Refreshing My Mind

How can someone read a whole book about divorce, cancer, death, singleness, and life-altering injury and come out at the end of the last chapter encouraged?!  That would seem ludicrous to some, unless you know the Author – the One Who wrote such scenarios.

The true Author is God – not the couple who penned the stories.  This month as I read, You Can Trust God To Write Your Story, by Robert and Nancy Wolgemuth, I read the interviews of many people that included hard things such as the topics I mentioned in the first paragraph.  They were heartbreaking to read because you can see the stripping away, the raw emotion of their trials, but ultimately, we were taken to see the beauty that was brought about in each story.  God, the Author was behind the scenes, directing, loving, helping, teaching, and providing.  As you’ve probably heard others say, each story was HisStory.  So profound, that only God could have done it!
Some of my take-away’s were:

• God is always at work writing our story and His desire is that our script would bring Him glory.
• God always works in ways that are different than anything we would plan, but His plan is best.

Because His love cannot fail, He will allow into our lives the pain and heartache that is for our ultimate good. ~Jerry Bridges

• God is always working for our good as He orchestrates what He is writing into our life.
• Sometimes we will have to wait for God to do what we are praying for and sometimes God says “no” to what we’re asking for because He knows there is something else we need.

God is a wise Father who sometimes refuses what you want
to give you what you need. ~H.B. Charles Jr.

One image that struck me was the difference between “Putty People” (soft and pliable) and “Pebble People” (hard and indifferent).
Putty people say to God, “You are the Potter and I am the clay.  Mold me and change me, and if necessary, break me and remake me….into the person you created me to be.
Pebble people remain the same no matter what happens to and around them. They tend to be resistant to what God wants to do in their lives.  

To be honest, as I was reading the book that describes so many hard trials, I came to a place where I began to think – “I wonder what horrible thing is going to happen to me!” But as I continued on, I was reminded of the word Trust in the title.  I can trust God to write my story, and as the author concluded by saying,

I can trust God to “right” my story.

He will make everything right in His time, in His way for my good and His glory.  This is a wonderful book full of testimonies of how God has done that over and over again!

The second book I read this month is one I have read over and over again ~ Loving God with All Your Mind by Elizabeth George.

Ladies, I cannot tell you emphatically enough that if you have not read this at least once, you need to put this on your list.  As the title suggests, it will help your mind, which is the place all our trouble begins!  The reason I’ve read it over and over is because it’s so crucial to proper mental spiritual health!  Why?  Because it addresses:

• Guilt over the past
• Worry over the future
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fear
• Regrets
• Dealing with trials
• How to live productively each day
• Planning your life goals

In a nutshell, this book helps you think right and then gives you the practical steps to flesh it out.  This was a great book to read on the heels of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story because, as I said, that book made me start a bit of worry over what could come in the days ahead.  Elizabeth reminds us that as we think on Philippians 4:8 thoughts – only things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely…worry about the future is not truth because it isn’t here yet!  Here’s one quote I love:

As I went about my daily life, I was to let Matthew 6:34 (Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for. the morrow shall take thought for the things of. itself.) set boundaries for my thoughts. God was telling me not to speculate on my future. He wasn’t asking me to handle my entire life all at once. He was wisely telling me to limit my thoughts to today, to what was real now.

I would encourage you to buy a copy of it, get a highlighter and as you read, mark it up!  Keep that book and reread it again next year, or if necessary in six months.  You will not be the same if you apply the truths in this book to your daily life!

Have you read either of these books?  What was your take-away?  If you haven’t read them, you will be strengthened and refreshed by their truths!

Refresh yourself with godly books,