The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "GOD DOES NOT PANIC" for Tuesday, 24 May 2016 with Scripture Philippians 1:3-11

The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "GOD DOES NOT PANIC" for Tuesday, 24 May 2016 with Scripture Philippians 1:3 I thank my God every time I think of you. 4 Whenever I pray for all of you I always pray with joy, 5 because you have shared in proclaiming the Good News from the very first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this: that the One who began a good work among you will keep it growing until it is completed on the Day of the Messiah Yeshua. 7 It is right for me to think this way about you all, because I have you on my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and establishing the Good News, you are all sharing with me in this privileged work. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the deep affection of the Messiah Yeshua.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may more and more overflow in fullness of knowledge and depth of discernment, 10 so that you will be able to determine what is best and thus be pure and without blame for the Day of the Messiah, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Yeshua the Messiah — to the glory and praise of God.
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He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.[Philippians 1:6 (NIV)]
My cousin Brooke had been in perfect health all of her 35 years until one day when she unexpectedly stopped breathing. After stabilizing her, the doctors sent her home without a diagnosis. Then, while I was visiting her the symptoms returned. I tried not to show my anxiety and fear as I sat with Brooke and weighed whether it was time to call another ambulance.
Suddenly, two little words popped into my head: unresting, unhasting. I recognized them from the second stanza of the hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”: “Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might.”* These words reminded me that God does not panic. God neither ceases nor hurries but is always present and working in our lives. I had to make a quick decision, but in that moment I was able to remain calm, trusting that God was present with us.
Eventually, Brooke received diagnosis and treatment for a rare esophageal condition. But those two words, “unresting, unhasting,” have stuck with me. Of course, we aren’t guaranteed any particular outcome, but we can be confident that even during uncertain times God is continually working for our good.
Read more from the author, here."More from Sarah Sanderson"
In the two years since I wrote “God Does Not Panic,” I can’t remember any other moments quite as intensely anxiety-inducing as the one I described in my devotional, but, of course, there have been as many times to continue trusting God’s faithful sovereignty as there are minutes in a day.
These two years have been full. We moved our family of four small children from one state to another so that my husband could begin work as the new pastor of a small church. Selling a house proved to be more difficult than I could have imagined; finding a rental house in our new market was equally challenging. Five months later, we bought a house closer to church, necessitating another move and another new school for the kids. I’ve told some of these stories on my blog, confessionsofahumanmom.blogspot.com.
Our church is amply generous with us, but we are still adjusting to the higher cost of living in our new city, and the moves have been hard on our savings account. This month, I took some money out of savings to pay for a refrigerator repair. A few other unforeseen things popped up, as they often do, and by the end of the month, I found myself playing the game of “feed the children without going back to the grocery store.” I didn’t want to tap our meager savings account again for a little thing like groceries.
So I rummaged through the back of the pantry and found a can of pumpkin left over from last fall. Pumpkin pancakes, our favorite October breakfast, became dinner in April. Delicious. Then eggs, then rice and beans. It’s kind of a fun game to play, really, when you see it as a game.
But the milk was running low and we were completely out of fruit. Maybe these are “first world problems;" I know there are people all over the world who would be glad to have milk and fruit every once in a while, much less as staple foods. But I was growing a bit concerned that I might lose the game.
Then, the check arrived in the mail. Thirty dollars from The Upper Room, a payment for the devotional I had submitted two years before. Just enough to buy milk. Fruit. A block of cheese. Our daily bread.
God does not panic in the moment or fail to plan for the long haul. God promises to provide, in our “emergency room moments,” and in the more mundane times when we’re just trying to make it to the end of the month.
I have to plan, too, of course, and maybe learn to be wiser with our money than I am now. But God is always, always faithful. Praise God for that.[Sarah Sanderson]
The Author: Sarah Sanderson (Oregon, USA)
Thought for the Day: God is present and at work, steadily and unceasingly.
Prayer: Dear God, help us to relax in the knowledge that you neither rest nor hurry as you work in our lives. Amen. *Words by Walter Chalmers Smith, 1867.
Prayer focus: EMERGENCY ROOM PERSONNEL

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