There is something so sneaky about God that intrigues me. He always finds a way to teach us things without us always realizing it. By that I mean that wilderness experiences teach us about faith in Him, love, dependence, and many other things, but when do we realize this? For me it is usually after the season is over. I normally have an, “AH HAH!” moment where I understand what God was doing all along. Sometimes I think that God does things without us always knowing because we would end up fighting Him. If you tried to put a frog into boiling water he would probably try to jump out, but if you put him in cold water and let itboil he wouldn’t realize it till he was dead. That is exactly what God often does.

Ok, so He doesn’t boil us, but He does kill us. He boils the junk in our life to get rid of it. When He is done working on us all we have left is that which is pure. I’m glad God is sneaky sometimes because I don’t trust myself not to fight Him while He tries to change me. The great thing about His sneakiness is that it displays His gentleness. He is so kind and gentle to us while He is changing us. He softens our heart with the oil of gladness, so we can embrace the change instead of rejecting it. That is a good God! I love how compassionate He is to us in our time of suffering. Our suffering is usually because we are fighting Him when He just wants us to obey.

Toast: “Here’s to a sneaky God!”

Father, I ask that you teach us how to embrace you in times of trials and in times of loneliness. You have displayed your love to me more than I can ever experience. Please teach me how to embrace that love when I feel alone and guide me into obedience, so that I may draw near to you. Make me willing to be willing. Take my heart and teach me your ways. Allow me to desire you so strongly that I only see what your doing in my life. I want to know your ways and understand how I can work with you and not against you. Thank you for always being faithful even when I am not.

Your son,

Dustin

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