We live in a time where we are hard pressed on ALL sides. I have been thinking a lot about the Israelites during the time they were under such oppression and slavery under the rule of pharaoh. When we read our Bible it is easy to forget that everything happened over a period of time, change did not happen overnight. Imagine what it must have been like for them, God’s chosen ones to have to wake up every morning under the rule of a slave master and get through their day. No doubt it was going through their minds:
“Where is our God? Does He hear us? Does He see us? Does He care???”
They were beaten and worked and hard pressed – these chosen people of God. Yet STILL they held fast to their faith. Still they kept their faith and continued to wait for the Messiah. Still they waited…
In my eyes things have not changed much… Centuries later, we are hard pressed on EVERY side. We are waiting for our Jesus to return. We live in a society that does not acknowledge Him as King and Savior. Many of us struggle and are weighed down by the burdens of this life. The days sometimes feel so dark and we wonder if the God that we have read in our Bible still hears our cries. Still cares…. And we wonder if He does, WHY does He care? We are a “stiff necked people,” we have denied Him from so many aspects of our lives. We have insulted Him, ridiculed Him, mocked Him – WHY would He care for us???
But He does…He loves us still.
Personally, I don’t understand why… We don’t deserve His love. We don’t deserve His blessing, we continuously willfully go against His Word (when we find the time to read it). Often we forget that the Bible is a true record of history – not a book like Grimms Fairy Tales. We don’t pay attention to the direction or learn from the past experiences. We continue on sinning in the same manner that “they did in the days of old.” Yet STILL God allows His grace and His mercy to pour down on us – a thankless, heartless, selfish people. (And oh yes, I include myself in that number)… And we are unappreciative of ALL the blessings He pours down upon us, including the fact that He wakes us up each morning for a brand new day to try again. We are NOT promised tomorrow – yet we act like He owes it to us. He owes us NOTHING. We owe Him EVERYTHING. We blame Him for all the mishaps in our lives – when most of the problems we have we have created for ourselves, yet we point our finger at Him.
He warned Adam and Eve in the Garden. He told them what the consequence would be. Yet still they chose to disobey. We can’t point our fingers at Adam and Eve because we do the same exact thing. Yet still God loved us enough to come down from Heaven, manifest Himself in the form of Man by being born of the virgin, Mary. He chose to die He chose to send His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins – and even having given that sacrifice we either choose to reject that gift or to not realize the full sacrifice that was made by Jesus on our behalf.
Yet still God loves us…Still His grace pours down upon us.
For those of us who have made Him our Lord and Savior, it hasn’t meant that life has become easier – it has meant that we have meaning for our lives. If we study His Word and learn His promises, we take comfort in the fact that we are not alone. That He is with us. In reading and studying His Word the Holy Spirit helps us during the difficult times bring to remembrance the promises and words of encouragement that Jesus has given us through the New Testament.
Yet still there are times when we wonder if our God – who says in His Word, specifically Hebrews 13:8:
“He is the same Yesterday, today and Tomorrow.”
If He still hears us. There are times when the worries and cares and the darkness of this world makes us question if God has given up on us. If He still cares. Ol’ Slewfoot whispers in our ears, “He doesn’t care about you anymore. He’s given up on humanity, He’s given up on you… He doesn’t hear your prayers. He’s disgusted by you and all that is going on in the world. YOUR God is dead.”
And there are times when we feel so defeated, we start to believe that God HAS given up on us. We start to feel so hard pressed and discouraged by what we are going through or seeing occur around us – that we start to wonder if God cares anymore. We forget that we are told in the Bible not to be led by our feelings or our circumstances. We are as in 2 Corinthians 5:7:
“Walk by faith not by sight.”
Proverbs 3:5 tells us:
“Trust in the Lord with ALL our hearts, lean not to our own understanding. In ALL our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our path.”
But you see, if we are hard pressed on all sides, if we are beset by problems, if we don’t take the time to hide God’s Word in our hearts and believe it to be true. If we don’t hold fast to what the Word of God tells us – than we can’t walk by faith. We won’t be encouraged. We WILL believe the lies of the devil.
Yet still Our God reaches out to us and shows us, by meeting us where we are at – that He IS here. That He IS (as in Psalm 46:1):
“Ever present help in times of trouble.”
There are times when we are going through such a dark moment that we lose focus off of Him, as Peter did as told in the book of Matthew, Chapter 14. And we start to sink in our circumstances and we start to doubt, lose faith. Then when we think we just can’t go on any longer, or that God doesn’t care or that we are sinking and there is NO hope. He does something that shows that it is ONLY Him. He rescues us. He reaches His hand down to us and pulls us out of our situation and we realize once again, that God IS REAL. That He is very much in control, that nothing catches Him by surprise. That He is BIGGER than any of our circumstances. That He cares and He sees us and He loves us and He works ALL things according to His purpose. He IS God.
Maybe He allows us to go through those dark uncertain times to see if we will still trust Him. Maybe He wants to see if we recognize that we cannot get through this thing called “life” without Him. We were not created to be without God. There is something deep inside each one of us that cries out to Him, “We NEED you!!!” The only thing is that the enemy has blinded the eyes of people and it is only when those scales are removed that we realize that there is NOTHING that can take the place of God in our lives. Many try to fill that need with other sources (sex, drugs, alcohol, worldly possessions, etc.) but it is something deep within our souls that can only be filled by God and it is only when that need is recognized for what it is – the need FOR God that we can experience that which is mentioned in Philippians 4:7:
“Peace that passes ALL understanding.”
We were created with a need for God, but because we have such a loving Father, He chose to give us free will – to choose Him or to not. The choice has always been ours. He IS real. He is HERE. He loves YOU. He cares. There is NO greater joy than knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and its not something anyone can fully describe unless you experience His personal love for yourself.
It doesn’t mean that life will be easier – it means that He will BE there.
It doesn’t mean that you won’t have any worries or cares – it means He will walk you through them.
I am not living this life for what God gives me (although I continuously pray for blessings and bring to His attention through prayer the desires of my heart because I have learned that He wants me to share my desires and thoughts with Him). We are in a “personal” relationship, which means He wants me to communicate with Him, even though the Bible tells me in Psalm 139:2:
“He knows my thoughts before I even think them.”
But when you are in a relationship with someone they want you to share what is on your mind. I really think God likes it when we converse with Him (and that is what prayer IS a conversation with God).
I am in a relationship with Him NOT for what He does for me, but for what He did for me (as in John 4:9-10):
“God showed His love for us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
He REALLY is real…. We just have to believe and trust Him. No matter what life throws our way… Because when this life is over. We WILL see that the Bible WAS true and for those of us who chose to believe it – we will spend an eternity with a God who has loves us since the beginning of time.
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