“IF!”

 James 1:5-8                    (ESV)

“[5] “IF” any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask GOD, WHO gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. [6] But let him ask IN FAITH, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the LORD; [8] he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Growing up in a so called “broken family” is a label that can unknowingly be used to describe a condition that can be possibly misidentified, even by well meaning people!  Having spent Monday through Friday last week alone at a mountain place with very poor communication with “this world” might have driven me to madness even a few years ago.  But connecting to and LISTENING TO GOD is a cure for ailments that humanity tends to be almost oblivious to for the ANSWER because we haven’t been exposed to LISTENING TO GOD much in our lives!

GOD “used” a seventeen day coma in 2007 to slow me down to get my headings corrected.  Now seventeen years later I am STILL learning the benefits (physical and SPIRITUAL health benefits combined!) from BEING STILL brings to this humble servant!  GOD CHANGED me in numerous ways since July 09, 2007.  Formerly I was a very “in charge” type of person.  Now I understand that GOD is the ONE WHO is “in charge” of everything and we are simply here to honor and Glorify HIM!  My body temperature is considerably lower.   Even my disposition is CONSIDERABLY more laidback!  I was DIFFERENT, but in ways that revealed themselves in ways that weren’t obvious to anyone.  

As CREATED beings, we don’t have the capabilities to KNOW EVERYTHING!  WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL!!  GOD uses ALL KINDS of methods to achieve HIS PLAN, so that we will GLORIFY HIS NAME!  I had a plan for my life on July 08, 2007 when I went to bed.  On July 09, 2007 at 5:30AM I awoke and fell in the floor because my brain had began leaking and my body was not functioning properly!  

“IF” things would have gone as I had planned, I would have operated my plan for underprivileged children to go to trade school or college.  BUT GOD had a PLAN that far exceeded anything that I could have ever dreamed or imagined!  I could not SEE that HIS PLAN for a “massive brain hemorrhage” and an almost two year hiatus from work was directly in front of me!  But I wouldn’t change the journey HE has brought me through for anything!!  

“IF” I could possibly SEE what HE has in store for me to fulfill for HIS GLORY, it wouldn’t take FAITH for me to follow!  But Scripture states what I can ULTIMATELY expect WHEN I get to HEAVEN, not “IF”!!!