Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! Bessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.                                                       Nehemiah 9:5-6 (WEB)
There have been a lot of ‘fads’ in my life. I wore my hair very straight (had to iron it!) and parted in the middle in college. I wore cropped tops and huge bell bottom pants. I did not wear platform shoes because I was already tall! I had some gigantic hoop earrings. I had boyfriends who had blue leisure suits. (YUK!) And then there were all the American idioms: Groovy, Way Out, Rad. All these important influences that made their way into my way of life have come and gone. It is interesting to me how some are now returning (bell bottom pants and platform shoes!) — as if they were that great the first time around!
Scripture tells us that God is “everlastingâ€. No flash in the pan is He! I could list the many, many things He has brought me through but when I think of it as a list right now, I feel depressed about all of it. But when I consider where I am now and where I have been, I feel the joy of the victory that God has given me! Without Him, I truly would have perished!
I can count on God. He isn’t going any where. He isn’t giving up on me. I have been shaking-my-fist angry at Him. He sat there and took it and then held out His arms to hold me. I have turned away from Him in despair and frustration. And seen The Prodigal play out in my own life. The Father stood watching for me to turn back around and when I got over my ‘mad’, trying to figure it ‘my way’ and turned around, He came running toward me with open arms.
And so I’ve made a decision not to give up on Him. It is a conscious choice. Some might waver back and forth. Maybe God has brought me through all these events because He wanted me to exercise my spiritual muscles!?! In the times that we now live and those that seem to loom in the near future, it is a steadfast heart that will not be blown about, looking for a mountaintop to land. A steadfast heart will keep moving ahead each day, relying on Jesus for peace, for direction, for every step.
What else in my life can I say the same thing? Nothing! Zip! Nada! Good choice.
