Step of Faith

Have you ever felt like you just got thrust into a place you didn’t want to be?  Where you feel that you are in a race that you can’t possibly keep up much less finish what has been placed before you?  In your efforts to try and just get to the finish line of what has been place before you, you find you’ve gotten off track?

It seems that many times over the last few years, as I have grown closer in my relationship with God that I have had many “races” set before me.  Each task He has put before me, I seem to have the same reactions at the beginning.  Lord, I can’t do this on my own!  But He isn’t asking that of me.  He is asking me to do what He has placed before me with faith in Him to get me through it.

One of my favorite Bible verses is:

‎"The Lord your God is with you, 
He is mighty to save.  
He will take great delight in you, 
he will quiet you with his love,
 he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

In whatever circumstance I find myself in, God is with me.  He is Mighty to save!  He is stronger than anything else I can think or dream of to get me through my circumstances.  I will delight Him by being thankful for what He has done for me.  I will be comforted with the love that He shows me every day!  When my faith in Him has gotten me through what I could not do on my own, He will rejoice over me.  How amazing is that?  God who is so much more than you can ever imagine loves us so much that He will rejoice over us with singing! 

So when you find yourself veering off course, when you feel like you can’t go any further on your own… don’t!  Ask God to help you, ask Him to do what you can’t.  He’s already there waiting for you to simply ask Him to help you!  A great example in the Bible of this for me is the story of Peter when he walked on water to get to Jesus.  He stepped out in faith but then doubts started to get to him.  He didn’t keep his focus on Jesus being able to do all things including Peter walking on water.  But when Peter cried out for Jesus to save him, Jesus didn’t hesitate; He was right there ready to step in.  

God's Plan vs. My Plan

Joyce Meyers wrote on Facebook a few weeks ago, “Get God’s plan before making your own”.  This really hit me up along side of the head, I happened to read it shortly after thinking that God must really be getting a laugh out of me making my plans that day, nothing had gone as I had planned.

Lately God has really been speaking to my heart about plans… His vs. mine.  I am a planner; I have a plan for each day to know what’s the most urgent thing to the least that needs to be dealt with.  But do I get God’s plan before I make my own?  How much different is God’s plan for my day?  He’s been reminding me of all the times I have listened to Him and followed what He tells me, as well as, those times that I haven’t.

Looking back on those days when I listened, I see how things just seemed to fall into place.  It wasn’t me trying to force it to be right, it just was.  Then there are those He reminds me of when I didn’t listen.  He reminds me of how things went wrong, how I was full of stress, frustration and anxiety over the situation.  So why do I let my feelings of anxiety or let myself worry about how to get everything done and not listen to what God is telling me? 

It seems I forget that God has a plan for me.  I get too caught up in what I have going on right that minute to pay attention to what God is saying.  What I’ve noticed is this, when I start my day with reading my Bible the sense of peace I get carries me through the day.  I’ve had my quiet time of reading and reflection.  I have a sense of being able to do all that has been put before me because I know that God will never leave me or forsake me.  And that to do list I created doesn't have so much pull over the direction I am heading in that day.  His plan for me is greater than I can even imagine and I am just a small piece of the puzzle.  I can combat that sense of stress, frustration and anxiety with the Bible verses I am memorizing this week and by having faith that if God is for me who can be in victory against me.

“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”  Psalm 146:5

  Faith as defined by Max Lucado “is a conviction that He can and a hope that He will.”  Going forward each day I am putting my faith in God’s planning rather than my own, knowing that His plan has my best interests at heart.

Trust in the Lord with all Your Heart

Is anything impossible for God?  He promised Abraham and Sarah a child.  He didn’t promise them that it would happen soon, but He did promise them that it would happen.  Did they wait upon the Lord’s timing for this child?  Not really, they had a human response to a God promise.  God will never promise something to us and not deliver it.  What we have to remember is that the promises God makes to us are in His timing not in our own.  Abraham and Sarah had to wait 14 years for the promise God had made them of a child to be fulfilled. 

As we read our Bible we see the many references to trust in God.  To be filled with hope, joy and peace as you trust in Him.  But how often do we truly trust in Him as we should?

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud,  to those who turn aside to false gods.  Psalm 40:4

If God has promised that you would have what it is you desire He will not withhold it from you, but you have to wait for His perfect timing.   If you think about the 14 years that Abraham and Sarah had to wait for the child God promised a lot of thing probably happened in that time.  Doubts would have inevitably entered into their thoughts.  Look at how later on when their visitors told them that there would be a baby next year and Sarah laughed.  After 14 years of waiting for the promise who wouldn’t? 

This shows the doubt that was in her heart towards the promise.  That doubt leads us in a downward spiral that takes on a life of its own at times.  The doubt enters into our hearts.  God hasn’t listened to our prayers.    The doubt is the catalyst for the frustration that inevitably follows.  That frustration then leads us to abandon our trust in the Lord completely and take matters into our own hands.  Isn’t that what Abraham and Sarah did by Sarah bringing Hagar to Abraham to have a child with? 

Think about how after that 14 years of waiting for a child, Abraham and Sarah can finally hold the baby in their arms.  Think about the joy and the absolute faith they have now that God has fulfilled His promise.  It gave Abraham enough faith and trust, that when God called on Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him at the alter, he did it with the full belief that God would provide the sacrifice. 

Abraham answered, "God himself will provide  the lamb  for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.   Genesis 22:8

We need to have child like faith that God, our Father, loves us with an everlasting love.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He will never not deliver on a promise He has made to us!  By trusting in God our hope is renewed.  So don’t loose hope in Him, don’t let doubt enter your heart and mind.  Ask God for the strength to wait for His perfect time and remember that if what you are asking for is of His will it will be done!

Obedience with a Joyful Heart

As I am reading in Genesis 2, I get to the part where God tells man that he can’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In the back of my mind I think to myself why was this tree even in the Garden of Eden?  It seems to me that by God saying don’t eat of it we as humans would be more curious and therefore tempted by it.

Since my Bible is a Study Bible I looked to the notes on it as to what question and answers they may have on the topic.  The light bulb so to speak went off in my head.  It wasn’t so much there as something just randomly out of place.  It was a test!  God didn’t want blind obedience or love from us.  He wants us to make the conscious decision to obey Him.  He wants us to make the conscious decision to love Him as a father, as someone who loves us unconditionally.

We find it easiest to love God and be obedient when He doesn’t ask us for something that is outside our comfort zone.  But what about when God asks us for something that is outside of our comfort zone?  Do we let Him stretch us and grow into a more mature relationship with Him in obedience and love?  Or do we turn our back and run the opposite direction thinking that it is too much for us?

God can do all things… and if we have a relationship with God then we know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!  So why are we fearful of the changes?  Why are we so scared to step out in faith?  Especially when it is that faith that will be seen by others and could bring them to God?  Is it because when we take that step of faith we forget to take God on the journey with us and feel that it is all on our shoulders to do what needs to be done?   I often times marvel at how hard I make things for myself.   I didn’t go into it with a joyful heart to do God’s will… but I did it with obedience.  But growing in my relationship with God I have and am still learning that by doing it with a joyful heart that doesn’t murmur, “why me?”  I am being more obedient and showing my faith better than just going through whatever it is that God has set before me.

What I need to remember is that if God is for me who can stand against me and be victorious?  So what do I need to worry about?  Making the right choices of obedience and love!  So how did I start that this year?  I started by reading my Bible at least an hour a day.  Spending time with Him and letting Him speak to me.  Listening to what He wants for me and of me!  It’s as simple and as hard as that.

As I am writing this out I have this lyric running through my head that our worship leader sings … “I walk by faith, each step I take, I put my trust in You!”  I just need to keep singing and praising Him through all the ways that He grows me so that I can show my faith, trust and obedience to Him.  He will never let me go!!