I've heard for much of my life that if I have enough faith, I can do whatever God calls me to do. I've even heard some preachers say that if I have enough faith, I can be rich in earthly wealth, though that hasn't happened yet, so either I don't have enough faith or they are idiots.
In any event, this past weekend, at my church's men's retreat, we watched a video of Louie Giglio entitled "How Great is Our God." The content of the video is enough to give one pause to begin with, but beyond that, he quoted Isaiah 41:31, which says (quoted from the New Living Translation):
"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint."
He then went on to define the word "trust," which is rendered "hope" or "wait" in some other translations. He stated that the word has a deeper meaning of being in a time of deep need to the point of despair, and I imediately identified with that. He then went on to point out that the promise of scripture is not that I will find all my problems solved, nor will I necessarily be removed from the difficult situation I find myself in now, but rather, God will give me the strength to endure through these times, even though I cannot see the light.
My wife and I are struggling to keep our house. She has been unable to work for a while and is on medical leave from her work, and despite recieving some pay, it's not enough to meet all our financial needs. We recieved the first of the foreclosure warnings from the bank last week, and have a stack of bills that seems to get higher every day.
I struggle to get out of bed some days, but I was encouraged by this verse. "Those who wait for the Lord, will gain new strength."
I know that even if things get worse, which is a very real likelihood at this point, God will give me the strength to get through, if I trust in Him.
The Gift of Riding
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Realizations of the Obvious I can get lost inside myself. Preoccupied with
meaningless or sometimes even harmful or pointless preoccupations that cut
me ...
1 week ago
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2 comments:
God bless you, Paul. I love the attitude with which you're waiting and enduring. As one who tends to panic at every turn I need to keep what you just wrote in mind; it seems that the times when most I need to remember it are the very times when it's easiest to forget.
Oh, Panic has been at the edges of my vision, so to speak, for the last year and a half or so. Trusting God takes a lot of work.
I feel like the Living sacrifice of Romans 12. I have to keep picking myself up after I've crawled off the altar and get back on again.
Well...There is the old saying, "God uses broken vessels...because they leak."
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