The Week in Words

It's Monday, so that means it's time for "The Week in Words" hosted by Melissa at Breath of Life. It's all about quotes that have touched you in some way from your readings from the past week. Click here for the details and then join in!

My first quote is from a fiction novel I read last week. It is by one of the main characters speaking to the media outside a courthouse regarding a situation that was absolutely inconceivable and the decisions that had to be made, absolutely impossible. The three characters were all believers and had resolved the situation peacefully. What the fictional character, Nate Camfield, said resonated with me because I have some hard decisions to make and even though I do not face anything on the scope of what they had to deal with in the story it still put my focus back where it should be.

"We are human - all of us...and as you can imagine we have each had feelings of anguish, of guilt, of anger. But the world won't understand how our situation has been resolved without hate, without lashing out at one another, without lawsuits aimed at destroying each other. Listen carefully because I'm going to tell you exactly why..

It is because we have placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because our belief that our treasures are stored up in heaven, not here in this fleeting life on earth. That is the reason we are able to see beyond our selfish desires...If you can see the peace written on our faces in the midst of this horrilbe situation, don't think that it comes from within ourselves. Never. It is peace that only comes from God Almighty, through His Son, Jesus Christ, a peace that I can testify passes all understanding. It is a peace that comes from a sure knowledge that we have given our wills, our very lives over to Christ. We have put our faith and trust in Him alone. And we are filled with the assurance that He can take even tragedy and turn it into something beautiful."

Beneath a Southern Sky by Deborah Raney
pg 296

If you want to read more about this book you can go here for my review. It's a really great read.

My second quote is about God's timing in answering prayer. Oftentimes I am very much impatient, wanting God to answer it immediately in the way that I want. This really spoke to me.

"Being patient with God does not mean believing that He is still in process but believing that He knows - better than we do - that we are still in process. Being patient with God means trusting that He is sovereign and loving. It means believing that His love will not allow Him to answer requests that don't line up with His ultimate purposes ...

"As the heavens are higher thanb the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" -Isaiah 55:9...

...When we know that God is loving and just, we don't have to understand His ways in order to be at peace in the midst of life's stresses. We can accept that God operates on His own timetable."

The Love as A Way of Life Devotional

by Gary Chapman pg 57 & 58