"God Is Willing"

"Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? (Psalms 108:10)

 Obviously, someone forgot what "through" means, because God is more than able, our God is always willing to do what is best for us. Isn't that what we ultimately want, for God to do what is best? Not my will, but your will, O God, isn't that what we say and preach? That might be something we want, but getting there is not always the way that we expect things to happen. As crazy as it might get, we are always secure in the Lord! And just in case that might not be good enough, Jesus said, "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (John 10:29) Whatever condition we might find ourselves in, whether insecure, weak, headstrong, or totally conceited, God can take us as we are and make us whole, if we just let Him! I will never forget Pastor Gary's sermon on learning how to drown. He illustrated what it was like by becoming totally limp at the pulpit, so much so, that I looked for the wires or ropes that might have been holding him up. I did not see any, so I had to assume that it was something God had done, because it was pretty freaky to watch him go limp and still stay upright, the way that he did. But it is a fact that God will not attempt to help us if we are struggling to help ourselves. We flail our arms and kick our feet, doing everything that we can to keep ourselves from drowning; and all the while, God waits, patiently waits for us to give up, and let Him do what needs to be done to deliver us from a watery grave. Just in case you don't know what that is like, it is pretty frightening. I was taught how to swim by my stepfather trying to drown me; thinking all the while, why is he trying to kill me, what did I do to deserve this kind of treatment. He did not let me drown, but it sure seemed that he was trying to see if I would. I kept reaching for the edge of the pool, but he kept pushing me back, trying to get me to hold myself up in the water. Do you know how hard it is to hold yourself up in water when you don't know how? Once I learned how, I could do it all day if I wanted to; but it takes me relaxing, which is not something you do when you think you are going to drown. It might seem sometimes as though God is trying to drown us; or at least that He is allowing to drown ourselves; but it is all about surrender, complete surrender...

"The LORD says to Edom, "I will cut you down to size among the nations; you will be greatly despised. You have been deceived by your own pride because you live in a rock fortress and make your home in the mountains. 'Who can ever reach us way up here?' you ask boastfully. But even if you soar as high as the eagles and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you crashing down," says the LORD." (Obadiah 1:2-4)