I have a friend who is going through hard times right now. She has physical problems, she has emotional problems, she has financial problems. She is a single mom with 3 kids at home and a 4th with his father. The father of the 3 younger kids is a deadbeat dad. With the natural eye, her situation looks hopeless.
Yet, she is a child of the King. Nothing is hopeless; nothing is impossible. God loves her. God seeks to be actively involved in her life. God tells her to cast her cares on Him. And there are scazillion promises of provision for ALL we need in His Word. We are told that He that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world. We are told that Christ has overcome the world and we are in Him and He is in us. We, the born again, are supposed to be the happiest, most carefree people on earth. And yet, to this "soldier" of the King, someone is mumbling the words chemical imbalance and you just know the next words are something to do with anti-depressants.
To an extent, faith is a matter of making up your mind. If you read the Word and you're a King's Kid and you read a promise, you say "That promise is for me; let me write that down". And it IS for you. And God cannot lie. It took me a while to "get" that "cannot lie" thing. But God's word is the stuff of creative miracles. He said "Light be", and there was light. So, if He says "I will supply all your needs", the supply is there. If I have the bank account of Bill Gates and I say to you "I will supply all your needs", the next thing out of your mouth, once you got your thinking organized from the shock, would be "thank you". And you'd tell everyone you meet that I supply all your needs; you don't have to worry about the bill collector or losing your job or any of that stuff any more because I am there backing you up with my billions. You have faith in me and in my word. If you can have that kind of faith in me and what I say, why not the same kind of faith in God? Once we appropriate that promise, for example of supply, shouldn't we say thank you and walk away expecting the supply to be there? God says "I am the God that heals you". Shouldn't we thank Him and be excited about our healing?
This is the same God that kept the hungry lions from eating Daniel. The same God who brought Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego out of the furnace without the smell of smoke on them and with nothing burned but the ropes that bound them. The same God who allowed Gideon to rout his enemies with 300 men, some clay jars and some oil lamps. He produced money to pay the taxes from the fish's mouth. He produced 9 lepers who were instantaneously cleansed and 1 (who said thank you) who was creatively made whole. In a land in famine, He helped Isaac become rich. Isaac dug water wells during a drought and found water every time and then his enemies took them away from him. So, he dug more wells, found more water, and he and everyone around him became wealthy while those not within Isaac's sphere of influence did not prosper. Christ spoke to storms, in faith, and caused them to dissipate. What circumstance could we possibly have that He can't handle?
And what gets these things for US? Faith. The Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. It also says that that which is not faith is sin. So, what IS faith? That same reaction you had when you heard my promise to supply all your needs. Saying thank you and expecting a miracle every single day, every single hour, every single minute. One translation says Faith is the "title deed" to His promises. A "title deed" is proof of ownership. You don't have to squat there to get your squatter's rights; God has given you the "title deed". Why? Because He loves you and delights in blessing His children, just as you delight in blessing your children, particularly when they are obedient. And, you don't expect your children to do everything you ask them to do perfectly, do you? If you tell them to make their bed and the result is that they straighten the covers with a few lumps and bumps here and there and lay their pillow on the bed straight, you delight in their obedience, not in their perfection. The Bible says we are made in His image so why would we expect something different from Him?
So, you read His promises, and you say that is for me. And everytime you begin to feel afraid or doubt, you go back and read those promises you've written down and you say, again, that is for me. And you don't talk about fear. And you don't think about fear. And you talk about your needs as though you have the supply in hand, as, in fact, you do, if God's promises are true. And you repent when you screw up and talk fear or lack or whatever.
The Bible says we are to have the faith of a little child. Did you ever tell a little child he or she can have something he or she wants? "We're going to Disneyland." "We're going to buy those Nikes you've been wanting." "We're going on a picnic at the beach." What does that child do? He or she celebrates because, if Mom or Dad says we're going to the beach, we're going. The kid goes and packs a suitcase with all his/her favorite toys; he/she digs everything out of his/her dresser drawers til that swim suit is unearthed! In fact, they get so excited, we have to learn not to tell them too far in advance or they drive us nuts with questions........."Are we there yet?" We may have said we're going to Disneyland in July, but they're ready to be there now! They have taken us at our word. There's the example of how we are to respond to God's promises.
I fall short, less often than I used to, but I fall short. And I have to repent and refocus. Get my eyes back on Jesus and off the circumstances. And, so it is with my friend. There is NO circumstance God can't handle. For years, I've had this hanging over my desk, from the Prayer of Jabez.
It's a frightening and utterly exhilirating truth, isn't it? As God's chosen blessed sons and daughters, we are expected to attempt something large enough that failure is guaranteed unless God steps in. Take a moment to prayerfully try to comprehend how contrary the TRUTH is to everything you would humanly choose. 1) It goes against common sense. 2) It contradicts your previous life experience. 3) It seems to disregard your feelings, training, and need for security. 4) It sets you up to look like a fool and a loser.
Yet, it is God's plan for His most honored servants. I'll admit, big screen heroes don't seem to put any stock in dependence but you and I were made for it. Dependence upon God makes heroes of ordinary people like you and me. How? We're forced to cry out "Oh that Your hand would be on me." With that we release God's power to accomplish His will and bring Him glory through all those seeming impossibilities.
We are not meant to solve our own problems but to walk in obedience to Him. We don't think about the problems, we don't worry about the problems, we don't talk about the problems, we just think about how we can best show God to our fellow man on any given day. We smile because we know He has had the answer to our problems even before we knew we had problems. Is it easy? No! It's a fight. More than that, it's a continuous on-going battle. It's the reason Joyce Meyer could write a book called The Battlefield of the Mind and sell scazillion copies. Once we get the victory over one circumstance, we will be presented with another and another and another. But the thing here is not to allow these problems to sap our energy. We are commanded to give the problems to God and walk in faith, expecting Him to provide the answer to them.
We may be commanded to face the challenge of raising children alone or to be out of debt when our income is limited and the debt seems insurmountable. When all human "wisdom" says it can't be done. We can't make enough money to keep shoes on growing feet. We can't possibly pay off that debt. Yet, there is an old song that says "God will find a way when it seems there is no way". And it is in THAT wisdom we are to walk. And if there is a chemical imbalance, God heals those too!
I'm stepping down off my soapbox now. I just get so upset when someone's answer to a spiritual problem (they're ALL spiritual problems, my friends) is "religious" or "human". You just can't wallow in self-pity and circumstances and walk God's way at the same time........ And I wish pastors would preach this instead of "there there" religion. Oops, I said I was climbing down off the soapbox. Shut up, Marci. Be blessed y'all!
