Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Decrees of God

I was invited to participate in a women's bible study this summer at a precious church member's home. I was thrilled at the invitation, as Evan and I have grown very fond of this couple and their precious daughters who adore Kendall. When I received the first email about the study, I grew even more excited as I saw the other ladies' names on the list, many whom I highly respect and others that I just want to get to know a little better. The study is actually more of a "book club" format, rather than bible study on a book titled The Attributes of God by A. W. Pink.


For the first meeting, which was today, we were to read chapters one and two. Let me just say that when I started reading the first page of the first chapter, I quickly realized this was not the summer reading I signed up for! The writing is very eloquent, with scripture quoted from the King James Version. I love to read, but I am not one to pick up an intellectual type book out of preference. Reading the first chapter was a shock to my system, not to mention how unqualified and over my head I felt as I soaked it all in.


However, I pressed on. I gleaned a few things from the first chapter, but the very end of the second chapter titled The Decrees of God brought me to my knees with the following quote:

"O my reader, how thankful should we be that everything is determined by infinite wisdom and goodness! What praise and gratitude are due unto God for his Divine decrees. It is because of them that "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Well may we exclaim, "For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36).


While I have been able to say that "I understand and trust that it's part of God's plan" and I know that his plan is perfect, thanking God and praising him for his Divine decrees in this situation goes against everything that my fleshly mind wants to do. But if I dig deep, I know that I owe God gratitude for his plan, even in my mother's death. My carnal mind does not understand, but I fully trust in Isaiah 55:8-9, believing that God's ways and thoughts are higher than my own.

For that, I am thankful and find reason to praise.

2 comments:

Jesse and Laura Pounders said...

So true!

Kristina said...

I just realized that you were still posting to this blog. I suppose I thought it ended when your mom passed. I think it is so great that you still have this though! What a great place to express your thoughts and feelings about all of it. I probably could have used something like that myself.

Tomorrow is my moms birthday. I can feel myself being more emotional for some reason. It's almost been three years. Her estate is hopefully truly coming to an end very soon. These two things combined have brought up some of my old feelings about all of it.

Thank you for posting on here and especially this in particular. God is sovereign even when our flesh does not want to see it in this context. Thankfully he is good and gracious even when fleshly speaking this might not immediately make sense.