Personal: Trusting God

Life is fairly testing at the moment...awesome but testing. I'm finishing my current job at the end of July with the plan to start studying mid-August. It's a huge step for several reasons because:

1. I have quit my job not yet knowing if I have been accepted onto the course I plan to do.
2. I am supposed to hear back about the course this week but haven't heard anything.
3. Living arrangements whilst I study are foggy to say the least.

All that being what it is, I know that I know that I know that God has a plan for my life and I am in it right at this moment. I know He has everything figured out and it will all work out for my good because that is what He promises.

Now...as I'm sure many of you know, trusting God when you can't see how things are going to come together can be rather difficult. We are so used to relying on what we see or what we know that we find it difficult to envision things coming together, but thank God, He both sees and knows more than we do.

This morning as doubts crept in I encouraged myself in God and asked Him to strengthen my faith. Immediately after praying the song Oceans (below) dropped into my heart and I just started singing it. It reminded me that despite the darkness of the great unknown and all that it holds that I cannot see, I can still see Jesus, and He knows and sees everything.

Romans 4.18

"When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said He would do."

- Romans 4.18 (The Message)

I love this verse SO much. Our circumstances always seem so hopeless. Let me share something with you for a second.

I believe with ALL my heart, that God wants me to go to Sweden and live there and help start a church, so that those that don't know Him yet can do. We hope to start churching from this summer, and considering the fact that Swedish summertime pretty much begins in early June, that's fairly soon.

As yet, I have no job over there, I haven't got a place of my own to live in, and I don't know the language as fluently as I wish I did (although I am making massive headway - praise God for that!).

The situation looks pretty grim. How can I still plan to move this summer with no job and nowhere to live, especially when I don't speak the language?

YET, what does the verse say? "When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway." Why was Abraham's faith so big? How could he have confidence in a situation that in all human terms, was practically hopeless?

In order to have faith and hope in a hopeless situation, Abraham had to look beyond himself, and beyond his capabilities and the capabilities of his wife. Abraham looked beyond the situation, toward God.

God had made a promise to him, therefore God would make it happen.

In the same way, I know God has told me to be a part of this church in Sweden this summer. God will make it happen, despite the current circumstances. So I am going to look beyond what I see, and look to God, and all He has said and done so far in my life and in the lives of those around me, and trust Him, that even though as of right now I have no clue where I'll be working or who I'll be living with, He's got it covered. He will make it happen.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

- Hebrews 11.1 (NKJV)

A Promise

I am feeling a little stressed out at the minute with my Final Year Project for University. Coming home late tonight after work on it, frustrated, confused and worried, my bible fell open to a well-thumbed passage: Psalm 91.

When I lived at home I would read this everyday with my dad and my sister, and now I only read it every so often, but when I read it just now, I was particularly encouraged by the last few verses and thought I would share them with you:

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him

and show him my salvation."

- Psalm 91.14-16

Peace, Perfect Peace

I was really nervous this morning as I woke up and had to go to uni to collect all the assignments I slaved over last term. I was even more nervous than usual because a) I had worked even harder than I usually do, and b) there were six assignments to pick up, which six times the nerves I would feel had it been just one.

As I was walking I felt God bring to mind the verse in Isaiah 26.3:

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"

And immediately grasped hold of these two things:

1. My marks were not going to change based on whether or not I worried

2. The ultimate end was not whether or not I got the grades I desired, it was God's plan, which would be realised regardless of my grades.

And so, as I focused my mind on Him, I found myself in perfect peace, isn't He great?

{Source: Tumblr}

Psalm 147.3

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds"

We all suffer disappointment, anger, upset, and hurt in this life. God says that we will (John 16.33), but also that He has overcome the world.

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

- Matthew 11.29-30 [The Message]

Is God A Man That He Can Lie?

"God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?"

- Numbers 23.19

I love this verse because it reminds me of God's steadfastness and strength. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13.8), and if He had the power to speak the world into being, then NOTHING can be too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32.7).