Learning to Praise- Even When it is Hard

Me: Mom, I don't understand why God started our journey soooo long ago- before we knew we were pregnant with Ian! If God knows all and has a perfect plan, then He knows the date when Hannah will come home to us. Why did He start us before she was even born? Why not start us wayyyyy closer to the date of when we will bring her home? The only answer I can come up with is... me. I need all this time for Him to be working on me? All this pain and heartache that I am learning from isn't just a side benefit, but the primary purpose?

Mom: Yep. Go take another lap around that mountain, Moses.

Leave it to God to use your mother to be brutaly honest and forthright...and just what I needed. After hanging up the phone, I decided to go review Moses and those Israelites that got stuck wandering the dessert for 40 years. First, I read Numbers 20:12 where God explains to Moses why he will no longer enter Canaan, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy..." Then, I read Numbers 14. Verses 11-12 say, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of the miraculous signs I have performed among them?" Verses 22 and 23 say, "...not one of the men who saw my Glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the dessert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- not one of them will ever see it."

In frustration, I railed against God, " But I do believe! That is what is so hard. I know you hold the power in your hand to give us this child! But, here we still are- wandering this dessert!"

I continued to read verses 24 through 38. That whole section deals with the Israelites grumbling. In verse 27, God says, "How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites."

I have to confess, my first thought was, "Well, I wouldn't grumble if you would just do what I'm asking you to do!" I knew shame immediately since I know how ludicrous it is for a tiny speck of creation to try to inform the almighty Creator of anything.

Suddenly, I remembered listening to a speaker a couple years ago that radiated the joy of the Lord. Have you ever met someone like that? It seemed her face visibly glowed she was so full of joy straight from heaven. I remember praying for quite a while after that, that God would help me learn to be so full of Him that I would radiate Christ like that. I actually had the privilege of speaking to that same woman about a week ago and she shared with me that she has had some very hard, difficult times when God has taught her to praise Him in the midst of that pain. She shared how she could hear Him asking her, "Are you going to praise me even now?" And then it dawned on me that God is currently answering my prayer.

You see if I look at the Israelites example of grumbling and all the examples of the apostles praising God in the midst of persecution as well as this dear lady's example, I have to honestly say I fall in the camp of grumblers most often. Sometimes, I have done well with accepting His answer of 'Wait.' But I see now that just keeping a good attitude and trusting in His will falls far short of actually praising Him.

So, I can start praising Him for His character and perfect plan...and for answering my request to teach me to have His overflowing joy in my life- even when circumstances around me are hard.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
"Then the lion said- but I don't know if it spoke- 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know- if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away."

"I know exactly what you mean, " said Edmund.

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off- just as I thought I'd done myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me- I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm." And then Aslan dressed him in new clothes.