Faithful to Meet Me

I had a rough morning. The afternoon wasn't much better, until Elijah finally fell asleep and I was able to get a shower and some time with the Lord. But just now (as my son naps with his daddy and I get a few moments of computer time) I am feeling incredibly blessed. God has met me today--in Psalm 86, much of which felt like I could have penned it myself--in encouraging words from a dear "friend" I don't even know in real life, but whom God in His kindness used to touch my heart (you know who you are...thank you)--and in this blog post over at girltalk:

"Like an astute coach or a gifted teacher, God prepares his saints for the tasks to which he has appointed them before he uses them. Moses, for example, spent forty years in the desert, herding sheep, before God called him to lead his people out of Egypt. What better preparation in patience could there have been for his assignment of leading an equally stubborn flock of people through wilderness for forty years? Similarly, David learned courage from his own experience as a shepherd. Later the one who had learned how to take on wild animals in the defense of his flock would be called upon to take on the biggest wild animal of all, mighty Goliath, in the defense of God's flock. God knows how to prepare his people for the tasks to which they are assigned" (from Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality by Iain M. Duiguid).

...my present difficulty is “preparation for a task.” It isn’t simply something to get through. It is a training tool—to conform me to the image of Christ and make me more useful for him.

That "astute coach" is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love...and faithful to meet me right where I am. And so I praise Him tonight. Truly He "gently leads those that have young" (Isaiah 40:11).