aka “Why isn’t it working?”
There’s a scripture that talks about giving. Jesus said when we give it will be given “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”
But have you ever experienced those times when you have given, but there was no apparent return and your mind was scattered, your heart was shattered and it was more like your circumstances were not good measure, your money was hard pressed, your confidence was shaken, and your tears were running over? Yes. I can relate. More than once? Me, too! Maybe even now? Read on.
It’s interesting, really. Humans spend much of their time waiting. Sometimes we wait for things we choose to wait for and sometimes not. Who likes to sit in a room waiting for an appointment that was supposed to be 42 minutes ago? That’s less than an hour, yet we wait days for our Amazon orders. We wait for our best friend to text back. We wait in crowded restaurant lobbies to get food that’s crazy expensive and way too weight-challenging, then there’s the famous “I’ll wait for the Black Friday sale”. Many times we accept that “waiting is just part of life.”
In the course of our lives, humans rarely expect an instant turnaround. Until we pray.
The Bible has several accounts of God’s “rescue” that came just in time, and not necessarily when we ask, but He said He is God Who does not lie, Who does not change His Mind. God was not standing outside the furnace to stop His Hebrew boys from being thrown in, but even a pagan monarch recognized His presence in the fire.
A few million grumbling Israelites ran out of food, and in the middle of their grumbling about missing Egypt’s onions God provided food for them that had never been seen before. (I’m thinking it was flavored like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but it nourished entire families who were of varying ages and weights, and strengths. For years. Decades.)
There are several other examples. Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah when they were “fully persuaded”, years and years after God had promised them a “seed” of their own household. A son.
Before they were fully persuaded, they looked at the apparent impossibilities of their ability to conceive what God promised. They came up with an alternative solution that could be accomplished in a way they could understand and have hope in. The nations of Ishmael are still Israel’s problem child.
There has always been waiting. The Bible calls it by a couple different names. “Seed, time, and harvest” “the fullness of time”. Creation took days. God gave 120 years of building time for an ark so people would have time to repent. We don’t care much about the time spent and recorded in the Bible, but when it comes to our immediate needs, we get in a panic even after we pray.
Why? Because anxiety and fear cover our belief that God’s Word is absolute. Truth is absolute. (That’s why nothing except the Word of God in the Bible can be called Truth.) Jesus Himself, while He prayed the night before His death, said “Sanctify them by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth. (Emphasis mine.)
Jesus also confirmed that He is Truth, but that’s another blog for another day.
It is only a few religious sects that teach that we can’t know if we’re saved, but most of us never look with trepidation and “what if’s” when it comes to our eternal destiny. Once we acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ and make our confession of faith (Romans 10:9,10, 13) most of us never spend any time wondering if God will keep His promise that we are saved “in Christ”.
But often a temporary natural circumstance will throw our belief system in a tailspin. Why? Because we either are not familiar with God’s covenant promises to us “in Christ” or we make the things we look at daily larger than God’s Word.
One bill with an upcoming due date can make us doubt God. One symptom under our skin makes us doubt either His ability or His willingness. One report that someone “passed” or went “bankrupt” makes every Word of God null and void in our belief that His promises to us in Christ are “yes”. His Word says if we ask anything according to His Will, then He hears us (1 John 5:14) and that He will supply our needs if we put Him first (Matthew 6:33). I wonder then, at times when panic strikes … Do we not trust Him or do we base His expected kindness on our current worthiness?
That’s a question we each have to answer.
Every time we wonder “Did He really say … ?” the tempter rises again like he did in the garden. Like he did in Jesus’s temptation. “If” You are the Son of God … “
Think about the two different responses in those situations. Eve used misinformation to form an opinion and Jesus said, “It is written”. Eve had nothing to be absolute about and Jesus knew His Father. So I have to acknowledge this to be true. If I doubt a situation, I do not consider God’s Word absolute in that area.
Absolute: Adjective
1)Not qualified or diminished in any way; total.
2) Viewed independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative.
In other words, we either believe Him or we don’t. God’s Word cannot be questioned and compared to the situation or experience. He is either Truth or He is not. God nor His Word can be divided into compartments and still be called Truth. God is Who He said He is. As Mark Hankins said in a public Facebook post,
Even in physical death, His Word has given us a promise. When Jesus stood before Martha as they looked toward the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus told her that even those who are considered dead, in Him, they will never die. Even if we are separated from someone we love, we believe we will see them alive again.
Absolutely. In every way, we can trust Him. In the courts of His kingdom, God has sworn by Himself and His Word, to tell the Truth, the whole Truth, nothing but the Truth.
For His Glory 