I had a really great day. Today I saw God answer a prayer that I have been praying for the past two days. And it never cease to amaze me that we serve a God who is merciful enough to have time for us. And not only have time for us, but care enough to answer? Please excuse me, but this never, I mean never ceases to amaze me. A God who always has time for me, even though I always act as if I can’t fit Him in my schedule, as if I can go on without His support, help, and providence of breath? How do you live with yourself when you find out that you spend most of your time chasing things that will not matter eternally?
How big is your faith?
What would you do if someone walked up to you and straight up asked, how big is your faith?
Would you evaluate your faith in times of failure or success in times of trials or triumphs?
What is exile? A time to experience Jesus’ sweet embrace.
What is exile? A time to be amazingly held by the Creator of the Universe.
What is exile? A time when our Lord Jesus couldn’t be more nearer.
Maybe only in trials and temptations do you learn what you really believe in? In hard times, do you only see how big your problems are, or how big your God is? Do you despair considering how weak you are compared to whatever you are facing or do you keep calm and rely on the strength of your Savior?
How big is your faith?
David and Jonah. How did these two men deal with the exile/trials they found themselves in?
“Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call against it, for the evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3
Jonah’s story is so frightening to me because I see myself in it.
God says to do something and we flee from His presence with a purpose to escape His will and plan. One thing is for sure though, Jonah put himself into his exile, he created the situation he found himself in. Jonah 1:17 says “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah…”
Whenever you say no to His will, you are doing more harm to yourself than to Him. Because the truth is, He doesn’t need my help or yours no matter how important we may think we are in His purpose. God wants your obedience but doesn’t need it. Because without my obedience or yours He is still God, right? Your obedience is for your own good, your. own. good not anyone else’s. yours.
“Then Samuel said, do you think all God wants are sacrifices- empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to Him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production. Not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors”. 1 Samuel 15:22-23
Start obeying His voice and see how God shows up for you in ways you never dreamed possible!
How big is your faith?
Because what everything boils down to is this: every moment of the day you are given the choice to trust God and follow His lead or trust yourself and follow your reasoning. When you follow His lead, the more faith you will have in Him; the more you trust yourself and ignore His word, the farther away you get from Him.
I don’t know about you, but I’m old enough to know that I have tried to do things my way and every time I do that, things get worse than they were before; but whenever I commit things to God, I become free and even though things may not turn the way I wanted them to, at least I get to have His peace. Our faith grows every time we put our complete trust in Him regardless of any present circumstances.
David’s love for God and trust in Him grew more deeply when he found himself in desperate situations.
Here is how Psalm 63 starts:
My Soul Thirsts for You
A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirst for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory. 3 Because of Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. 4 So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands. (Psalms 63:1-4)
What we can learn from David is he didn’t let trials or his time in the wilderness go to waste, he used that time to draw near to God. Without a doubt you can see David’s love for God in Psalm 63 because as we all know , it’s easy to shout from the top of our lungs when all our prayers are being answered and we are on top of our mountains- when you receive the letter of admission in the school you been praying for, or get the job that you have always dreamed of, than when we are hard pressed with trials on every side.
But faith becomes real when you have problems from back to back and you dare stand tall in tears and proclaim to God “despite what I am going through Lord, my lips will praise You, because Your steadfast love is better than life”. Dare to say, “yes, Lord, I am not where I would like to be right now and it hurts so much but I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands”.
How big is your faith?
R.T Kendall writes: “ Those who undergo persecution are often given a very unusual sense of God and His presence. I recall hearing Jenny Eaton, the wife of my close friend Dr. Michael Eaton, lamenting that she had to be in London on one occasion when there was a great upheaval and surge of persecution back in Kenya where she lived. She literally wanted to be back there at that time.
“Why” I asked. “Aren’t you glad to be away from all that”? She explained that when things are horrible and unbearable in Kenya, there is simultaneously an outpouring of the Spirit. Amazing things happen-great answers to prayer, hearings, miracles. “People see angels,” she added. She felt deprived that it was her lot to be in London at the precise time there was trouble back home in Kenya”.
I am not going to lie, these words left me floored. What if we lived like this beautiful woman, not dreading difficult times but embracing them as a way to get more of Him?
Dear God, in Jesus’ name, I pray that we must not run away from trials or that we never run away from Your call no matter how difficult it may seem, I pray that we see the time in exile or in the wilderness, as a time to draw more closer to You. I pray that we see these times as an opportunity to go deeper in our intimacy with You. Lord, I pray that we may take whatever comes our way as an opportunity to more faith, more love for You, and more of being like You Father. Thank You, thank You always, Father God for taking us back always no matter how far we always fall. I am eternally thankful God!