Five Minute Friday: Imagine

Begin:
Imagine. Oh the great things to imagine...I feel like Dr. Seuss. I'm a very goal driven person. I usually accomplish the goals I set out to accomplish, and then I get bored and and have to create new goals...and....

But the Lord placed His purpose on my heart. If only I could imagine the things He has imagined FOR me. If I KNEW what goal he has in place for me next. If I looked to Him in all things instead of trying to force His hand and do things my way, on my timeline.

But God has plans bigger than anything I could possibly imagine. His purpose is greater than the length of my life. The greatest thing I can imagine, he is forming something even more magnificent and better for me.

To be honest, I don't trust it. I don't allow myself to love God enough to be vulnerable to Him. To allow Him to hurt me, to disappoint me, not that he ever would.

Can I imagine being loved like that? Imagine being loved that perfectly? Imagine putting every part of my being into someones hands that I have no reason to doubt.

Oh! I am more like Eve and Sarah than I want to admit. Can I allow myself to imagine great things and then put them in Gods hands?

Stop.

No "Plan B"

by Dawn Lamper

 In our "encouragement" group we began reading Elisabeth Elliot's "Let Me Be a Woman" and we are going to be going through the women of the bible alongside of our reading other texts.

Elliot, in chapter one states, "We are not for one moment of our lives at the mercy of chance."

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (ESV)

Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength[a] of my heart and my portion forever.

 Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way,
    but the Lord establishes his steps.

I wonder sometimes on God's timing. Whether or not I'm doing the will of the Lord or my own will.

When God created the garden, did he have me in mind as well? 

When the entire bible repeats the story of the Gospel over and over and over again, when His mercies are new every morning, when he expects perfection, receives failure, loves us despite it all, and gave us His Son to be slaughtered on the cross so that instead of our failure, He sees His own perfection.

That wasn't a plan B.

These are the hard questions:

Why did God allow sin into our world?
Why did God give us the choice to eat from the tree?
Why didn't God leave us to die outside of the Garden?
Why did God make Adam first and then make Eve?

If you force someone to choose only you, do they really love you?

If God gave us no option but to only love Him, then does that not defeat the whole purpose of love? Is not love being vulnerable enough to allow someone to hurt us? They may leave us, die, sin against us, deny us...but it only hurts when you truly love someone.

When we commit adultery, we hurt God, we leave Him-we find out what it is like to be separate from Him.

But we desire Him. Our very hearts seek Him out in all things, and we don't even realize it.

As Adam was lonely, so are we lonely. As Man needed not only God, but woman as well. We are created for a triune relationship, just as God is. A relationship with God, a relationship with Man.

But Man would never know how much he needed woman had he always been with woman, just as man would never know how much he needed God if God were the only choice.

Eve wasn't a "Plan B". Christ wasn't a "Plan B". It was all "Plan A.".