1 Thessalonians 5:24 NASB Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
I know of many instances of God’s faithfulness in my life, and I am sure there are many others that I will discover when I am with the Lord and have that added perspective. Here is another instance that recently came to my mind.
It was January, 2003. I must confess that I was very worried about our family’s money. Our oldest child was a high school senior at that time and headed to college in the fall. Our minivan at that time was nearing the end of its useful life. Where was I going to get the money to pay for a new van and for college expenses for our son, on top of the rest of the expenses for our family of 6 people? I knew that God had called me to provide for my family, but I did not see how He was going to bring it to pass. So, my wife and I prayed.
Shortly thereafter, our son received the news that his first choice in colleges had offered him a full tuition scholarship. In the late summer, the price of the stock where I worked went up significantly, within the exercise date window for some of my stock options. So, we suddenly had the money for our son to begin attending college in late August. And in October (just 9 months after my wife and I prayed about our money situation), we were able to buy a late-model minivan – only 3 years old, only 39,000 miles, and our favorite make and model of the minivans produced at that time.
God sustained that van over the 11 years we owned it. We sold it with 245,000 miles. We had remarkably few repairs during our ownership. My wife has compared how God sustained it to how God kept the sandals of the Israelites from wearing out during their 40 years in the wilderness. I agree.
As I have reflected upon this and other instances of God’s faithfulness in my life, God has reminded me that He has a proven track record, throughout history, of not abandoning His people. Sometimes His people went through long periods of trying times (such as the 430 years of slavery in Egypt, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 70 years of exile in Babylon, and 400 silent years between Old and New Testaments), but God always intervened. He never abandoned them. He had purpose in the periods of struggle that His people endured.
And that is true today as well. God has purpose in our everyday struggles, and even in the bigger struggles that believers, our country, and our world, are facing today.
So, in the midst of our everyday struggles, what should we do?
1) I believe that God first wants us to focus on “being” rather than “doing.” As we draw near to God and learn how He wants us to be (in terms of attitude, character, motivations, priorities, etc.), we will then be more alert and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit on what to do.
Note that I am not advocating for a lack of doing. The Bible clearly says that believers should be engaged in action:
James 1:22 NASB But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Both being and doing are scriptural. But the sequence is critical. What we do must flow out of who we are. In short, we must focus on abiding in Christ. That is the “being” part. After all, Jesus said:
John 15:4 NASB "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
Jesus is saying that, in order for us to bear fruit, we must first abide in Him.
God is designing a unique “to do list” for each of us. And it probably has some inclusions and omissions that are surprising to us. But our focus on being is a prerequisite to prepare us for the doing. As we do that, we will be training ourselves to be more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which better informs our actions. Again, I am not saying that we should not take action. I am saying that our “being”, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, should be our focus. Then we are in a better place to hear God’s voice about what we are to do.
2) God also wants us to remember His faithfulness to us during our lifetime. The concept of remembering is a thread that runs throughout Scriptures. The Bible contains 227 verses containing various forms of the word “remember.” Here is just one example:
Deuteronomy 4:9a NASB "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life.
Remembering God’s faithfulness is a reminder that the triune Godhead upholds and sustains all life… including my own. God will sustain us through the challenges we are facing:
Hebrews 1:3a NASB And [Jesus] is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation [and expression and imprint] of His nature, and [Jesus] upholds all things [individually and collectively, including me] by the [mere utterance of the] word of His [miraculous force and] power. (with my added amplifications based on the Greek words of the text, and the context of the chapter)
Colossians 1:17 NASB He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
He wants us to remember all the ways in which He has led us, and protected us, and rescued us, throughout our lives. I draw tremendous comfort and encouragement, as I think about the MANY times that God rescued me from bad situations.
3) God also wants us to pray. That is what my wife and I did in the story I shared today about our need for the finances to pay for college and for a new minivan. We cried out to God for wisdom, peace, and provision.
James 5:16b AMPC The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.
God wants us to cry out to Him, earnestly and often, and ask Him to rescue us, and to bring His kingdom to reality in our family, our nation and the world.
4) I also believe that He wants us to share these principles with our children and grandchildren. That is the most beneficial thing we can do for them. If they embrace our faith and hope in the God of the universe to give them protection, wisdom and courage in the midst of a seemingly crumbling world, we have given them a most precious gift indeed.
Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”