Minute Musings...Misplaced

Have you ever misplaced something?  I do this all the time, I take something and put it
where I'm sure it will be safe until I need it, and then I can't remember where I've placed
it!  It is sometimes months before I find this object again.  Have you ever felt misplaced?
Have you ever felt like someone has come along and picked you up from the familiar and comfortable, and then put you down in a place that you know nothing about?  Then on top
of all that abandoned you?

Perhaps your husband or wife has passed away and you've had to make a move to
another place.  You've given up your home, have no friends, for your old friends are
hundreds of miles away now, and you feel that you have no real purpose left in life. 
Its really hard to start over in another place.  You smile and pretend that this new
chapter in your life is wonderful and filled with adventure as everyone is telling you
it is, but inside you're curling up and crying with loneliness.  What do you do?

Maybe your children have forsaken you.  Those little ones that you gave countless hours
of love and care for, have now turned their backs on you, viewing you as a burden in your
twilight years.  The pain of rejection stings to your very core.  Where do you belong when
your own flesh and blood have deserted you? Your whole life has revolved around your
children, now they don't want you around.

There are many things that can leave us with a feeling of being misplaced, forsaken, for-
gotten.  I want to encourage you today to look to the One who knows just where you are,
and has not forgotten you.  Psalms 142:3  "When my spirit was overwhelmed within
me, then Thou knewest my path."  I have learned this past year that life can take many
unexpected twists and turns.  It can leave you feeling disoriented, unsure and panicked at
times.  But...God knows our path!  This is one verse that I have clung to...I'm unsure of
my way, but my God has it all planned out.

We are never misplaced when we are in God's hand.  Psalms 139:1 - 6  "O LORD,
Thou hast searched me, and known me.  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine
uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.  Thou compassest my path and
are acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo,
O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.  Thou hast beset me behind and before, and
laid thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;  it is high, I
cannot attain unto it." 

God knows just where you are, for He has directed your path.  We like to be able to
see ahead and understand why things are happening.  But the life of faith is just the
opposite.  We say, "Show me and I'll trust You,"  but God says, "Trust Me and I'll
show you."  Am I a person of faith?  Are you a person of faith?  Trusting the unknown
into the hands of God is putting faith into action in our lives.  Is it easy?  No, it's
not, but it is the only way to make peace with where God has placed us, and to gain
spiritual victory in our lives.

Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the
LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

You are not misplaced, God knows exactly where He has placed you...in the path of
blessing, victory and peace.  Go to Him with your feelings of abandonment, He
understands,for He was forsaken by all as well.  Take His hand, (for He is the "Friend
that sticketh closer than a brother." Psalms 18:24") and walk into your future secure
in the knowledge that you are not misplaced and that you do not walk alone.