These past few years, I’ve watched a close friend of mine grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18 NET). She’s been through some very hard life situations not of her own making nor of her own choosing. In fact, she’d have eagerly and earnestly chosen most anything else but these circumstances.
Yet, in, from, and through these circumstances, she and her faith have steadily, slowly, and solidly matured. Her answers are now more meaningful and measured. She responds instead of reacts. She listens and leans in instead of standing on the sidelines in amazement or anger.
In other words, she’s seen and grown from the many sides of hard. She knows the value of this moment without drowning in what might happen next or what has already come. She’s learned how to rest and remain in God’s love instead of reacting and reaching for something else. Even if that something else seems to be a good choice.
And there in classroom of waiting and watching for God to lead is where my friend has mentored me in the true value of holding onto vision. That is, I’m learning from her the need for holding onto a vision for everyday life that is a heavenly view of life.
That deep down otherworld knowing that: God is Sovereign and I’m not.
He will work for good what I cannot.
He will bring to pass what He’s promised even if I can’t.
And today is temporary but heaven is not.
A heavenly view of life demands dependence on God’s provision. It seeks satisfaction only in the middle of God’s way, will, and working. It requires reliance on the strong truths of God’s love and that God is love (see 1 John 4:8 NET).
Knowing that God is good and God is love is one thing. Living in that truth is altogether something else. And if you’re anything like me, you want to live a life that is always advancing in faith, especially when today’s to-do list is full of fighting tooth and nail against fear, anxiety, and worry.
Corrie Ten Boom said it best with “Worry doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” She learned this truth, and many others from Scripture, from her parents while growing up. Yet this truth was seared onto her soul from living through the Holocaust in a German war camp.
Corrie lost everything, except her faith, to the Nazis. She gained everything, including her faith, from trusting God to be loving and good. Circumstances screamed for her to forsake her faith. Christ whispered to her to cling to Him in faith. She chose to trust Him there in the unimaginably hard, just like my friend is doing in her circumstances now.
And I am trying to do the same with Corrie and my friend’s examples set before me. I’m trying to live with vision every day by choosing:
To live with boldness and beauty in a new normal.
To abide with courage and conviction in challenges out-of-my-control.
To thrive with satisfaction and surety with prayer and petition for this day.
And to do the same later today and again tomorrow.
God knew all about Corrie’s trials with faith and worry. God knows all about my friends’ tests in faith and anxiety. God knows all about my temptations with lack of faith and fear. There’s nothing that God doesn’t know. Likewise, there’s nothing that God cannot do to provide and protect from any and all conditions, circumstances, or concerns.
No one is beyond the what, when, whom, or how of God’s power.
Everyone’s salvation is the why set firmly in God’s plans and promises which are all held in His lasting, lavish, and long-reaching love for us. This why of our salvation required Jesus giving Himself in love at Calvary for each and every one of us. In turn, this why of everyone’s salvation is Him providing us opportunity to give His love everyday to an entire world lost without His love.
With all that in mind, would you please stop now and pray for someone you know who needs God’s love in his or her life today? And would you pray for yourself that God would help you to trust Him in and with whatever hard you might face today?
God does have a plan for good and a future for you and for me for now and for forever (see Jeremiah 29:11). Let’s choose to live in His vision for today and tomorrow with His victory already won for us before time began (see Revelation 13:8).
Written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2025.
I’d be honored if you’d join us with your email for future posts here on the blog – thank you! Here’s the link you can use to sign up:
Soul Scientist 
Leave a comment