by David Brenneman
"I trust in Vour word" (Psalm 119:42)
The strength of our faith is in direct proportion to our level of belief that God will do exactly what He has promised. Faith has nothing to do with feelings, impressions, outward appearances, nor the probability or improbability of an event. If we try to couple these things with faith, we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith is not dependent on them. Faith rests on the pure Word of God alone. And when we take Him at His Word, our hearts are at peace.
God delights in causing us to exercise our faith. He does so to
bless us individually, to bless the church at large, and as a witness
to unbelievers. Yet we tend to retreat from the exercising of our
faith instead of welcoming it. When trials come, our response should be, "My heavenly Father has placed this cup of trials into my hands so I may later have something pleasant.".
-exerpt from Streams in the Desert, April 15th.
One sure highlight from the last 11 months has been looking for and actively seeing Jesus keeping His promises to always take care of us and to always be with us.
We had lessons to learn through the apparent to ourselves and all difficulties. Learning how we can do better at our finances. Learning where to find help with food. Learning to pray expectantly about our financial needs to pay the mortgage and bills. Never once were we behind in paying anything.
We learned to get done some things with what we had and to see Jesus provide free things to accomplish much.
I was able to help quite a few people with completing odd jobs for them. Was able to keep my commitments in my Bible reading and Bible studies. This was the more important part.
Looking in faith for what we prayed that God would do according to His Word was and is everything.
It caused us to be strengthened and stretched in our faith. It caused others the same as well. Have been told of from some of that very thing.
Many of Dr. Stanley's Life Principles, we saw happening in our lives. Life Principles that he came up with are straight from the Word of God.
We saw even more deeply the hands of God in our lives.
My Dear Reader, we aren't going to go through a bumpless life. We aren't going to have a life without trials and tribulations. Jesus said plainly that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God.
But yet still why? In the lives of my Wife and I, this here this now we have grown enough in Christ to be able to recognize and draw strength from the Lord Jesus. Had this happened years ago we likely wouldn't have come out of it the same.
There's a divine plan to our lives to grow and be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That is the workmanship that Jesus is doing through the Spirit of God in each and every single Believer.
It isn't always going to be our understanding what we're going through. We read of one of Paul's shipwreck adventures. We read it but do we ever really know why the ship had to be destroyed or why they went through all of it? Some points yes but not all.
Our lives are going to be filled with various things to cause us to grow in Christ Jesus. If you're not going through various things you might want to have a serious conversation with Jesus about it.
We're to live our lives in Christ in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. There ought to be something that they see.
It's ok to be concerned but take that to the Lord in prayer. We have this hope in all who believe that God is a promise keeper. We have the right to cry out to God for help. We who are saved are the adopted children of God with that right given to us by God.
We have this promise that when we seek the Lord He will be found by us. That when we pray in earnest He will hear our pleas.
There've been several people who thought that I was turning down jobs during those 10 months. Truth is I only turned down 1. The pay was below anything we could live on even temporarily. The rest of the time it was mostly crickets. Silence. As I told many...I can't go through a door of opportunity unless God gives me the key. When He says it's time He will give me that key. Which He did do.
We aren't really good at waiting. For several generations people have been trained to get n go. To rush through and don't stop to consider. To be honesty impatient about getting ahead.
Jesus taught His disciples the exact opposite. Take time to be alone with Jesus. Take time to be still before Jesus. Take time to see things from His perspective. To be who He is making you to be. To make use of the gifts given to us by His Spirit. To stand firm in the Lord. To run the race set before us with all diligence in the Lord.
To trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
Breathe. Pray. Repeat.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment