It’s been said that providence is more amazing than
miracles. For miracles are God
supernaturally intervening to bring about a certain goal by defying the laws of
nature. But providence is God
using ordinary choices, decisions, desires, and circumstances to bring about a
certain goal. Every now and then
God’s sovereign and loving hand is so obviously apparent on my life that I stop
and tell myself, “whoa I better write this down so I don’t forget.” This post is my attempt to capture
God’s amazing providence in my life recently regarding my discouragement over language learning.
·
The other night Allan couldn’t sleep. He had been doing a lot of heavy
reading for a project and was purposefully looking for a book to refresh his
soul. He opened up a book that he
downloaded for free about a year prior.
It was the title that caught his weary eye, “Nothing is Impossible with
God” by Rose Marie Miller.
·
Wednesday, October 29th, 8:00am –
Burdened and discouraged by the overwhelming task of learning another language,
I finally broke down and cried.
·
Wednesday, October 29th, 11:00am - I
attend the woman’s bible study at our church, where they ask me if I will lead
the next study and they let me pick the topic. I agreed and looked at my calendar to see what the date of my
talk would be and notice it would be the day before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here but
it is my favorite holiday so I made a mental note to choose a passage about
thankfulness. Psalm 103 immediately
came to mind.
·
Thursday, October 30th - Allan is
encouraged by the book he started reading the other night and shares it with
me, encouraging me to read it as well.
I start reading it and was struck by a particular point the author makes
several times. I shared this quote
from the book on my facebook page:
o God knew we could never make it alone, so he
sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts “by whom we cry, ‘Abba Father!’”
(Romans 8:15). The problem, I
would tell women, is that we act like orphans, living as if it were still up to
us, living as if the Spirit never came and could never teach us or guide us in
all the affairs of life. We go
through the day believing that it is up to us to figure out how to solve our
problems and get on with life.
·
Friday, October 31st, 8:43am - I receive a text from a friend asking me
if I want to memorize Psalm 103:1-5 with her.
·
Friday, October 31st - That night I
am checking facebook and see a status on a friend’s page. She shared a link about an online bible
study for “busy busy moms”. It’s a
30 day bible study on Psalm 103.
·
Saturday, November 1st - I am talking
to my close friend from back home.
She said she has been wanting to memorize big portions of
Scripture. She asks if I want to
do it with her. We decide on Psalm
103.
Needless to say after that orchestration of events I am now
studying Psalm 103. Within the
first week of study the author and context of the psalm was covered. The psalm was written by David later in
his life when he had a keener sense of sin, preciousness of pardon and frailty
of life. David wrote the wonderful
words of Psalm 103 after:
·
Sinning with Bathsheba
·
Murdering Uriah
·
Receiving rebuke by Nathan
·
Mourning the loss of his baby
·
Enduring the scandal of his children Amnon and
Tamar
·
Enduring the shock of his children Absalom and
Amnon
·
Fleeing for his life from Absalom
·
Mourning the loss of Absalom
These events gave David a keener sense of his sin, without
which he wouldn’t be able to write Psalm 103.
Psalm 103 emphasizes the steadfast love of the Lord several
times. The Lord surrounded me with
steadfast love when he redeemed me (v. 4). He is abounding with steadfast love (v. 8). As high as the heavens are from the
earth so great is His steadfast love towards me (v. 11). And his steadfast love has no beginning
or end (v. 17).
Steadfast.
Firmly fixed. Endurance and
perseverance.
Before God providentially displayed his steadfast love
towards me in Psalm 103 I was discouraged by learning Tagalog. Did you notice that little event in the
timeline I outlined above? Did you
notice the date and time I was in tears?
I saw my failures and temptations to sin. I was lost without a clear conviction in my mind what my
goal and hope was in my language learning efforts. Why go through all that time and effort to learn another
language only to be put to shame in the end by my failures? And did you also notice the time and
date of when God providentially responded?
“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces
hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. “ Romans
5:3-5
I can rejoice in the pressures and burdens of learning
another language. Why? Because I know that it will teach me
perseverance, learning how to endure and remain under trying times. And a steadfast character gives
evidence of the new creation I am in Christ! Revealing a hope that I can anchor my soul in that will not
put me to shame or deceive me. A
joyful and confident expectation where I can sing the truths of Psalm 103 with
David:
“Bless the Lord O my soul!
O my soul!
Worship His Holy Name.
Sing like never before….”
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