06/22/2020
How are we in our faith today? Are we having a good day, or a bad day? Did we open our eyes this morning with a prayer of thanksgiving on our lips, or were our first thoughts about something in our earthly lives that we were worried about? As Christians we often end our day by turning over our concerns to God in bedtime prayer, then sleep soundly through the night, only to open our eyes in the morning to take those things back again... We lean on the promises of God at one moment, and not in the next, yet God’s promises are not meant to be whimsical, but everlasting.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
All throughout God’s Word we are reassured by His promises. He tells us over and over again not to worry, and not to be afraid, but it seems that we can’t help ourselves. We are meant to leave the world behind, and move deeper into our faithful abode in Christ, but we stop at the doorway of our belief, and stand there with one foot on either side of the threshold. We can’t commit ourselves because we aren’t trusting in Him, and the promises He has made to us.
I watched a hummingbird in my yard; it would zoom at lightning speed from a nearby tree limb to the edge of the feeder on my deck, and then turning on a dime it would reverse course and with equal speed turn back and zoom to within inches of the tree limb. It did this over and over again for several minutes; never landing on its tree limb perch, nor on the feeder to eat. It was as if it couldn’t make up its mind. I wonder if this is how God perceives us to be in our faith? Does He watch us zoom into His presence only to turn abruptly and zoom back towards the world, never resting in either place... always flitting from our fear to His promised peace, and back again?
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV
God doesn’t make promises to us, then withdraw them. He isn’t like the hummingbird, and He expects us to be as He is... steadfast. Since hearing God call you to “come”, have you ever heard Him, even once, say to you... “Go away”? No, his promises were true throughout the Bible, and they are just as true and dependable for us today. God did all the things He promised Moses, and He lives up to every promise in our lives today.
““Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.”
1 Kings 8:56 ESV
So why is it that we give Him our troubles at night, and then, before He solves them for us, we take them back again in the morning? Is it because we have no patience and can’t bring ourselves to wait? Is it because we believe we know better than He does? Whatever reason we offer it always springs from the same root... we don’t trust Him at His Word. So we were offered a solution to our faltering faith by Peter in our previous scripture, and again by Paul in his letter to the Philippians...
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4:8-9 ESV
If we think about these things, and do them, they will strengthen our faith, and reinforce our trust in God. Then, each morning when we rise our confidence will be in Him, and we will remain at rest in His peace. So are we ready to learn the lesson of the hummingbird, and land with certain assurance in the hand of God’s promises?
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for the steadfast nature of your Word, and the absolute truth in your promises. We thank you for being the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Help us in our moments of unbelief, and indecision. Teach us not to be lukewarm, but to be pleasing in your mouth; finding our faith to be hot like tea should be, and refreshingly cold like well water when it pleases you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who does all He says, and never stumbles over a single Word. Praised be your name in every promise you make, and in the strength you exert as you shoulder our burdens, and calm our fears... always. Hear our prayers in the night Lord as we ask you to remove us from fear and tribulation, And hear our morning prayers as we confidently thank you for this day, without a single worry regarding those things we gave over to you in the night. Wonderful are you whose presence surrounds us, and amazing is your grace that plucks us from the fallen world we traverse as we go about our days. We pray for strength Father, a strength that holds us firm in our faith, and makes perfect our trust in you, not for a moment, but forevermore... for the eternity in which all your promises reside.
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life.”
1 John 2:24-25 ESV
Rich Forbes