"Lilies of the Field"

It wasn't the easiest of days; my head was being stretched in several different directions and my heart was heavy. Funny how, on days like that when we need Him most, that the Father likes to so gently remind us how much He loves us?

Busily moving about and tending to business, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me in my tracks. What appeared to be just an ordinary patch of clover in an ordinary grassy lawn was anything but....because, standing tall and holding its head up proudly, a beautiful little daisy was poking up.

I stopped to look closer. I got down on my knees to get a better look. It crowned its thin stem, towering over the clover and grass, not ashamed to stand alone, to stand out.

On even closer look, I realized it was far from perfect. It was bruised...battered...beaten. Petals were bent and marred. Yet rather than hide from scrutiny, it continued to lift its cheerful face to the sunshine -- and the God who created both.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter 1:24-25

Ah God...my heart is convicted. How many times have I hidden behind my pain or my stress and worry, cried out to You that I cannot possibly praise You in light of the circumstances...the circumstances that You placed in my life. And it took a beautiful bruised daisy to reveal this to me!

The more I looked around, the more I realized how many flowers You placed around me. Most go unnoticed, living their short lives only to please You and then expiring after fulfilling the purpose for which they were created.

As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. Psalm 103:15-16

Some flowers are around me because I planted them there, because I desired their beauty around me. In the same way, You place me - plant me, even - where You want me, where You desire to show Yourself to the people around me.

Some flowers seem insignificant; they go unnoticed most of the time. Their sole purpose is to live their short lives to glorify God. How I want to glorify You, Father...whether or not I am noticed by men. In fact, make me whatever kind of flower You desire, that the glory may go only to You and not to me.

But should You decide to bestow me with more glory, as some showy flowers, may I never withhold it for myself and refrain from giving it all back to You, the One to whom belong "glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11

 Lord, make my life, my flower, one that glorifies You. One that people see and automatically praise You because of Your light in me. One that does not bring attention to itself but to the Creator.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:27-29

Oh God...in everything I do, be glorified!

Faith?

 out of control

o do,

We were in a boat in the middle of Lake Havasu. The weather was almost unbearably hot, but the water was cool and refreshing and we were having a lot of fun. That is…until the boat wouldn’t start.

The boat didn’t even belong to us. A friend had allowed us to borrow it to enjoy on the lake that day. We were unfamiliar with the boat’s operation, and though it had been running just fine all morning, when it would not start back up, we had no idea what to do. Though there were many other boats on the lake, we suddenly felt alone and unsure.

 

What to do? Well of course prayer was in order, immediately! As I watched my uncle trying again and again to get the starter to catch, I prayed, “Lord, if it be Your will, please let the boat start!”

And then someone in our group said something like, “We just need to have faith that God will make it start!”

Whoa. Back up.

Prayer, take two. Suddenly my prayer was not so much about the boat, but in questioning what I was praying! Who was right? I sat in the boat and contemplated faith.

I had full faith that God could make that boat start, if He chose to do so. But what if that was not what He chose to do? If He chose another solution to our situation, what did that say about my faith?

Nothing. My faith was placed in God’s ability -- as well in His wisdom. Again, I have faith that He could’ve started that boat. In His wisdom, He chose a different solution – we called a boat tow service, which pulled us to shore. In fact, the tow cost us nothing because the boat’s owners had a membership with that service. The outing still ended nicely as we successfully trailered the boat and returned it (the owners were glad we were not stranded and were not in the least upset about the situation).

What if my faith had been placed only in God’s ability to resolve the problem with that single solution? Would my faith have been shaken when He chose to answer our prayers in a different way?

“…whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” James 4:14-15

“…if it be Your will…” is something I often tag into my prayers, but how often do I really stop to think what it means? “If it be Your will” acknowledges that sometimes my understanding of a situation, my ideas of how God should fix it, is not necessarily the same as His.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

For instance, I would never have guessed that He would choose to use a fun day on the lake to teach me an important lesson on faith.