Refined - Finding Joy in the Midst of the FireSample

The Word of the Lord takes you out of the small place of your own selfish choosing and miraculously sets you in a larger place of God’s appointment. The Word of the Lord exchanges your human perspective for God’s divine and eternal perspective. God is insistent upon taking His children out of their place of pain and blame and placing us in situations where we are able to look up at what God is able to do! God’s perspective will never agree with your blame game. We have heard Abram talking about self, about disappointments, and about casting blame, but God was saying, “Hey, Abe! Let’s count the stars together!” When we insist on playing Let’s Make a Deal with God or the blame game with others, God always says, “I have a better idea than that! Let’s Count the Stars Together!” What God has planned for your life is so magnificent and awe-inspiring that in your human abilities you will never be able to comprehend it. God said to Abram, “Count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Why, of course Abram was unable to count the stars of the universe, but God could! You are unable to fathom all that God has planned for your life, but God is able to dream infinitely bigger dreams than anything you could ever come up with on your own. Not only must we listen to the God who is able to count the stars, but we must trust the God who counts the stars. Trusting God includes having absolute trust and faith in His chosen timetable. If God promised something, it will come to pass in His time. The Word of the Lord will always lead you away from a place of pain and blame, and then lead you toward a place of trust and belief in the God of Creation. Abram had an “aha” moment when he listened to what God had been trying to tell him all along. The Word of God will challenge your doubts and will boldly lead you into agreement with God’s opinion. Perhaps this is what the time of waiting has been all about in the life of Abram. Perhaps God was intent on capturing Abram’s heart and aligning it with God’s own heart. While we wait, we must not lean in to our own understanding, but trust the God who delights in counting the stars!