It is July 1st and of course July 4th, Independence Day, is just a few days away. I\u2019m proud to be an American where at least I know I\u2019m free. The only time I have ever considered using the words \u201cstar spangled skies\u201d was as I proudly sung our country\u2019s national anthem, \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner\u201d. We were at the 1986 Calgary Winter Olympics and I remember the pride, the joy and the goosebumps I had as our country\u2019s flag bearing those 50 stars was raised and, today, every time we stand in allegiance to our flag \u2013 even if it\u2019s at a little league baseball game, I still get those goosies!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The words \u201cstar spangled\u201d resonate with me and I use them to describe God\u2019s brilliant showcase of stars in the night sky. Best place to see it is at a beach with only looking toward the sky and not the bright lights of a city. I read my blog from a year ago where I was with my family at Port Aransas, TX. I was mesmerized with the brilliant night sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God gets the credit for those stars that shine regardless of whether we can see them or not. Remember God telling Abraham to \u201cLook up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.\u201d (Genesis 5:15) Did you know that it was in the daytime that God said those words to Abraham? Now, let\u2019s imagine that God is speaking those words to us. It\u2019s a bright sunny day and He tells us to look up at the sky and count the stars. But the only star we can see is the sun. We might have seen them the night before, so we know they exist. It\u2019s the bright daylight that makes it hard to see them, but that doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abraham trusted that although he couldn\u2019t see the stars, he still knew they were there behind the sky\u2019s blue curtain. He believed even though his wife was old and barren and so was he, yet, he believed God\u2019s promise that he would one day have children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our circumstances, we may have a hard time believing that God will provide for us. Sure, scripture tells us that God has plans for us, for our \u201cgood and not for harm, to give us a future with hope\u201d (Jeremiah 29:11). We are told to \u201ctrust in the Lord with all our hearts; and lean not to our own understanding\u201d (Proverbs 3:5). But we still hesitate to put our hands completely in God\u2019s. Sure, we claim to trust God, but we still think \u201cif it\u2019s to be, it\u2019s up to me.\u201d It\u2019s our human nature to want to be in the driver\u2019s seat and not find ourselves having to really, fully rely on God, and have to surrender all our plans to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when we set aside the \u201cit\u2019s up to me\u201d mindset and realize that the God Who made the sun, the planets and those stars promised to one man in the Israeli desert that He would not leave Him childless, is the one and the same God Who made this glorious star-spangled sky for us. He made you and me and He never tires of calling out to us, of sending signs, of going to great lengths to assure us that He is faithful to His covenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know many of my readers are looking up and counting those stars in the sky \u2013 maybe not in reality but in your deep faith. It might feel like your circumstances are overpowering you like broad daylight hiding the stars. Instead of questioning God\u2019s timing or doubting in His faithfulness, let\u2019s just become the seeds of Abraham and start counting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is July 1st and of course July 4th, Independence Day, is just a few days away. I\u2019m proud to be an American where at least I know I\u2019m free. The only time I have ever considered using the words \u201cstar spangled skies\u201d was as I proudly sung our country\u2019s national anthem, \u201cThe Star Spangled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21043,13825,21042,21039,12718,1],"tags":[5656,1210,4134,16428,2517,21036,39,2348,40,271,2349,4458,7374,8715,2018,1153,21033,16423,903,31],"class_list":["post-14518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abraham","category-covenant","category-national-anthem","category-star-spangled-banner","category-stars","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham","tag-blog","tag-catholic","tag-count-the-stars","tag-faithful","tag-genesis-515","tag-hope","tag-independence-day","tag-inspiration","tag-jeremiah-2911","tag-july-4th","tag-national-anthem","tag-pledge-allegiance","tag-proud-to-be-an-american","tag-proverbs-35","tag-skies","tag-star-spangled-banner","tag-stars","tag-trust-god","tag-trust-in-the-lord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14520,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14518\/revisions\/14520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}