Words from a Branch

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34 ESV             Humans wisdom has its limitations. Even where wisdom might succeed it is frustrated by other aspects of human finitude. That is to say there must and shall come times when we say of necessity, “I do not know what else I might do.” Our unnatural nature of sin, which demands self-reliance as a point of pride, despises such admissions. It is easy to give ourselves over to endless anxiety, and fretting over situations trying to find some way of controlling the outcomes. It is easy to spend today trying to guess what tomorrow will bring in order to be ready for it.             Where wisdom fails faith takes over to give us peace and rest. In faith there is room for love and patience and gentleness which have no home in the...

Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul… Job 3:20             Job is in bad shape, far worse I imagine than any of us have ever been. Job lost it all, and he had a lot to lose. Even His health is gone. His friends have been struck dumb by his plight for seven days and seven nights. In the next few verses Job continues to lament by finding death far preferable to life. He wants to die; he wants to die very badly.               I pray you never have, and never will find yourselves in such a place where you must ask why life continues for you, and why death will not approach. I have been in such a place. It is very difficult to hear the answer in that place. There is an answer though. God is not finished with you yet.             God never tells Job the precise reasons he went th...

“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” Job 13:15 NASB                 Job has lost everything, his livelihood, his finances, his children, his wife, and even his health things are so far gone that when his friends first see him, they can do nothing but weep for days with him. In the midst of this Job is able to speak one of the greatest phrases of faith in the whole bible, “Though He slay me still I will hope in Him.” Even if god delights to crush His servant, that servant will continue to trust in God. Unfortunately, Job continues as we so often do to demand his rights, and particularly his right to an explanation.                 We need to know, or so we think when God sends us into a difficult situation, or asks us to do something hard. We like Job think we have a case to make wit...