 A few weeks ago, I was listening to
a preacher read poems on the book of Job.
At the end of the poem, Job’s daughter asks Job why God allowed all the
tragedies to happen in his life. He
responded, “The Lord has made me drink the cup of His severity, that He might
kindly show to me what I would be when only He remains in my calamity.” Throughout
my life, God has consistently sent me through trials to test my faith and love
for God. I thought I was fine with what
God was doing with my life. However, the last few weeks, I have been struggling
internally with believing God’s plan for me has been perfect. God has in love shown me the root of the
problem is still present. The root of my
struggles is unbelief. I dance back and
forth across the line of walking by faith in God and living in fear and
unbelief. I am not “grounded and
settled” in the truth of the gospel (Col. 1:23).
I know I do not live every moment of my day
by faith believing in the truths of the Word of God. I live by fear, concerned about what I should
do with my future. Instead I should be
thinking about what God has for me today and believe His plan for me at this
very moment is perfect and best. I live
in unbelief, thinking that if everyone likes me then life is great. The moment something goes wrong in a
relationship, I become discouraged. I
back away from the person who’s hurt me and close my heart up. What does this show about me? I am not living securely in the love of
God. I am walking in unbelief. The first and greatest commandment is to love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind. The second is to love your
neighbor as yourself. If I cannot love
other people properly, then I do not have a proper understanding of God’s love
for me.
The reality of my lack of knowledge in who God is, has
sobered and convicted me. I want to be
able to say with the psalmist in Psalm 16, “I have set the Lord always before
me, because He is at my right hand I will not be moved.” My heart’s prayer is Ephesians 3:16-21, “That
he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” I praise the Lord He has not left me alone to
figure out my Christian life and claim the promise that “He who began a good
work in me will complete it until
the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
|
