Job 5:8-9, 16a

"But if it were I, I would appeal to God, I would lay my cause before him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted....So the poor have hope..." Job 5:8-9, 16a

Facebook is an amazing thing.  It brings together people who you never met to bring to you just the hope you need for today.  For God knows you intimately and He seeks to touch you.  He can use people you have never met, he can use diseases you have never heard of, and he can use situations you never dreamed of to change you, mold you, and let you know that indeed, you are His.

Today, I was having a "down day"...no time for applications, business searching, being a "responsible adult."  I began working on the book for Our Journey so that I can begin to speak.  I want to enter into churches, women's groups, men's groups....I want to tell them that Love is not a word, it's an action.  I want them to see that if they are blessed, they need to bless others, if they are in pain, that pain can be blessing to others.  Their lives are meant to reflect Christ.  I want them to see hope.  For that is God.  He is hope.

While I was taking a break, I happened upon Facebook.  There, I saw a lovely post by a woman who was having a terrible day.  She was questioning, where is God?  Does God know my kids have needs I can't meet right now?  Does God know that I'm afraid sometimes?  Does He care?   And her friend pointed out the verse above.  

Now I don't know this wonderful lady.  She is the friend of a friend.  But there, on the obnoxious little tattle-tale bar on the side, came this post.  You never know, if you are open to Him, where or how God will show up!  I don't believe in coincidence.  I think that things happen for a reason, and that God is a master weaver, who can weave into our lives threads from the lives of others.

Just yesterday, a great friend of mine and I were chatting about forgiveness.  We were talking about needing to forgive someone who is not yet done hurting you.  How do you do that?  Does the Lord say only forgive those who deserve it, or whose acts are in the past?  Or are you required, if you are truly Christian, to forgive one who is causing you every day the deepest pain you can imagine?  Perhaps they are gossiping about you.  Perhaps they are looking down on your children and belittling them.  Perhaps they are intimates who are destroying trust.  

That subject turned to Corey Ten Boom, of the Hiding Place.  Corey, for those of you who don't know her, hid Jews in World War II, and she was a Christian.  She paid a terrible price, and she later had one of her tormentors  come to a speaking engagement.  She didn't want to, but she HAD to forgive.  She had to reconcile.  She had to love that person, because Christ had loved her.  I remember hearing that story, and I sobbed like a baby for her.  I thought "How can a person do that?"  

I told my friend that he should read the book and see the movie.  He had never heard of it!  A few moments later he said "Betty, guess what?  I have the book.  It was a gift from someone a while back!  I am going to have to read that!"

There are no coincidences... God wanted that book to be in his hands.  God wanted Job 5 to be posted here.  God knows what He is doing and how He is guiding.  If we humble ourselves, He provides.  He always provides.