Psalms 37:3, 5, 7, 23 NKJV
"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." (vs 3)
"Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." (vs 5)
"Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." (vs 7)
"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way." (vs 23)
I am so grateful to God for Psalms! Such an amazing book. I particularly love vs 3 of this chapter:
"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."
I love this. We are supposed to dwell in the trust of the Lord. Simply put, David is saying we should live in the confidence that God has everything covered.
Even better, not just live in the confidence that God has our back, but to feed on His faithfulness.
Making this as basic as possible, think about how often you eat. Typically a minimum of three times a day. Imagine, reminding yourself of God's faithfulness to you a minimum of three times a day. Constantly living out of the reminder of God's faithfulness leaves no room to doubt Him.
Granted, sometimes we doubt God has our back not because of His own unfaithfulness, but because of our own, but we don't need to. God's behaviour toward us has NOTHING to do with our behaviour towards Him. Psalms 73:1 says "Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart" If we have accepted Jesus as our saviour, as our righteousness, then we are counted as those who are pure in heart, and God is good to them. Even when we fail, God doesn't; 2 Timothy 2.13 says "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself."
David continues in vs 5 and 7 "Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way."
He says we should commit our way to the Lord, to put all our plans into God's hand, and then trust Him to work it all out. He says we should rest in God, relax in Him, enjoy Him. We should be in a perpetual state of relaxation in God, patiently waiting to see what He's doing. Not worrying because we see things working out for others, but relaxing and resting and dwelling and feeding on the knowledge that God is directing and leading us and enjoys doing so.
It has been almost a year since I moved here, and I moved here without a job and without a place to live. It felt crazy, but I knew God wanted me here and had to take a leap of faith and believe that He would take care of me.
If there is one thing this year has taught me, it's that resting in God and feeding on His faithfulness really pays off. Even when we feel like we are wasting time, or going nowhere God is still doing His thing; fixing all the tiny details so we are ready for the next step and it is ready for us.
Too much has happened this year for me to summarise properly, but I want you to have a vague idea of what has gone on, so here's a rough timeline:
September 6th: Move to Sweden
End of October: Find an apartment but have no money to pay rent for the month
A week later: Get given money for rent and living expenses for the month
End of November: Start job as an au pair which gives me job and accomodation (Yes, I was unemployed for three months)
April: Start thinking about what to do when done au pairing
May: Get invited to live with two friends at the end of my job
June: Apply for school also phone a bar about a job, find out the owner is English, arrange interview
End of June: Go for an interview at school, get rejected. Realise it is not possible to move in with friends till a month after I finish my job
Following day: Get a call inviting me for an interview for another course at the same school
Following week: Go for interview at school again and go for bar job interview, successful job interview, invited for two trial shifts
Following day: Get accepted into school
A few weeks later: Get call from friends saying a friend of theirs has an apartment I can potentially stay in before I move in with them
This year has been all over the place, up and down and nothing I expected, but God has had and continues to have my back. I have not been without a place to sleep, I have not been dead broke. Truly, God has been faithful and ordered each and every one of my steps. I do not know what the future holds for me, but I know that as I continue to commit my way to God, He will continue to order my steps and sort everything out.
Showing posts with label God's faithfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's faithfulness. Show all posts
15 July 2013
22 January 2013
Faith
I'm reading through Hebrews at the moment and just hit Hebrews 11 which has to be probably my favourite chapter in the whole bible (I say probably because there are so many awesome chapters that that is likely inaccurate!).
Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)
It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.
Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.
Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.
It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!
That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.
The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.
What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.
He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).
So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.
The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!
Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!
Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.
If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.
Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).
Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.
"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5
Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)
It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.
Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.
Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.
It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!
That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.
The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.
What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.
He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).
So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.
The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!
Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!
Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.
If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.
Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).
Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.
"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5
10 December 2012
Doubt hinders, faith in God opens doors
Hebreerbrevet 3.19/Hebrews 3.19 > After the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites who had witnessed probably one of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament were unable to walk into the fullness of what God had for them because of their lack of faith in who God was and what He could do. God proves Himself again and again to us, but when we allow ourselves to be paralysed by fear and doubt Him and His power like the Israelites (4 Moseboken 13/ Numbers 13) and Elijah (Första Kungaboken 19/ 1 Kings 19) we miss out on our 'promise land'; the abundant and exciting life God has planned for us.
God is more than able to do what He has promised you will He will do. Hold on to Him and see the miracle.
Psaltaren 31.5/ Psalm 31.5 " I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God "
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