°°sorry, I know I have disappeared for awhile. But here's a part of a devotional I have read a few minutes ago that I have decided to share with you guys. God bless!°°

The problem with dreams is they often don’t work out as we envision them. Life happens. Things change. Circumstances occur beyond our control. Dreams don’t work out as we planned. When that happens, we can feel shocked and stunned.

I can’t tell you how often I receive emails from men whose marriages are on thin ice. These guys can hardly put two sentences together because they are in such a state of shock. Maybe that’s you, or a family member, or someone you know. You’ve been there, I know.

We still live with this strange illusion that bad things won’t happen to good people. But they do. All the time. And at times, without warning. The shock sets in because this twist in life wasn’t in the dream. It wasn’t part of the plan. But there is a perspective during those times that is critical for you and me to learn. We must consider the work of God. Here’s another biblical point of view, this time from the prophet Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations.

My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, “My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. — Lamentations 3:17-20

Those are the words of a man who was feeling the full weight of adversity. He had hit rock bottom. Maybe you are there too. If you aren’t, then someday you might be. It’s important you consider the work of God and try to understand His mysterious ways. He oversees your adversity, your affliction, and your wandering.

The writer of Lamentations was Jeremiah, the prophet to Israel during one of her darkest periods of rebellion. They called him the weeping prophet because he was maligned, ignored, marginalized, and rejected, all because he obeyed the Lord. And so at one of the lowest points in his ministry, he wrote Lamentations. And confessed he was as down as he could be.

Until... he considered the work of God. He brought to mind the truths of who God is and how He works. Maybe he read the Scriptures. Perhaps he had memorized something from the Law of Moses. Whatever he did to remind him of the Lord’s character turned him from despair to hope. Lamentations 3:21–26 says,

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul.

“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently

For the salvation of the LORD.

In the middle of adversity, learn to think about the work of God — to consider and reflect on His Word, to acknowledge He is at work. To remember that He has a plan. To trust that He is worth waiting on and pursuing, especially in the wilderness.

When was the last time you fell on your face and called on the Lord, asking Him to give you faith to trust His purpose and plan, to seek His wisdom and gain a perspective on your circumstances that only He could provide? That’s what it means to wait on Him. That’s what it means to consider the work of God. When Jeremiah did that, though in absolute despair, he went from wallowing in sadness to feeling a sense of genuine hope.

In the wilderness of despair, I need fresh truth. When I start thinking correctly, I’m going to get my hope back. Jeremiah reflected on the lovingkindness and mercies of the Lord, and it brought him hope. God knows the pressure you’re under. In fact, in Lamentations 3:37, Jeremiah declared the Lord has actually ordained it for you:

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

Whatever you are facing in the wilderness, it could not be in your life unless God was in charge. You don’t know what God has planned. All you and I see is the storm. But you can remember that God has a plan and He is in complete charge.

--by Steve Farrar, from Manna