2008 has had a rough start. The stock market is down about 15%. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Inflation threatens. The national debt escalates. Recession looms.
I really want to turn every part of my life over to the Lordship of Jesus. He has proven to me over and over again that He can handle things better than I can. But I must confess: I think the hardest thing for me to relinquish is my future. I want so much to be able to take care of that. So I have spent many an hour worried about retirement -- which suddenly isn't as far out there as it has always seemed to me. And the quality of my retirement (from a human perspective) is pretty much going to depend on the performance of the stock market.
In the past, I would have been very concerned as the market has dropped so much recently. But I am choosing to look to God's faithfulness now. My wife has been so helpful to me in this. She reminds me that we are doing all we can and worrying about it isn't going to change anything. And I look back over my life at all the time I have spent worrying about things -- but they all were taken care of. Every one.
So I take comfort in Habakkuk's prayer. Remember that the economy of his day was dependent upon crops and herds. Yet he prayed in Habakkuk 3: 17-18: Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior."
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2 comments:
Being prepared is all we can do sometimes but it is often enough. I cannot control what happens in my future but I can be prepared how to handle whatever comes my way. Some of the preparation is certainly dependent on me but the most challenging part (yet the most rewarding) of the preparation is my ability to depend on God.
If we trust in the stock market it falls. If we trust in crops there will come a time when they do not produce. Even if we trust in our family and friends they will will die or fail us. The Almighty's record is considerably better.
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