I have seen some interesting hardships and difficulties in my life over the last two months.
Things just were not working out as I had hoped that they would.
Things have not been making a lot of sense in my life lately.
I had hoped for opportunities to open up, and yet a sense of vision is missing. I am not sure what steps I needed to be taking. I had no idea where I was supposed to be going.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." (Proverbs 29:18)
I have been lacking the vision. I could not see where God was leading me. It's supposed to be a vision in our heart, and God is not hiding back anything from us:
"[Paul prays that] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," (Ephesians 1:18)
We have a confident expectation of good in our lives.
Yet for me, I could not figure out what was going on. So many setbacks seemed to have overcome me.
I began to wonder:
"Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?" (Psalm 77:8)
Not at all.
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, could testify to God's never-ending mercies:
"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
"They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3: 22-23)
Let us not forget that this year 2018 coincides with Psalm 118, and the refrain of that Psalm is:
"His mercy endureth forever.: (Psalm 118:1)
So, what is happening? What is going on?
I have learned that it is crucial not to get angry with God.
We should always justify God. ALWAYS! After he was confronted for his sins with Bathsheba and against Uriah the Hittite, David would write in the 51st Psalm:
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:4)
The sad tendency for many of us, when we think that we have done nothing wrong, or that we are doing and thinking everything in line with the truth, is that we will justify ourselves. We will talk about everything that we have done, that we have been doing everything right.
Notice that that was Job's response:
"1So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God." (Job 32:1-2)
The truth is that Job was not righteous. He did not believe in the LORD, as Abraham had done (Genesis 15:6).
The righteous live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17). We are not justified through anything that we have done, but we are justified because of Christ Jesus, and we continue to receive his gifts of righteousness and grace (Romans 5:17). It's about receiving from Him, not doing for Him.
God is the one who is justified. We should never disparage God in the face of our challenges or trials.
I have ound myself more committed than ever to ask the questions which need to be asked:
"What am I not seeing, Lord? What have I been believing that is wrong? What is it that you need me to see that I have not caught yet?"
Without going into great detail, I often found myself forced into going into certain events. In my spirit, I sensed that the wisest thing to do was to step away from a conflict and trust that Christ Jesus would be able to step in and take care of what needed to be done.
Yet there were other voices who would be saying to me: "You need to take of this matter! We need you to go to this event. If you do not got to this event, then the bad guys will win!"
I knew in my spirit that that statement was not true. Not true at all!
With this revelation in mind, I will cite what I learned in Hebrews 12, too:
"7If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews 12: 7-11)
Chastening is not harm, damage, or punishment.
In the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob event, not once is there a record of God deliberately rebuking or slamming them. They faced terrible circumstances and trying times, but God always appeared in their lives to give them guidance, covering, and provision.
Now that's the kind of life that I want to receive!
So, the challenges are real, the setbacks will emerge. The last thing that anyone of us should do, however, is to county God slack concerning His promises toward us (2 Peter 3:9)
I can tell you that I faced what seemed like a serious setback when I was blocked on Facebook and banned for good. That has turned into a real win, since I had not read or received more of God's Word. In fact, when so much was going well in my life: great job, great pay, activism, writing, and everything else: I was NOT reading God's Word!
Talk about leanness of soul! That's what I was going through. Those days are gone, and I am back reading God's Word once again! There are so many promises, so many comforts which I had received in my life, and I am glad that today I am revisiting God's promises, and I have been restored to seeing more of Jesus in my life, understanding that I have a blessed sonship before God my Daddy.
He is dealing with me as a son, and I know that He is not only saving me from trouble and strife, but is preparing me for more wonderful things to come!
Thank you, Jesus, that you have accorded to me your standing and granted me your sonship! You became sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God in you! (2 Corinthians 5:21) It is really important for me to see Him who has been from the beginning (1 Jon 2:13). Whatever else has been holding me back, whatever thoughts or ideas that I have believed which are actually not true, I want to know what they are! Why? That I may live, and that I may profit!
God wants me to be a winner in every way!
YES!
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