Note: How we missed hosting missions teams last year! It is with great excitement that we embark on receiving our first visitors from the U.S. since 2019, at this writing. For the next two weeks, I will be joyfully hostessing these visiting missionaries, including a lot of work translating their ministry endeavors into Spanish. I won’t have much wiggle room in the schedule for writing new devos, so I will be pulling up more Old Treasures for you for the interim, with the exceptions of Fridays, when my usual audio devos/podcasts will continue. Here’s the first one 🙂 :
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You can “let down” into these words from God’s heart to yours. Listen to them with your spirit. Imbibe them deeply.
And then I have a few thoughts on this matter:
Here where I live in Peru, insurance is not much of a thing. No one I know here has insurance on their house. No one has life insurance. No one has car insurance (actually, I hardly know anyone that even owns a car). In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of anyone in my circles here with any significant kind of insurance at all.
If it hadn’t been for my experience of living outside of the United States, I would never have put much thought into the obvious contrast. Clearly, however, having insurance is a core value in the American culture, in a way that stands out as distinctive. We often feel like, through insurance plans and 401(k)’s, we can create a reasonable amount of security for our old age. Sometimes we even believe we can fashion our future with our own hands.
This is a false illusion. Here is what my brother James has to say about putting too much stock into our own plans for the future: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:13-14, ESV).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for insurance, retirement plans, and wise preparation for the days ahead. I’m just saying, let’s not stake our life on them. Let’s not allow our sense of security to rest in our human planning skills. James pretty bluntly calls that out as “boasting in arrogance” (v. 16).
Instead, let’s lean into what Holy Spirit is speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah. Do you hear His strong, gentle voice? Listen: “Even when you are old… I will take care of you.”
The same God who created us is promising to sustain and carry us every moment of our lives until He takes us home!
Now that’s a promise you can bank on.
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What are your thoughts on the correct fusion of, on the one hand, careful, responsible planning; and on the other, deep, trustful abandon to Daddy God’s immaculate care of our lives?
Feeding On Jesus 
Such a reassuring promise! Have fun hostessing, translating and fellowship ping with your guests!
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Thank you so much, Mama Lava! It’s been a special blessing so far 🙂 💖
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My bride and I are looking forward to opening our home again to missionaries on furlough who pass through Lexington, Ky. We have been so blessed by visitors from India, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong, Brazil, Guatemala, Korea, Mongolia, among others (even California 😎)! Our favorite “regulars’ are friends from our home church who have been ministering in Turkey for almost 20 years. It is such a privilege to bless those whose “feet … bring good news.”
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How wonderful! I know that means SO much to each of them that have stayed with you 🙂 . My dad is from Lexington, so I have some childhood memories of visiting my grandparents there 🙂
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If you’re ever in the area, give me a head’s up and we’ll at least catch some coffee, if not house you and your family! 😊 We are in Lexington, KENTUCKY, btw, not one of the others in Mass, Tenn, or any of the OTHER 23!
26 cities named Lexington in the USA: https://geotargit.com/called.php?qcity=Lexington
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Wow, I had no idea there were other cities by the same name, fascinating! And I am definitely tucking that away, thank you so very much for the offer, C.A.!
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Oh, I think trusting God will surely be the right thing to do, you are right , people can’t stake their lives on stuff like Insurance. I actually just wanted to add the reminder that we shall live by Faith, though now I’m not exactly sure of what that meant.
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Yes! Living by faith and not by sight is such a perfect verse for this discussion, thank you Emily! This is exactly the way He calls us to live our whole lives 🙂
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I think there’s nothing wrong with planning for the future, and making responsible decisions toward some end result. That is, as long as we keep those important four words in mind– Thy will be done. We can plan for the future all we want, but God may have other plans in mind which would delay our ideas, or end them altogether. But that’s okay; He knows best!
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Yes! That brings to mind my early adulthood. I got a bachelors in Linguistics because I thought I would be a Bible translator. But He had other plans for me, and His were absolutely wonderful!
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I struggle with this all the time. But today I’m kind of feeling like my plans are always “Plan B” – what I’m going to do just in case God doesn’t have other plans that take precedence. “Plan A” is always, “God’s Will be done, whatever it may be.” The hard part for me is not to get so focused on “Plan B” that I forget to ask God, “Is there something else I should be doing today according to YOUR plan?”
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I like how you explained that 🙂 I am so grateful that there is so much grace in Him to be on a learning journey in this, and in every area! 🙂 🌹
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I think when we trust God it means not planning everything to the nth degree. My mother very much likes an itinerary when we children visit, whereas the three of us like to leave things open so we can spend time enjoying being with mum and dad without the sometimes looming though of *needing* to do something.
I don’t know how I am going to publish my books yet, but I know I would like to. So, I organise times when I am free to figure out the people I would like to talk to help me, then book in time to see those people. The plan is pretty loose, because right now with full-time work and other commitments outside of writing, I need to manage my limited time. It’s a slow process, but I’m coming to trust that God will nudge me if I’m not moving quick enough or start moving in the wrong direction.
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Amen, Hamish. I also believe that He will do that for you! I like the example about your mom too. Thank you for sharing!
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