Going Through Valley’s with God in Life

 

Going Through Valleys with God

Does God promise that things will always be “good?”

Should we be mad when things are rough in our lives?

 

Often we get mad at God for hardships that come our way, asking and wondering “why” these things are happening, or why God would allow something like this in our lives.

 

The thing is, God never promises a life without hardship. In fact He promises quite the opposite.

 

John 16:33

“33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

 

Yes, God has overcome the world but that image doesn’t mean we are free from trials and sorrows, which seems to be our default response with God. His care for us is more like what we find in Psalm 23.

 

“Even when I walk

    through the darkest valley,[a]

I will not be afraid,

    for you are close beside me.”

 

Too often we try to find reasons that things are happening. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when our actions and choices have natural, negative consequences and we will be able to pin point what brought those things into our paths. However, in spite of the why – God will ALWAYS be with us during those times.

 

Hebrews 13:5

5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,

“I will never fail you.

    I will never abandon you.”[b]

 

Even in our darkest moments and deepest valleys. The questions we ask about why… are the natural, but unhelpful response. We should be looking to God for our comfort, thanking Him for His protection and promise to never leave us – and resting in that comfort and promise. As we do that, the heartache and pain begin to fade as He carries our load for us and as we acknowledge the fact that we can’t always know why or from where things have come, but instead trust that He knows the way to where we’re going.

 

Did you know that related to Psalm 23, in order for a shepherd to take his sheep to a place where quiet streams and green pastures exist, the shepherd in the Middle East had to traverse many miles of valley and treacherous landscape to get there? It was actually an annual thing, when winter would fade the best grazing land was high in the mountains. The trust for the shepherd came through the walking and being lead through hard times. Without those hard times the intimacy and trust for our Good Shepherd and loving Heavenly Father could not be.

 

As daunting as this sounds, the reality is that we MUST face difficult times in our lives if we are going to know God intimately. It’s part of the deal, our commitment to God through Jesus includes hardship – but the result is worth it! He is our creator, perfect protector and awesome Father. He knows what’s best for us, and knows why HE created us – so we follow because there is simply no satisfaction in this life without knowing Him.

 

Psalm 63:1-5

 

Luke 6:21

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”

When Someone Saves Your Life, You Throw Them a Party!

When Someone Save Your Life, You Throw Them a Party

A Christmas Reflection

This was a quote I heard recently in a Christmas production. The point of the production wasn’t related to this quote at all, but somehow it stood out and deeply impacted me.

 

Imagine for a moment that your family – whether that be wife or kids or parents etc… – are in danger. A known killer has broken into your home and is holding them at gunpoint while you aren’t there. Your neighbour happens to have seen them approach your house and comes over to check on them. He knocks to find the assailant and they end up in a standoff at the front door with your family standing behind him with looks of panic and fear on their faces, signalling him for help. Your neighbour has two choices, 1. run and get help or 2. lunge and disarm the assailant realizing he is risking his own life but also realizing that the result to your family will likely be deadly if he doesn’t.

 

He chooses the latter and lunges, getting shot in the leg but disarming the assailant and allowing your family to call the police. Your family is safe and they were saved by the heroic actions of an individual who put his own life on the line for them.

 

What is your response to your neighbour going to be?

 

You would likely try desperately to find a way to express your gratitude, with words, gifts, cards or offering your time and help with anything they might need. But maybe, you just might want to acknowledge what they have done for you to the world. Some might call the newspaper, others would bring everyone they know over to celebrate and have a party to acknowledge the sacrifice your neighbour made for you and the resulting safety of your family.

 

Essentially you would do just about anything for him, at least within your own resource pool and personal capabilities.

 

Apply this in any way that is applicable, imagine they saved your life, or maybe they died saving your life. The impact is deep and hard to describe, and paying them back is entirely impossible.

 

In the end, if someone saved your family’s life, wouldn’t it make sense to throw them a party?

 

Enter Christmas – so often we talk about Jesus coming to earth to die for our sins, but we forget that he didn’t just die for our sins, He in fact saved our lives! And He didn’t just disarm someone, He actually lost His life to save me!

 

Yes, lives in eternity after our mortal lives but ALSO our lives today, giving us purpose and direction, love without comparison and the strength and peace to live this life in a state of assurance and confidence.

 

If Jesus saved my life (and my family’s too for that matter), why wouldn’t I do for Jesus at least what I would for my neighbour?

 

I think I will do exactly that this Christmas: Hello world Jesus saved my life, he also saved the lives of my children and wife and I’m having a party to celebrate. It’s on December 25^th, and you’re all invited!

 

 

P.S. Don’t forget to cherish your loved ones just like you would if you came home to find that they had come close to death but were saved. Every day is a gift from God, so hold them tight this season.

Rethinking “Family” This Christmas Season

Rethinking “Family” This Christmas Season

 

For most of us, when we think of Christmas, we think of family. When I was growing up I remember looking forward to the break, but even better was the opportunity to be with family. Sometimes we would drive to Toronto (from Windsor) to spend time with my cousins. This actually became even more prominent when I left for university and would come home for the holidays. Christmas has always meant being with people.

 

Maybe Christmas with your family doesn’t bring you a lot of joy, or maybe the holidays are your favorite time of year. Either way, family at Christmas, should be about more than just our siblings, parents and children.

 

There is no better opportunity to remember that we are a part of God’s family! We are chosen, loved and created by a perfect and loving Father, who demonstrated His love to us by taking on human form, as an innocent baby, who would give His life for us.

 

Somehow we forget and lose sight of this fact, our gift giving, decorating, events and even relationships in our lives end up taking all of our focus.

 

Just as a group of people with the same father call themselves siblings, so are we brothers and sisters with the same Heavenly Father.

 

Let that sink it for a moment.

 

This reality means that NONE of us are without family at Christmas time.

 

My challenge to you during this season is that you would take time to focus on your spiritual family. Recognizing first who your Heavenly Father is and how significant it is that he sent Jesus as the ultimate example of love, giving His son so He could have a relationship with you! Additionally my prayer is that your view of family would grow and that you would BE God’s family to others finding ways to love those who might be feeling like no one cares for them this Christmas.

 

Here are a few ideas that might help you do this in the coming season:

 

1. Set an extra place setting for meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, symbolizing the idea of leaving room for Jesus. Perhaps acknowledge the seat before prayer and thank God for His sacrifice and gift for you. Framing your holidays in this way can help give you eyes to see the true meaning of the season and help you avoid getting lost in busyness.
2. Consider adopting a family in your church that has nowhere else to go and invite them over to share Christmas dinner.
3. Call your local University or Bible College to see if there are some “stranded” students you can invite over for a Christmas meal.
4. Symbolically welcome a new baby into your home by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, maybe have a decorative cradle to blow out, and have your family give baby Jesus gifts, explaining to each other what the significance of those gifts might be.
5. Consider having some gifts for people you don’t know under the tree. Things like a donation to the local foodbank, or care package for the homeless person in the parking lot. Pray together as a family and ask God to lead your heart and mind to how and who to give those gifts to.

 

Get creative and consider ways to BE God’s family this season. I’d love to hear what ideas your family comes up with! Email me at davidmcvetycounselling@gmail.com

 

<a davidmcvetycounselling@gmail.com="" The Article was originally written for and published by the Fellowship Focus Magazine.

Your Marriage is Like a Diamond for The World to See

I love marriage — for a different reason than you might think.

One of my favourite things about marriage is the incredible illustration it represents of the power of Jesus’ relationship with us, his church. We are to love our spouse as Christ loves the church: selflessly, sacrificially, full of grace. I’m convinced that there is NO greater form of evangelism in our current culture than a Christ-centered marriage (Eph. 5:25-30).

Our culture is filled with divorce and broken relationships. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for some to judge or condemn these families, sometimes separating ourselves from those who exhibit different values.

Why I’m Envious of These words “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

When I think of different sermons I’ve heard about Peter’s getting “down out of the boat” in Matt 14:22-33, they tend to focus on the fact that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, the source of his faith and in this case miraculous abilities and even chastise him for doing so. We usually teach or are taught about the need to keep our eyes on Jesus in the hardest moments, the ones where we can’t do it on our own and need faith to pull us through in miraculous ways.

It occurred to me that we have missed something powerful about this story.

God Wouldn’t Ask Me for EVERYTHING Would He?

I remember as a teenager being afraid of the idea of following Jesus because I was worried that He would ask me for my most precious and important things. I didn’t want to move across the world into a shack and I sure didn’t want to give my car away to someone. In later year I wondered if He would ask me to sell my house and give all the money away?! That fear still haunts me once in a while.