Trust in Him

Psalm 37:3-5
“Trust in the Lord and do good; live in the land and be safe. Seek your happiness in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desire. Give yourself to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will help you.”

Good Morning – this is Stephanie from International at Lifeline –

This verse is easy to “hand” to someone else to encourage them and to advise them on how to live life, but it is not so easy to do when it involves your own self. Isn’t that just like life – it is easy to tell someone else to do it, but much harder when you must do it yourself.

When sharing this thought I am reminded of two different scenarios, but they both come back to the same thing--my walk with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

My first thought is adoption--it is easy for me at Lifeline to say to an adopting family to trust in the Lord because it is all in His timing. But you see, I understand this advice from the standpoint of an adoptive mother. It is not so easy when you make the choice to completely love a little child that you have never held in your arms. I need to take a risk. I need to completely give my heart and love to “my child” in order to become completely her mother. I need to do this without knowing how long it might take to complete the adoption and without knowing the exact path the Lord is going to take to bring my child into my arms. I need to trust the Lord with my whole heart in order to open my heart to this deep kind of love! That is hard, but isn’t that what the Lord has done for us on the Cross. He gave everything for us, and then gave us the free will to choose to love Him or not to love Him.

I do know how hard it is to rest in the Lord when I hand this verse to a family because I have lived it and once again I find myself needing to trust the Lord completely to bring my child home and into my arms! It is not easy, but it is Truth! I am walking this journey of adoption again in my own life and in my own family so if I hand this verse to you it is a verse that I desire to follow completely myself, and I don’t give this advise lightly! Christ is able, but we must be willing to follow His Word!

The second thought that came to my mind through this verse is from a discussion that my 13 year-old daughter and I recently had one evening (Sasha is adopted from Russia and she is the joy of our lives! We also have a little one adopted from Taiwan and someday she and I will have this same discussion I am sure). Our conversation centered around the “Secret to Life”, as I like to call it. The “Secret to Life” is my relationship with Jesus Christ! How is my relationship with Him today? How is my devotional life today? Have I spent time with the Lord today? Have I read His Word today? If I can not answer “Yes” to those questions should I really be asking that of anyone else?

I know that the secret to living a life of joy and peace and success is answered in those questions. I know that everything in my life revolves around my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a new person--a different person--a better person all because of Him, but if I am not growing my relationship one day at a time in Him, then I know I am at risk for not being the kind of person He wants me to be.

Sasha and I talked about the deep meaning of this, and I have found that she is investing her time into spending time with the Lord everyday. I see it changing her into the kind of person that He wants her to be! I am so proud of her. I shared with her that I know that it is easy to tell her to do this, but it is not so easy to do myself. Life is busy and each day goes so quickly, but at the end of the day my question should be-– “Have I done the most important thing today--which is to spend time growing my relationship with my Lord Jesus because everything else in my life comes out of this relationship.” Just as I did not ask Sasha that lightly, I do not ask you that lightly because it is a question I ask myself. How is your relationship with the Lord today?

I share two prayer requests before I end my thoughts for the day:

1. Please pray for the waiting children of Bulgaria. We have 15 new children on our waiting children page! Please take time to sign the confidentiality statement (available at the Bulgaria link on the web site) so that you can view the waiting children. I believe that the Lord is asking us to pray for families to come to Lifeline to adopt these precious children! Pray for these children to come to know that their lives are a gift from the Creator and that He loves them and is their Father.

2. Please pray for rains to come to the Southern Part of the Philippines where my husband and I do orphan ministry to a government run orphanage. We knew that there was a drought in the region for some time and have been praying using the verses from Joel 2:23 “…Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rains He sends are an expression of His grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.” What we did not know was how this drought was going to affect the orphans that we love and help to provide for. We have just heard that the heat is so intense in this region that some of the children have horrible rashes. They have no electricity most of the time to power any air conditioner or fan because of the drought. Much of their electricity is run by the water in the dams and since the water is so low they must have what they call “brown outs” or turning off of the electricity. So now these precious children who have already suffered so much are suffering even more in the intense heat and from lack of rain. Please pray for the Lord to bless the Land in the southern part of the Philippines with His rains. Please pray for these children and for the Lord to bring relief for them.

Thank you so very much. May the Lord bless your day –

Stephanie
International Adoption Specialist