Homestead Rescue

"Because you love me, I will rescue you. I will protect you because you know my name. When you call to me, I will answer you. I will be with you when you are in trouble. I will save you and honor you. I will satisfy you with a long life. I will show you how I will save you." Psalm 91:14-16

Last night I watched a show with Bruce that he had told me about last week. It is called Homestead Rescue which is about the Rainey family who accepts another family’s plea to come and help them save their homestead. Each request comes with very different circumstances that the Raineys must consider when they take the job. They use the resources that the family already possesses coupled with their wisdom and experience to change their living conditions. There was such a stark difference between the husband and wife who were in distress. The husband was humble, attentive, and open to every suggestion the Raineys made. The wife was a dreamer, but not a dreamer of reality...a dreamer of unrealistic demands. Through patient prodding from the Rainey daughter, the wife eventually bought into the ideas but made it clear it was not her dream although their homestead became functional and livable. The husband willingly and thankfully engaged in every suggestion they made and was humbled to tears in the end. It struck me that the husband and wife wanted the same thing, but the attitudes of their heart were as different as night and day. As I sat there watching this from my chair, I was left feeling disappointed in the woman and sympathetic towards the man.

I wonder if that is how God sees us as He quietly nudges us through His spirit trying to work solutions into our lives? Does He reveal small things that we are not doing that could make big differences? Does He suggest through His word subtle changes in our behavior that could lead to righteous living? Are we pleading for a rescue but are as stubborn in what it should look like just as the woman in the show?

I don't have to look far in my life to identify times when God has brought His version of fulfilling a desire of mine. It might have satisfied the request but certainly not the way I had envisioned it. He knows us to the core and fully understands our hearts. He understands the things we need to experience and the growth that must be made in bringing solutions into our circumstances. Last night reminded me that James was right in the Bible when he wrote ‘every good and perfect gift is from above’ James 1:17. Even the ones that dissatisfy us. We must have a heart like the man in the show last night...a heart of acceptance...a heart of humility...a heart of trust. I want God to see me with the same sympathetic heart through which I saw that man last night. I want God to teach me things that I do not presently know. I want Him to show me things I can do better to bring about His pleasure and glory.

I know it’s a tall order but as our passage above promises, He is an infinite Supplier!