Friday, 19 January 2018

Don’t Leave For The Pain; God Is Turning It Around

I had a very special guest today; one of those I actually love to sit with and just chat. These are some of the people who visit, deliberately, to spend time with you and are genuinely interested in sharing your highs and lows as well as share theirs. I am so glad that this visit was all about a new high that God has given her. I suspect she thinks I was sleeping, because I was drowsy, but I was wide awake and her story was another testimonial of God’s goodness. I don’t know what more God needs to do to make us very assured that He is good and always working to bring us to a good place. We must begin to credit God with all the credit that He deserves, which satan would hate because the more credit one gives Him, the more one trusts Him and moves closer to Him in love. Trust is a must for love, if the bible is correct as we all know it is, then loving God and trusting Him must go hand in hand. A relationship not built on trust is already faulty and would end up in the wrong place.
 
Psalm 103: 5a “He fills my life with good things.”

Psalm 37: 5 “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.”

So you must know now that I love her story. She has been born again, loving and trusting God; believing Him for great things; yet everything that ought to go wrong went wrong. In her own self, she was dealing with personal weaknesses that threatened to destroy her and then she had challenges with her spouse and marriage. As if that was not enough, her family had issues which even included the death of a sibling. It was indeed a difficult time and she doesn’t know this but I sometimes wondered how she coped with life and still found the energy to laugh because I know for certain that laughter in such times, is very costly. No one, but her alone, knows what it cost for her to laugh. Also, from the little one has learnt about God, He won’t give you information as to how He will turn everything around so you are somewhat in the dark. You just go on knowing that “He has your back” which is really like walking blindly. An unplanned walk you embark on, seemingly without a destination and your path remains unlit. Every step is a challenge and/or struggle; yet, bad as it felt when you took the last step, you still have to take another and several others that you may go forward. No one goes forward remaining in the same position.

Ecclesiastes 9: 1 & 4 “Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad…Good people receive the same promise as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t… There is only hope for the living.”

If you have not gotten there, you will one day: as life goes on. My question is this – what will you do when you get there i.e. when the challenges come? Some of us are right there now and my question is – what are you doing? Whether or not you act, you have done something. Our response to challenges that life throws is a major pointer to where we are at with God. I hate to say this but everyone will get there one day, believer or not; when you do, will you “curse God and die” as Job’s wife counselled him to do or will you stand? I have lived long enough to see a number of believers go through contrary circumstances and each one responded according to “the amount of God in them.” Some “go through” when they are young and others when they are much older but how are you “going through”? The way you come through kind of determines where you end up. Some, though they came through, have become bitter and wicked because of these experiences, while some others have become very cynical about this faith we share. From what we know, I don’t think the attitude with which we come through will change God or even cause Him to reconsider His methods and anyway, He already provided strength or grace to help us come and to do so successfully.

Job 2: 9 “… Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

Romans 15: 13 “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I have seen a number of people lose their salvation for circumstances like this and as a result lost the opportunity of enjoying benefits God had laid out for them in their future which sadly, they may never touch. They lost their joy which also activates strength and everyone needs the strength to stand whilst trusting that He is working things out as He is indeed. Today, my friend testified; God has completed the work. The end of it was so quick and much more than she wished for that she is still reeling from the depth of the love that God showed in working everything the way He did. The beginning was so slow and the middle too tough; no one would have thought it would end the way He ended it. It is like a dream to her and so shall your own story end – just like a dream. It happened to the children of Israel too, they thought they were dreaming when God turned their captivity around. However, you have to hold on. You have come too far to truncate everything. It is too late to turn your back Him. Please be encouraged, God is working it but you must trust and invest in your relationship with Him.

Hebrews 10: 35 – 37 “So do not throw away tis confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it bring you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay and my righteous ones will live by faith.”

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