Subtracting and Adding

Know therefore that the LORD your GOD, He is GOD, the faithful God, Who keeps His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands.

-Deuteronomy 7:9

Give to the wind your fear
Hope and be undismayed
God hears your sighs and counts your tears
God will lift up, God will lift up, lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
Lift up your head
Leave to His sovereign sway
To choose and to command
Then shall we wandering on His way
Know how wise and how strong
How wise and how strong
How strong is His hand
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
Lift up your head
Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears the way
Wait because in His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
God will lift up your head
(Soon end in joy)
God will lift up your head
(Soon end in joy)
-"god will lift up your head", by jars of clay

Sometimes it seems as if God is only ever taking away, never blessing. Those times are when you are overwhelmed by sorrow, and cannot see His hand. But He is there, He does see your tears, and He will come through. He always takes away before He gives. There must be a need before He can fill it.

Sunday He took a friend Home.
I went to that man's funeral today. And grieved. Grieved for the man's wife, his children, his grandchildren. Grieved for all the hundreds of people who had lost a dear friend. That included me.
God will lift up your head.
Yes.
I know.
I know.
But I still grieve.
It seems as if this year has been one of extreme emotion, swinging from joy to sorrow to joy and back to sorrow again.
God has been subtracting.
I am ready for Him to add.
Maybe He already is.

In the meantime, I will trust.
He has hitherto been faithful, and I know that He will continue to be so.
Even though my eyes are blinded by tears and I can hardly see my way, I will trust Him.

For such is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will guide us until death.

-Psalm 48:14
yet even death cannot part us from Him or His love (Romans 8:38-39).

So I trust.