God's Faithfulness

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:13

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

God's faithfulness is a beautiful gift! Through His faithfulness we are graced with salvation and hope which yields encouragement and perseverance. I know some of the things mentioned will not appear to be "deep" but they are something we need to remind ourselves frequently of.

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;" This is so encouraging! I heard a word study done on the word 'wait' and it literally means "to anticipate". Isn't that neat? It doesn't merely have a "patience" connotation, it could literally read this way, "But they that anticipate Father God to act on their situation shall renew their strength." Such a beautiful truth! I am so encouraged that I can have immense faith in my God to act no matter what is happening (maybe not the way I always want but for my good).

Let's not forget that not all of us are necessarily to the point where we can 'anticipate God to do something about it', we are human and can fluctuate at times. God desires the end result of us becoming the complete man to be relentless faith, but I am so thankful that He is faithful even when we are struggling finding the faith! 2 Timothy 2:13, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." God understands if we have to ask Him for faith. When facing a trial or tribulation don't try to feign faith if you really do not feel you have it. God long's for us to ask Him for things...sometimes faith!

Romans 8:28 states, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Pastor Rob Turner from Apex community church in Centerville Ohio once said, "God is more interested in our growth than our comfort." That truth has really stuck with me. I say that to say let us not mistake our discomfort with God's lack of goodness because His goodness is a more mature goodness than that. God's goodness is in breaking us, knowing it will produce a stronger more resilient faith...it gives us staying power. He does work out things for our good because He loves us even if they seem uncomfortable at the time. For example, let's say you have a child and you have been granted a foreknowledge that if they leave your house to go out with their friends for that particular night they will be in a fatal car accident. You may try to petition them to not go, maybe even ground them if they will not listen. You may try these subtle methods at first but if you see they are failing, there is not one loving parent that is reading this that wouldn't take a sledge hammer (or something else of the sort) and break their child's legs. WHOA CHRIS! Didn't expect you to go there! Isn't true love and goodness weird? Now if I isolate that situation and just say, "My dad took a sledge hammer and broke my legs!" That doesn't have a 'working out to our good' ring to it. But if I tell you in context 'the why', it now changes into a relentless act of love. You may be going through something so dark and scary you are not understanding why God is allowing this to happen. Just as the child in the above example kept trying to leave the house without the knowledge their parent had, so are we at times because we cannot see everything like God. Now let's say the child get's word that the friends she/he was going to go out with that night died in the wreck, this child, I would venture to say, is now thanking the parent for breaking their legs. So one day we will be thanking Him for all the hardships that produced righteousness in our lives, and that is God's definition of "all things working to our good".

One final (true) story,
There was a police officer, who was a Christian, that a friend of mine knew. This man began to suffer in his faith in God to the point of almost giving up. One night, while on patrol, he took a very peculiar man into custody. As this police officer was escorting this man to the police station, the criminal began to sniff in the air around him. As this now sniffing man became more and more blatant with this annoyance the police officer asked him what he was doing. The sniffing man said, "I smell blood, you're a Christian aren't you!". The police officer proceeded to say, "I do not know how that is even relevant to anything." The criminal said in response to this statement, "Oh it's relevant...it's relevant.." As a result of this situation this restored this police officers faith. The criminal was obviously under satanic control and satan in this situation became an unwilling servant of our MIGHTY GOD! This story really shed light on the verse that states, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." 2 Timothy 2:13

I do not know what you are going through but I do know this, God does not orchestrate anything to hurt us as to never come back to Him. Remember that God does not do petty human things, He has pure and holy purposes for us. So the next time something isn't going quite right, run to HIM!

Sincerely,
Chris Goff