfect Christmas unveiling, that God is actively working to bring about His purposes in our life (Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:6) . Waiting then becomes not a time of frustration for the lack of clear direction, but a time of eager anticipation for the good gifts that God has in store. And when we take hold of this, we can wait with confidence knowing that when we unwrap the presents, we’ll find hidden treasures and blessings that we didn’t even know we needed.

Continue Reading