Spanish Blog: Journaling His Faithfulness

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As I recount the ways that the Lord has pursued me, taught me, cared for me, and used me for His purposes over the course of my thirty-four years, one truth is abundantly clear to me.  God is sovereign over my life, He has had a good plan for me from the beginning, and He can be fully trusted.  I think it is important to recall the ways that the Lord has been faithful to us even in the trying times, because as we recall His faithfulness, the Lord gives us more faith to follow Him in the present.

We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done. ~ Psalm 78:4

 

 

 

This is one of the things I love about journaling.  I can always look back at the things that I wrote years ago to see what the Lord was teaching me and recall the ways He worked in my life.  It’s so easy to go about life assuming that I
’m just making my way in the world creating my own reality, but when I write I am intentional about recognizing God’s hand in my circumstances, and I can preach the truth to myself.

 

 

 

I think that the truth of God’s sovereignty is another thing that I have seen your culture demonstrate.  1 Chronicles 29:11-12 tells us that God has sovereign control over all circumstances in the world. 

 

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as Head overall. Wealth and honor come from You; You are the Ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

 

While even Christ-followers in my homeland struggle with this doctrine, clinging desperately to their own individual free will and autonomy over their lives, you instinctively know that there is a spiritual world intricately intertwined with and having bearing on our own.  When things go well for you, you naturally credit it to your gods and spiritual advocates, and you respond in adoration.  When life is difficult, you respond by humbling yourselves and beseeching favor of your deities offering sacrifices and dedicating yourself more fully to acts of reverence.  

 

 

It is no wonder that you still cling to these remnants of truth, for they have been passed down faithfully from generation to generation since Peru’s earliest days.  For centuries your children have seen their parents turn to their gods for help and salvation in times of desperation, even to the point of death, as your oppressors gave testament to after the Spanish conquest.  Indeed, your perseverance in passing on faith in the unseen to the next generation points to the instruction God gave us through Moses in Deuteronomy,

 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

 

 

Oh Cusco, I pray that your true Savior would capture your affection. Would you accept that He not only is sovereign over your life and circumstances, but He loves you, gave His life for you, and longs for you to find rest and delight in Him.  You can fully trust Him and be done with fear.  As Paul prayed for His own countrymen, I beseech the Father of all on your behalf, that your zeal might be born of truth and your devotion a response of gratitude rather than a struggle for merit:

 

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.  (Romans 10:1-4)

 

 

Your perfect righteousness has already been purchased.  Accept this beautiful gift and let your Heavenly Father overwhelm you with His goodness.  In truth, the good news is way better than we could have ever imagined!  There’s nothing to be earned.  Just grace.  I commend to you this passage, Cusco.  Let Christ be your righteousness, your protector, and the sole object of your affection.  In love, and hope, and much prayer I beg of you:

 

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.  Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)