God Gave Me a Mattress

                                                         

 

“Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” Isaiah 25:1 (NIV)

 

“There are supply chain problems with the mattress you ordered.  We don’t know when it will come in.  But we can upgrade you to a better mattress for the original price.  We have one in stock and can deliver it tomorrow.” 

 

When the government stimulus check arrived during the pandemic, I had decided to use the money to buy a much needed mattress.  I had gone to the store, tried out several mattresses, and found one that was comfortable and in my price range. Now, I was hearing that the mattress I had chosen was not available.  I went to the store and tried out the mattress they were offering.  It was equally comfortable as the first one. And the sticker showed that the price was significantly higher than what I had paid. I agreed to the offer and a new mattress was delivered the next day.

 

A year and a half passed. One day in November I experienced what doctors call a sudden onset of hip arthritis symptoms. For most people, symptoms of arthritis develop gradually. Although  arthritis had unknowingly been in my joints for a while, for me the symptoms occurred literally overnight. One day I had zero pain and walked an average of 8000 steps per day at a brisk pace. The next day I experienced hip pain and could take only short, much slower steps. I also experienced difficulty getting up from low surfaces  (since I am tall, most of my furniture was low for me). Using seat cushions to elevate the surfaces was helpful. Getting dressed became more difficult on the chair I normally used. One day I decided to sit on the edge of the bed when dressing. My new mattress made the bed high, and getting dressed was much easier. I was thankful for the solution of dressing on the edge of the bed.

 

Several days after I started dressing on the edge of the bed, I started thinking about the original mattress I had selected. The height of that mattress was very low. Since standing up from a low surface was easy for me at the time, the the height of the mattress was not a consideration.  It was comfortable, and that was all that mattered. Today, though, getting in and out of bed from a low mattress would be a major problem. An amazing truth occurred to me: God gave me a mattress!  Isaiah 25:1 talks about how the Lord has “done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” When I went mattress shopping I did not know that I would develop arthritis in a few years, but My Heavenly Father did. The God who provides for the needs of His children stopped the delivery of a low mattress and orchestrated a set of circumstances that resulted in me owning a high mattress.  I can now get in and out of bed with ease. 

 

Today I am learning how to manage arthritis.  Daily exercises and avoiding triggers are helpful. Thankfully, my arthritis symptoms are much less severe than those of many other people. Perhaps it will always be that way. Perhaps the severity of the arthritis will progress. It is impossible to know that now.  But I do know that God will be with me every step of the way.  He already has plans for how He will meet my future needs.  And if I ever doubt that truth, I only need to look at my bed and remember the day that God gave me a mattress!                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfectly Faithful

                                                           

 

“Lord,  you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” Isaiah 25:1(NIV)

 

Voice activation is a great thing…as long as you proofread the text before pushing “send”.  Every day I send a morning Bible verse to the ladies in my Sunday School class. This morning I selected Isaiah 25:1. Once it went out, I reread it and found that voice activation had substituted “imperfect faithfulness” in place of “in perfect faithfulness”.  That error clearly altered the meaning of the verse!

 

As I reflected on the voice mail interpretation of the verse, I wondered what life would be like if God really was “imperfectly” faithful.  Sometimes He would be faithful and sometimes He would not. Coming to God in prayer would be like taking an experimental medication…maybe it will work and maybe it will not.  It would be like approaching a temperamental boss…is He in a good mood today or in a bad mood? Or it might be like getting into an undependable car… maybe it will start and maybe it will not. Thankfully, none of these things are true about God.

 

Truly, we serve a God who is “perfectly” faithful.  He is also a God who is perfectly wise, perfectly good, perfectly strong, perfectly sovereign. His perfect love for us is unfailing. How could we not trust this God?

 

Lord, those truths are easy to believe when life is going well. Give us the grace to trust You when life is hard.  Thank You that even when everything else in life seems to be changing, You never change. Praise You, Lord, for Your perfect faithfulness.

Searching

                                                                           

 

“You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

 

They’ve got to be here somewhere! It was the first cold day of the winter and I was looking for my driving gloves. I own a pair of  gloves that are warm on the inside and that tightly grip the steering wheel.  They weren’t in the box with the winter scarf or mittens.  I looked inside other boxes on the closet shelf, but the gloves weren’t there. I had a lot to do that day, and I didn’t want to spend any more time looking. My gloves were at least 10 years old. Perhaps it was time to look on Amazon.  Within minutes I placed an order for a pair of driving gloves that would be delivered the next day. Problem solved.

 

How long should you spend looking for something that you can’t find? It depends on several factors. Is the item valuable? Can it be replaced? Is searching for the item worth the time investment? In the case of my ten year old driving gloves, “no” was the answer to all three questions. The decision to stop searching and to order from Amazon was an easy one.

 

Have you ever searched for God?  As Christians, we are forgiven and we have access to the Father because of Christ’s death on the cross. When we first came to Christ we may have enjoyed a vibrant relationship with Him. Perhaps, as time passed, that relationship drifted into lukewarmness. Perhaps your heart’s desire now is to know Him in a deeper, more intimate way. The good news is that God also desires for us to know Him more deeply.

 

Jeremiah 29:13 says “You shall seek me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” The Scripture doesn’t say that we Might find Him.  It says that we Shall find Him. There is a condition, however.  Finding Him involves searching for Him with all of our hearts.  We seek Him in prayer. We seek Him in the Scriptures.  We seek Him as we listen to preaching. We seek Him as we repent of sin. We seek Him as we obey Him and walk with Him.

 

If God seems distant to you, ask yourself if you are searching for Him with all your heart.  If not, why not?  When I stopped looking for my gloves it was because the gloves were not valuable, they could easily be replaced, and they were not worth the time needed to find them. Perhaps the reason that we do not search for God with all of our heart is that we don’t see Him as valuable. Perhaps we think that He can be easily replaced. Or maybe we have things to do and don’t believe that finding Him is worth the time. A closer walk with God can be found but only for those who search for Him wholeheartedly.

 

Lord, create in me a new heart, a heart that desires You above all else. Open my eyes to how precious and irreplaceable and worthwhile You are. May I search for You with all my heart.  And thank You that when I search for You wholeheartedly, I will find You.