We Won't Stop

 "We won’t stop confessing He is good and we won’t stop thanking Him for grace and we won’t stop holding out our hands — and taking His hand. We won’t stop believing that “God is good” is not some trite quip for the good days but a radical defiant cry for the terrible days."  Ann Voskamp

  When I first read the above words, they struck me straight to my soul and I embraced them. I have made them my Thanksgiving 2013 rally call.

 "WE WON'T STOP!"........."GOD IS GOOD! "........we will CONFESS it.......we will THANK Him......we will HOLD OUT OUR HANDS expecting good to come from Him.........we will BELIEVE He is good and that He will bring about good......WE WON'T STOP!

 2013 has not been the best of years for us, in fact at present it has been the worst of years. Don't get me wrong or think me ungrateful,we do have a lot to be thankful for and we are thankful.

  We have a roof over our head, we have food in the cupboard, we have jobs, we have each other. Adam came home from Afghanistan, we have breathe in our lungs, we have blood coursing through our veins, and we are blessed.

  But even so, 2013 has been the worst of years.

 We lost precious things in 2013. Things that cannot be replaced this side of heaven.  We lost Melanie, and we lost Allen, we lost innocence, and for a time we lost hope, we lost direction, and we lost joy......it has been a year of loss. But in that year of loss we found grace. Abundant grace. Poured out upon us. Grace that drove us to God, drove us to our knees, drove us to His word, grace that opened our eyes, opened our clenched tight fists and split open our hearts.
   And grace, if received, counters all loss. Grace if received brings back hope, finds joy. In this year of 2013 we learned that ALL IS GRACE. It was a hard lesson, and one we are still working through, still processing, but one we believe and embrace. ALL IS GRACE, even the hard things, even the things that you don't want, the things you want to cast aside and run from.
  In all this soul searching brought about this year, I have not yet found the answer to the question most asked. I am asked it often by others, and I have asked it often myself....that single two word question......that question that I am willing to bet every single living human being has asked......."Why God?". I have found many responses to this question, many that make sense and may very well be right, but no concrete answer, and each time I sought the answer to this question I was driven to know more of God. Who is He, what is He. Who does He say that He is.

 He says that He created everything that exists. And that it was good.
 He calls himself the "I AM."
 He says that He saves His people.
 He says we who call upon His name are to call Him our Father
 He says that He alone is God and there is no other.
 He says that He is good.
 He says that He is faithful.
 He says that He loved us enough to die for us.
 He says  "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."
 He says No one has ever seen Him. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

 The list could go on and on and on again.........read His word and see for yourself what He declares.

So although I have not found the answer to the question we ask when we are hurting, when things seem to be all wrong and twisted and upside down, this WHY GOD that we cry out, perhaps it is not meant to be found this side of heaven, I have found enough to put the question to rest in my soul. I do not even ask it anymore. When I feel it starting to bubble up inside me, when the urge to cry it out to the heavens begins......I pause and say "I don't understand Lord, but I trust You.....I believe....help my unbelief."

   By His declaration and by past experience, I have found that God is good. He has plans for us, plans for good and not for disaster, to give us a future and a hope. Plans to cause all things to work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Personally I think the biggest problem for most of us who call upon the name of the Lord, is that we continue to look for that future and that hope right here on earth, and when bad things happen we are left wondering why. This life here is not what God is preparing for us. Here there will be good times and bad, here we will find precious things and we will lose them. Here we will experience great happiness and great sorrow.....but it is there that we must set our eyes on. When we set our eyes on there, everything here begins to make more sense, begins to be bearable.



 So this Thursday we will host the Thanksgiving dinner in our home and we will gather, with family around the table, where we will feast, we will fellowship, we will laugh and we will love, and we will believe that our God is good, and that all He is doing is good and all that He has allowed is good and that one day we will see this clearly. We will believe the things He has promised. We will trust in the only One who is trustworthy. We will rejoice in His presence. We will remember the ones who have left us, and we will feel sorrow in their absence, but as we mourn we will also remember the one who visited our dreams, and her words......"its gonna be okay Ma, its gonna be more than okay."


"Though He slay me.....yet will I trust Him."

 ALL IS GRACE MY FRIENDS..........ITS ALL GRACE

 Quote is from the blog of Ann Voskamp. I urge you to follow her blog, it has been a great blessing to me. http://http//www.aholyexperience.com/2013/11/why-the-best-response-to-life-the-holidays-anything-is-yada-yada-yada/