Encouraged

I love how God works!

I have always looked forward to Sundays, it's my favorite day of the week.  However, I have to admit that right now being able to be just a worshiper is really nice.  Not having to think about what needs to get done, what worker is sick,  am I short a volunteer.  Not having to keep my antennae up to who is struggling and needs a hug, to be constantly on alert to what is going on around me....well, it is a relief right now.  I do miss it...it's what God designed me for....but for now, it is refreshing and healing.

So walking into church on Sunday, I prayed that I would meet God there.  That I would be open to His Word and what He had to say to me and my heart. 

Though the pastor doesn't know it, his sermon was written just for me.....I love when God does that.  Well, except when it is a 2x4...but in this case it was just what I needed to hear to be encouraged!

We are listening to a sermon series on John and this week we were in chapter 9.  I was so impressed that right off the bat, Jesus shows his compassion for those he came to save.  

We leave chapter 8 with an angry crowd of Jews ready to stone Jesus for claiming to be who He is...God..Messiah.  We see that the stones are in their hands, ready to be thrown and somehow, supernaturally Jesus hides himself and slips away.

I think that if it were me in His shoes, my mind would be on getting OUT of the city.  I would probably be asking questions like.....why are they doing this?! They wanted to kill me!!  Why can't they see who I am?  My mind would most likely be focused solely on that situation.

But we read in chapter 9, verse 1 that as Jesus leaves, he sees a man, blind from birth and stops.  He doesn't think about the angry crowd not far behind.  He doesn't allow his circumstances to make him miss a moment or distract him from the reason he is there.

I love that about him and I want to be like that.  I don't want to allow my current circumstance to distract me from seeing why I am really here or where God is working around me. 

But what hit me the most from this chapter is the next several verses.

In verse 2, the disciples ask Jesus "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

  They went from being servants to being judges in that moment.  They looked at the situation of the man and immediately assumed that someone had sinned to get him there.  How often do we do that?

These verses touched deep in my heart as I realized that that is one of my struggles right now.....will people (in the church and out) look at our situation and immediately assume that Steve and/or I did something wrong.  Will churches we are interviewing with look at the fact that we aren't employed and think "what did they do wrong.  He must not be a good leader"  Without asking questions, will they judge our situation and deem "someone has sinned".

Jesus' words to his disciples are so beautiful to me.

He doesn't get mad at them, he doesn't get exasperated with them..He simply states the facts....words I needed to hear...

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

It's not about who sinned...neither he nor his parents did.

It is about God's glory and it being displayed through the situation.

Wow.  I have said this before about where we are.  That maybe it's not about us, maybe someone is watching to see how we walk through this that God needs to reach.  I don't know.  But seeing these words in scripture was beautiful and so encouraging.

I truly believe that God is and will use our situation for His glory.   And you know what?  Knowing that is enough.  It doesn't matter what others may or may not think, knowing Jesus is and can use our situation (if we let him) for his glory...

...is enough.