“Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.“
Isn’t it amazing that God doesn’t just tell us to rejoice? He actually commands creation to rejoice as well. God tells the heavens to shout, the earth to rejoice, and the mountains to sing in happiness. Why? Because they see the wonderful truth of God’s presence with us. God made the earth and everything in it, but He doesn’t have a special relationship with the birds of the air or the rocks by the road. He has a special relationship with us. We are the pinnacle of creation. God made us in His own image. And He didn’t just create us and walk away, leaving us to fend for ourselves or figure things out on our own. He stays close by us as a parent would. He is with us, no matter where we go or what we go through.
The truth of God’s presence with us in every situation is grounds for the entire creation to rejoice, and it’s grounds for us to rejoice as well. Just knowing that we’re not alone during the hard times of life is reason enough for joy. But God isn’t just standing by, casually observing us. No! He’s comforting us. He is covering us. He is protecting us. He is guiding us. He is weeping when we weep and rejoicing when we rejoice. He has compassion on the afflicted. No, our God isn’t an impersonal, uncaring, unfeeling god. He’s is a compassionate parent who goes through life right by our side. That’s reason to rejoice!
Father, I thank you that in your Word you promise you will never leave me nor forsake me. There is nowhere that I can go where I would be hidden from you. There is nothing I will ever go through that you will not walk beside me. You protect me. You guide me. You love me. You experience all of life with me. I never have to go through anything alone. You are always with me. I can seek your presence and find you no matter where I am or what I’m going through. Thank you, Father, that you are a compassionate, personal God who walks with me every step of the way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.“
Ever had one of those days where absolutely nothing is going right? You know the kind of day I’m talking about. The weather is bad. The outlook is bad. You wake up late. Everything is going wrong. Or maybe you have a season in your life where it just feels like your dreams are lost. You can’t seem to get out of the rut you’re in. If you find yourself in that place of discouragement and defeat, you know exactly what it feels like to have a crushed spirit. A crushed spirit, one of discouragement, discontent, and defeat, sucks the life right out of you. You feel shriveled up. You feel old. You feel worn out. You feel worthless.
But God never intended for us to feel this way. He didn’t want us to have a crushed spirit. Instead, God created us to have His spirit continually within us. He wants us to have a refreshed spirit. How do we get there? We start by changing our perspective. In this proverb, God contrasts that feeling of a crushed spirit–that feeling of having the life sucked right out of you–with a cheerful heart. The medicine for that crushed spirit? It’s a cheerful heart.
What does it mean to have a cheerful heart? It means to find joy in our every day life and situations. No matter how bleak our day is. No matter how bleak the future appears. No matter how awful our current circumstances might be, we can find a reason to be cheerful. We can find the silver lining in every cloud that comes our way. On a rainy day, we can focus on that fact that we had nowhere to go and could stay inside warm and dry. In the midst of a trial, we can focus on what God is growing within us. Every day has a moment of joy, even if it’s incredibly brief.
Choose to put your focus on the good things. Choose to find one thing every day that you can be thankful for. Choose to look for the positive in every situation. If you do, you will cultivate a cheerful heart, and no matter what life throws at you, you will be encouraged and refreshed instead of dried out and done.
Father, I thank you that no matter what we’re going through you are there with us. On the darkest day, you are there, and because you are there, there is something we can find to be thankful for. I thank you that you give us brief moments of joy in the midst of unspeakable pain. When I find myself in dire circumstances, when life looks dark and hopeless, help me to find that moment of joy. Help me to cultivate a cheerful heart so that my spirit can be refreshed and full of life no matter what is happening around me. I thank you that I don’t have to live with a crushed spirit, feeling dried out and worthless. I can turn to you for joy and refreshing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“A person finds joy in giving an apt reply—and how good is a timely word!“
Good conversations can be a source of joy. When you get to talk to an old friend, or when you connect with a new friend, you get to share meaningful conversation. With an old friend, you get to spend time catching up or discussing deep issues. With a new friend, you might be finding things you have in common. It can be refreshing to learn how many things you share that you both enjoy. No matter who you’re speaking with, there’s nothing like good advice or an encouraging word just when you need it!
God invites us to have these kinds of conversations with Him as well. When we have a conversation with God, we’re guaranteed to receive words that are life-changing! God’s Word brings freedom. It brings healing. It brings victory. It brings joy.
It’s not a great feeling to be misunderstood or to have someone ignore what you’re saying and give an offhand reply, but the reply of someone who is truly listening to you–someone who gets you–brings a feeling of happiness and joy at being heard and understood. If you can’t find this with a friend, find it with God.
Father, I thank you that you created each of us for relationship. You invite us to have conversations with you whenever we need someone to talk to. Just as it feels good to talk to an old friend who really gets us or to receive a word of encouragement from someone when we’re feeling down, a conversation with you exceeds all our expectations. Your Word brings life and healing and freedom and victory. Even when you need to share hard truths with us, you do it for our good. Thank you, Father, that you’re more than willing to speak to us whenever we need to hear from you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy.“
We don’t often think about the plans we make for our life. Some of us are long term planners. Some of us are short term planners. Some of us are way more spontaneous and don’t seem to plan anything at all. If our plans are of our own making without God in them, we can be sure that those plans will come to evil. There is deceit in our hearts if we think we can ignore God and get a way with it. Those who don’t believe in God are deceived into believing either that there is no God or that God will accept them if they are a good enough person. They don’t seek repentance or redemption because their hearts have been deceived into thinking it’s not necessary.
On the other hand, there are Christians who also fail to consider God in their planning. They, too, have been deceived into thinking that God only cares about the big things and doesn’t care about the little details of their lives, but God cares about all the details. He has good plans for us. It’s always going to go better for us when we consult God and when we know His plans and ideas before we make our own.
When we seek God to help us make the plans for our life, we promote God’s Kingdom. We promote His ideals and His goals. As a result we promote peace, because God is a God a of order and peace. It’s one of the fruits of the Spirit! And peace brings us a deep inner joy that can’t be shaken. I want my life to be full of joy, and I want my life to be full of peace. If those are the goals that I want for myself, then I need to be sure I am not deceived into thinking I can get them on my own. I need to consult God before every plan I make to make sure I am on His path and in agreement with His plans for me.
Father, I thank you that you have good plans for me. You word says that you have plans to prosper me and to give me a future and a hope. When I take my plans to you and come into agreement with your plans for me, I will always be on the right path. Father, I know that your path leads to peace and joy. That’s what I want for my life. Help me to remember to go to you with every detail of my life and not to fall into the deception that you don’t care about details or that I can somehow get there on my own. Apart from you, I know that I can’t do a single thing on my own behalf. I thank you that I don’t have to. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
When you think about laws, you may think about civil laws. You may think about traffic laws or criminal laws. You may not think so much about natural laws or scientific laws. The truth is that laws exist all around us. They govern the universe. They govern society. Laws are things that hold true every time. They don’t suddenly change. Unless a civil law is repealed, that’s it. It hold true every single time in that particular situation regardless of other factors. Laws are meant to be neutral. They aren’t personal. After all, justice is supposed to be blind.
When you think about the universe, you may think about how it’s governed by laws like gravity, motion, and thermodynamics. The universe is a place of order. It’s a place of method. It’s something we can observe and study and understand to some extent. This shouldn’t surprise us. After all, God is a law giver. He is a God of justice and mercy. He makes Himself known. He shows us how to observe and study Him, and on some level He communicates with us in ways that we can understand, even if we will never fully understand Him. It makes sense, then, that in addition to physical laws that govern the physical world, there would be spiritual laws that govern the spirit realm. God is unchanging. If He’s a lawgiver in the physical, He’s a lawgiver in the spiritual.
When we drop something, we know that gravity is going to pull it toward the center of the earth. Every time we drop something, that’s what’s going to happen because gravity is a natural law. Well, the spiritual law we’re going to look at today is the law of faith. Just like gravity behaves the same way every time in every circumstance, faith is also predictable. When the law of faith is at work, the outcome is known just like with gravity. Romans 3:27 (NKJV) introduces us to the law of faith. It says: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Faith is a law. Faith works all the time. Every time. It’s not personal. God doesn’t answer one person’s prayers because He likes them more than the next person. No, He answers the prayer because of the law of faith.
PRINCIPLE #1: FAITH OPERATES IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD’S WILL.
We all have faith in various things. When you wait at a bus stop, you have faith that the bus will come to that stop. You have faith that it will arrive on time according to the schedule. So faith isn’t some foreign concept that is limited to spiritual things. Faith is in operation all the time, even in people who claim not to have religious faith. But when we’re talking about prayers and answers to prayers, we know that God is not going to give us something just because we say the right words and pray the right prayer. God answers prayers of faith. According to James 5:15: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.” Why will the prayer of faith make a sick person well and forgive sins? Because these things are in accordance with God’s will.
Faith begins where the will of God is known. How do we know what God’s will is? Well, Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature and God’s character. If you want to know what God’s will is in a certain area of your life, look at Jesus. He does exactly what He sees the Father do. Hebrews 1:3a says: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” So what we see Jesus do, how we see Jesus respond is the will of God.
Jesus has the authority of God. It’s an authority that He has given to us as believers. We have the authority to use His name in order to put our faith into action in accordance with God’s will. John 14:13-14 says: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” When we ask for things in Jesus name, it is understood that we are asking for things in accordance with His will.
PRINCIPLE #2: FAITH COMES BY HEARING
Romans 10:17 says: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” We have to know about Christ. We have to understand His nature and His character. We have to understand exactly what He purchased on our behalf. 2 Peter 1:3 says: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” God has already provided everything we could need for life (physical life) and godliness (spiritual life). It comes through our knowledge. God wants to move on your behalf more than you want Him to move on your behalf. He has already done everything necessary, but we have a part to play. God has moved. Now it is our move. God has provided (grace), and we need to respond (faith).
This is best illustrated by the story of the woman with the issue of blood. In Mark 5:25-34 we read of this woman. She has struggled for a number of years with an incurable condition. She went to doctors. She sought out treatments, and nothing worked. But then….she hears about Jesus. Verse 27 tells us that it’s when she hears about Jesus that she decides to go up to him and touch his cloak. She thinks if she can just touch his cloak, she will be healed. We know the story. She touches him and is healed, and Jesus tells her it is because of her faith. That faith came when she heard about Jesus and about the wonderful things He had done.
PRINCIPLE #3: WE SPEAK WHAT WE BELIEVE.
In Mark 11, Jesus is talking to His disciples about faith. He tells them: “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to pray about their mountain. He doesn’t tell them to tell God about their problem. He tells them to speak to the mountain. Why? Because we carry power in the words that we speak. We speak what we believe. If we are constantly speaking negative things, we can hardly expect to have positive results. We have to line our words up with our faith!
Hebrews 11:3 (TPT) says: “Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated by the power of God’s words! He spoke and the invisible realm gave birth to all that is seen.” God’s creative power is in His words, and we are created in His image! This is best illustrated in the story of the centurion. We find his story in Matthew 8:5-13. The centurion approaches Jesus because his servant is ill. Jesus offers to travel to his home to heal the servant, but the centurion refuses. He tells Jesus that he is unworthy to have Jesus in his home. Instead, he asks that Jesus merely say the word to heal his servant. Jesus commends the centurion faith. It was his faith that prompted him to speak.
Belief and unbelief can operate at the same time. God can not work in an atmosphere of unbelief. It isn’t because He isn’t capable. It’s because the law of faith does not permit it. We receive from God only when we believe it. In Mark 6:5 and Matthew 13:58 we read about a time when Jesus was in Nazareth. The Bible says that He could not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. The law of faith meant that Jesus could not overcome their unbelief. We also see this in the story of the man with the epileptic child. In Mark 9:14-29 we find Jesus returning to find his disciples with a father and his epileptic son. The father brought the son to Jesus’ disciples to be healed, but the disciples couldn’t heal him. The father ask Jesus if he can do anything to help. Jesus tells him that all things are possible if he can believe, and the father makes this reply: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
There are times when each of us operate in belief and unbelief at the same time. It’s up to us to tip the scales in favor of belief so that the law of faith is fully operating in our life. When we approach God according to the law of faith, we know we will receive whatever we stand in need of. For additional resources on tipping the scales in the balance of faith, check out Andrew Wommack Ministries. He has some incredible teachings on receiving by faith.
“The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.“
Do you want a bright future? Well, the only way to get a bright future is to stay in the will of God. This verse in proverbs tells us that the future plans of the righteous bring joy. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. When we are following Jesus and obeying God’s will for our lives, we can be assured that our plans will bring joy into our hearts. Joy isn’t temporary. It isn’t based on our circumstances. It’s a fruit of the Spirit of God that grows up on the inside of us. This isn’t saying that the righteous will never have any problems or that the righteous will never experience any heartache or any difficulty in life. That’s just not realistic! What it’s saying is that even in the midst of difficult circumstances, trials, and tribulations, we can experience joy in our hearts, knowing that we are in Christ and that we are God’s children.
On the other hand, if we live our lives selfishly. If we serve ourselves instead of God and always insist on having things our own way, we can’t expect to find real and lasting joy. The hopes of the wicked come to nothing because they have no assurance before God. They don’t have the Holy Spirit within them, offering them good fruit. They don’t have God on their side. The wicked go through good times and bad times just like the righteous do, but they are controlled by their circumstance because they have no eternal assurance an no confidence before God. They have no promises from God to stand on.
When we live life God’s way, we are guaranteed His blessings and His favor, and we can trust in His promises to us from His Word. As long as we receive by faith and stand firm in our identity in Christ, the favor of God is ours for the asking.
Father, I thank you that you sent Jesus to die on my behalf and to pay the penalty for my sin. In Jesus, I am righteous. You have given me your Holy Spirit to lead and to guide me so that I can walk through life in your Will and on the path that you have chosen for me. I know when I follow in your footsteps I am guaranteed your blessings and your favor. Thank you for that grace. Thank you also that I can walk through any difficulties I may face with your joy inside my heart. It’s a gift from you and a fruit of your Spirit. Thank you for the many gifts you shower on me out of your great love for me. You bless me even when I don’t deserve it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
When we pray, we often tend to focus on the big things. We have no problem turning to God in prayer for things that seem too big for us to handle. When we have a diagnosis that changes our lives, when our marriage is on the rocks, when our children are straying, when we just lost our job, we find it easier to go to God and ask for help. What about the little things? Sometimes we forget that God cares just as much about the little things as He does about the big things. We fall for the enemy’s lies that our cares are too small to bother God with. After all, God has more important matters to see to, right? Wrong! God loves us. He loves YOU. You are His favorite child. There is nothing that touches your life that God does not care about–no matter how small it may sound to someone else.
That’s really the heart of the matter. What is small to us may not be small to someone else. Think about those of us who live in the United States. Even those of us who may be living in poverty in the US are living at a higher level and have much more wealth than people living in third world countries. What is small to us is huge to them. What is small to a millionaire may be life or death for us. It’s all a matter of perspective. There is nothing bigger than God. That means that ultimately every single thing we could encounter–every possible need–is small to God. Every one. Even the big ones! If it’s all small to God, why would He single out anything as being too small?
Matthew 6:25-33 echoes this idea. Jesus is talking to His disciples about worry and about everyday needs. He tells them not to worry about what they eat or what they drink or what they wear. The reason is that God provides those things for the birds and for the field, and we are much more important to God than the birds or the grass. When you love someone, everything that affects them affects you. There is no one God loves more than you. The things that affect you–big or small–affect God. He is more than willing to provide for you, even the everyday things like food and clothing. Luke 12:6-7 says something similar: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Even the very hairs of our head…something seemingly insignificant (unless you’re bald)…matters to God!
We know God wants to provide for our needs like food and clothing, but sometimes we think God doesn’t care about other things. What about dishcloths? Cars? Air conditioning? Those are small things in the sense that they are luxury items. God might be willing to provide for our needs, but what about our wants? God cares about those too. Joyce Meyer tells a story about when she had first left work to prepare for ministry. Money was very tight, and she was in need of dish cloths. She often jokes that her husband is an expert at “casting his cares” (1 Peter 5:7), so she took this need to God. It wasn’t long after that that a woman arrived on her doorstep with some dish cloths and said that she felt God had told her that Joyce needed them. God cares about our wants too! When we are told to cast our cares on the Lord, we are told to cast all our cares on the Lord because He cares for us.
David also acknowledged that God cares about the smallest details of our life. In Psalm 139: 2 he says: “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceivemy thoughts from afar.” With billions of people in the world, God knows when you get up and when you sit down, when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. He even knows your thoughts. He keeps track of all the details of your life. In Psalm 56:8 NLT, David writes: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” Not a single tear you cry for any reason is lost to God. He keeps track of all of it!
We see God’s attention to detail in Jesus’ life. On the night of his trial before crucifixion, Peter cut the ear off one of the guard who came to arrest Jesus. Luke 22:50-51 records the event. This was the last night of his life. This would have been a time of serious anxiety for most of us. We would have been worried about the upcoming trial and the upcoming suffering, but Jesus didn’t miss out on the small need of healing in the member of the guard. In the midst of his own trial, Jesus cared about the suffering of others.
In my own life, I’ve heard testimony after testimony of God doing big things. Cancer has been healed! Infertility has been healed! Miraculous blessings of just the right amount of money at just the right time! Marriages restored! (I’m personally clinging to those testimonies right now as I wait for my own testimony in this area.) These are all big things, but I also like the testimony of small things. One of our associate pastors’ wife shared how when she was younger her mother struggled to provide as a single mom. On one occasion, they ran out of gas. Her mom did not have money for gas in the car. She laid hands on the car and prayed in faith that God would provide the gas. Then she got in the car and turned the key. The car started and got them where they needed to go!
After hearing this testimony, I woke up one morning to frozen pipes and no water. I didn’t have the money to hire a plumber to come out and thaw my pipes. I placed my hand on the faucet and said, “God, I know you care about the small things. I don’t have the time or the money to handle this, but frozen pipes are no big deal to you. Please take care of this for me so that I have water.” I walked away and went about my day. The next time I lifted the faucet, the water ran with no issue at all. Most recently, I came home from my new job to hear the window A/C in my bedroom making a loud crunching noise. I was afraid. I don’t have the money for a new one or for repair. My husband is not speaking to me. I hadn’t received my first paycheck from the new job I had to get. My husband handled this kind of thing, and he was my sole source of income before he left. What was I going to do?! I turned the unit off for the night and decided to deal with it in the morning. The next morning when I turned it on, it was doing the same thing. I placed my hand on the unit and said a similar prayer to the one I had said for the water. I told God that I didn’t have the money or the energy to worry about this, and I reminded Him that He had promised to provide for me. With no husband, He was going to have to step in and fix the A/C, provide a new one, or provide the money for one. I didn’t restrict the ways He could handle my problem. I walked away and got a cup of instant coffee. By the time I sat down with the coffee, my A/C was no longer making noise and has been working perfectly ever since.
If you have a need, big or small, take it to God. He has promised to be our source. He has promised to be our provision. He has promised to take care of us. It doesn’t matter what the need is or how big or how small it seems in comparison to others, it matters to us so it matters to Him. Exercise your faith, let Him know about the need and “walk away,” trusting that He will find a way to provide for that need.
“Everyone come meet His face with a thankful heart. Don’t hold back your praises; make Him great by your shouts of joy!“
The Bible tells us that God sits enthroned on the praises of His people. If we were to measure the amount of praise we offer God, would our praises make a large enough throne for Him to sit on? Here David tells us to come and meet God with a thankful heart and to make God great by our shouts of joy. We praise God because of how great He is. Praising Him is just acknowledging how awesome He is and what great things He has done for us. Praise and thanks go hand in hand. When we recognize the role God plays in our life, the prayers He has answered, the lengths He has gone to to make us His people, we can’t help but be thankful. That thankfulness helps us acknowledge how powerful God really is. That leads into praising Him for His works and His character.
When we want to meet God, we enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Praise can be elaborate or simple. Here David reminds us that God appreciates our shouts of joy as praise as well. God delights in us, and He loves it when we live in joy!
Father, I thank you for all that you do for me. I thank you that you love me and that you delight in me and in the things that delight me. I want to give you all praise. I want my praises and shouts of joy to build a throne big enough for you to sit on. You are an awesome God, and your mercy and love endure forever! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
I love testimonies! I think they’re my favorite part of church meetings. Revelation 12:11 says: “They triumphed over him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Our testimonies are incredibly important because they help to fuel not only our own faith in future spiritual battles, but also fuels the faith of others who come after us. We encourage each other with our testimonies. We testify of the miracles that God has done, and because we know that God does not change, we know that God will do those same kinds of miracles again and again and again.
Oftentimes, our favorite testimonies are those of great and amazing things! We love the Bible stories of God parting the Red Sea. We love the testimony of the gospels of all the miracles that Jesus performed. We love to hear testimonies from the early church, people raised from the dead and demons cast out. We love to hear modern testimonies of miraculous healing, raising the dead, miraculous provision, and incredible stories of restoration in lives of all kinds from all nations. But we don’t often stop to consider where these testimonies come from.
We are hearing the outcome of stories of incredible trial and suffering. We love the story of the Red Sea. I loved watching the cinematic rendition in the Prince of Egypt movie. It stirred my heart. We know that as those Israelites approached the cost of the Red Sea and the Egyptians caught sight of them, that God is about to do a miraculous thing by parting the sea and allowing the Israelites to escape on dry land before trapping the Egyptians in the waters as they crash back together! But the Israelites didn’t know this. Those were men and women who had just escaped from slavery. Those were men and women stuck between a rock and hard place. Where was God? Here they were: sea on one side and certain death at the hands of the Egyptians on the other. If any of them saw a way out, they were acting in sheer faith! They didn’t know what God would do. They didn’t know IF God would do. They didn’t know.
When we are in the midst of trials and suffering, it’s hard to remember that God is there too. We find ourselves between a rock and hard place. We have sea on one side and Egyptians on the other, and in the heat of the moment, we aren’t thinking about a parting of the sea. We are like those Israelites crying out and asking, “Where are you, God?” We are in the middle. We have an unfinished testimony. It’s only after we’ve walked through the hard spot that we see the miracles that God did in the middle. In the middle we have pain and heartache. We might have confusion and doubt and shame. We may feel less like prayer warriors and men and women of faith and more like failures and castaways and orphans. But God is still God. God is still working, even when we can’t see it.
I hope one day, I can share my testimony of a restored family and a restored marriage with you. I hope that I can tell you of the miraculous healing of my daughter from the grip of mental illness. I hope I can share with you how God managed to accomplish the prophetic words and promises I feel He has given me…has given us as a family. I hope one day to write to you and tell you what awesome wonders God performed in my husband’s heart and in my heart and how He restored our marriage and rekindled our epic love story and used us in a mighty way as individuals and as a couple and as a family.
I claim that in faith.
But right now? I can’t. I can’t tell you how God will do this. I can’t tell you IF God will do this. I can only tell you what it feels like on the shore of the Red Sea. And I can tell you that this God that I am walking with in the middle of this valley that feels like a shadow of death is the same God who stood on that shore thousands of years ago and performed the miraculous. If He did it then, He can do it again!
I know what I want my miracle to look like. I hope that’s what happens. BUT…..I know that God’s plans are bigger than mine. He sees more. He knows more. His plans are always better. If God’s plans don’t look like my plans, it will be okay. It will be bigger, and it will be better. Whatever He has in store for me will be far beyond anything I could ever think, hope or even imagine. So when I pray I tell God what I desperately want to have happen, and then I surrender those wants to Him and ask that He do His will in my life.
That’s what happens in the middle of a testimony. My story is unfinished. It looks ugly. It looks messy. Just like the picture I chose shows only a shell of a building, my life looks a bit like this ugly shell. You can’t tell what it’s going to be yet. It isn’t finished. One day, this building will be complete. I’m sure it will be a masterpiece of architecture. It will fulfill the purpose of its builder. It will probably have beautiful finishes and creative touches that make it unique. One day my life will be the same. This testimony will be complete. It will be a finished. It will be a masterpiece of God’s mercy and His grace and His love. It will fulfill His purposes in my life. It will have beautiful finishes and creative touches that make it uniquely my testimony.
But in the meantime, I have to hold onto God’s Word. I have to fight those doubts and negative thoughts. I have to turn over to God all those feelings of failure and discouragement and remember that my identity doesn’t come from being a mother or from being a wife. My value isn’t based on my husband loving me. My identity and value come from God.
In the middle of separation and silence, I feel neglected, abandoned and rejected. My husband told me I was beautiful when he met me. He would often tell me how beautiful I was while we watched TV together, but he hasn’t said those words to me–or any kind words to me–in a month. I don’t feel beautiful. The man that promised to never leave me or abandon me, the one who said he would never file for divorce, now says that he has absolutely no interest in working things out with me. He is filing divorce…at least that’s what he says he intends to do. And I feel the pain of my past divorces like a brand on my skin labeling me as a bad wife, as unworthy. My husband claims I failed to submit to him in a godly way. He has labeled me as usurping his authority and trying to control and run things. It’s a label I’ve worn before in previous marriages, but this time I feel it’s one that is unearned. I’ve worked hard on being a godly wife.
Those feelings are hard. They are understandable, but they are hard. And those feelings open up a door in my mind for the enemy to take hold of and run with. If I allow him to, he’ll build strongholds here. He’ll hold me back. He’ll get to me to give up, and that’s the only sure way he gets a victory here. The devil only wins if we give up! I know this because God already won my victory, even if I have no idea what that victory looks like yet. It’s a done deal! It’s in the bag! I just have to hold on a bit longer to see it come to pass.
So I hold on to the promises in God’s Word. I hold on to the things that He says about me. I am His daughter. He loves me. I am chosen. I have value. He knew me before He formed me in my mother’s womb. He has good plans for me. I am beautiful to Him. He will always accept me into His throne room. I am a good wife. I am a good mother. I am a godly woman. I am obedient to Him. He will never leave me or abandon me. I hold onto knowing that God hates divorce, that He can change hearts and minds, and that He is at work on my problem even if I don’t feel it or see it.
If you find yourself in a hard place of suffering and trial, remember that you’re in the middle. You’re building a testimony. It doesn’t look pretty right now. You may not even know what “it” is, yet. But God knows. He’s a master builder. He’s making something beautiful out of you, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. One day, we will overcome the devil with the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony….this testimony! When God is finished with this, we will stand in awe of what He can do. In the meantime, we just need to hold on to His promises, trust in His ability and desire to work on our behalf, and rest in Him.
“We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.“
Ever buy one of those little knick-knacks advertised on TV? When I was in my twenties, those ads were on TV all the time. Franklin Mint or the Hamilton Collection were advertising commemorative coins or plates or small statues. They were collector’s items, and they each came with a certificate of authenticity. That certificate of authenticity proved that your item was a genuine collectible. In today’s passage, we see that God gives us a certificate of authenticity as well. As believers, our certificate of authenticity is our love for others.
Want to know how well you’re doing as a follower of God? Want to assess how mature the fruit of the Spirit is in your life? Look at how you treat others. Are you acting in love? How well we love others is a measure of whether or not we truly belong to God. Now, God’s not expecting us to do this perfectly all the time, but we should notice that Christians love others better than non-Christians. If we can’t see that difference, there’s a problem.
John tells us that loving others is the test because if we can’t love the people we can see how can we hope to love a God that we can’t see? Each and every person in the world is made in the image of God. When God’s love is in us, when we have accepted His love for us and become a member of His family, we are expected to pour that love out of us and onto those around us. Those of us who take this seriously will not have to boast about our love for God, it will be obvious to everyone around us.
Father, I thank you for your great love for me. I thank you that because you loved me first and taught me what love really is, I have the ability to love those around me. I can love the people who are easy to love, and with your help I can love the people who are hard to love. After all, you loved me when I was hard to love. I want to demonstrate my love for you, Lord, so help me to do a good job of loving those around me. I know that when your love for them flows through me, they will see the work you are doing in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
A Beautiful Mess 