Thursday, May 19, 2011

God Is There

I read something recently… there is nothing that you won’t go through, that you and God won’t go through together. Whatever we have gone through, God was there. Whatever we are going through, God is there. And whatever we willgo through, God will be there, too. Know that there has not been a moment in your life that God has missed. There has not been a crisis that God was absent from, nor will there ever be.

Some of us may ask, well then why did I have to go through it? Why didn’t He comfort me through that time? But I tell you that He did. You got through it, right? You lived to speak about it, right? You just did not realize it, because you did not acknowledge His presence. As we go through things, we have to know that God is there, simply because He said He would be. Yes, there are times when we feel like we are going to lose our minds, but we don’t. Why? Because God was there. He won’t let us lose our minds. There are times when we feel as though we can’t go on anymore, but somehow the feeling subsides and we muster up the strength to continue, why? Because God is there and your faith in knowing that He is there kicks in.

God is omnipresent. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He said Himself, “I will be there in your time of trouble.” The Bible says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” But we have to acknowledge that He is with us. And when we do we are able to go through whatever we have to go through.

I was reading somewhere else that when people go through things, especially couples, it has the ability to form a bond. A rock solid bond. One that cannot be broken. A bond that is unseen and sometimes you are even unaware of it, but it is a quiet reliance, a quiet faith that joins people together at the core of their being. It’s an unspoken dependence on each other that forms, where they know they will only get through that thing together. Yes, they may fight all the way through it, because their emotions are so high because of it. They may struggle a bit, because they are unsure of the outcome, afraid of what might happen, but as they persevere and go through it, they find that somehow they get through it, even tighter than they ever were before.

This is how it is with God, with those who are growing in Him and trusting in His Word. Those experiences that we have draw us closer to Him. There is nothing like knowing that God is with you. That He will never leave you nor forsake you. That He will be with you in trouble just like He said. And when we truly acknowledge and understand that, we will realize that there is nothing that we will go through, that God is not going through with us and that He won’t bring us through, ON TOP. And with an even closer and tighter bond than ever before. Because we have gone through it together.

My husband and I just celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary. And we have gone through a lot of things together. Health issues, financial issues, kid issues, relationship issues, other issues and more issues. Yes, some of them were extremely difficult, extremely trying. Challenged our faith in each other and later on in life, challenged our faith in God, but we made it through. Praise the Lord! (God gets all the glory!) Because God was there, in the midst of it all. And with every passing year, we become even closer to each other and closer to God, as we become more and more aware of His presence.

God was there when we needed Him the most. He was there when you needed Him the most. God is there right now. In your current situation, your current circumstance, your current issue, know that God is there. Rest in that and go through it. And know and believe that there is nothing that you will go through that you and He will not GET through together.

God is real.

A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E



http://sis.e.home.comcast.net
http://www.ongoodground.org

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Laughing At God

Genesis 18:10-15 reads, And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No but you did laugh!”

This particular story of Abraham and Sarah’s faith falls on the heels of their attempt to do God’s job for Him, when Sarah told Abraham to go into her maiden, Hagar. And because of this, Ishmael was conceived and born (Genesis 16). God had already made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4), but Abraham and Sarah took matters in their own hands. Abraham himself, laughed, also when God told him that Sarah would become the mother of all nations. So much so, he pleaded with God, that He would let it be done through Ishmael (Genesis 17:15-18).

Here we have Abraham and Sarah. Abraham who believed God so much, it was counted to him as righteousness; who opened the door for us as believers to become the very righteousness of God because of our faith in Jesus Christ; who would have sacrificed his son Isaac, if it were not for the voice of the Lord (Genesis 22); who obeyed when God told Abraham to get out of his country and go into a land that He will show him (Genesis 12:1-4). Abraham and Sarah expressed faith in tremendous ways on numerous occasions throughout the book of Genesis, but in this particular instance, Abraham laughed when God made a promise, and so did Sarah when she heard it.

These two faith walkers had been walking with God for nearly 25 years at this point. They had seen His provisions; they had come to know some of His ways, but still, could not find it in themselves to believe God for this kind of blessing. They laughed. They laughed at God.


How many of us are like Sarah and Abraham? We have been walking with God, we have been studying His Word, we have been faithful servants, we have been talking to Him, hearing from Him, come to know Him and some of His ways, but every now and then, when God tells us that He is going to do that impossible thing for us, like Sarah and Abraham, we laugh. We doubt. We say, “Yeah, right, God.” We laugh at God.

No, we may not be doing it aloud (Sarah’s was an inward laugh, but God still knew she laughed). We laugh at God on the inside when we read His Word and know what it says we should do, but don’t do it. We laugh at God when He asks us to do something and we refuse. He tells us to give more, to tithe, to forgive and move one, to love our enemies and we just laugh at Him. You may not think it’s laughing, but if we hear the Word of the Lord or we hear God Himself tell us to do something, and we do not believe it or do not believe that it applies to us, we are laughing. At God.

Don’t you know that if God says that He is going to do something, He will do it? If you know anything in the Bible, you need to know that God’s promises are true. In each book of the Bible, there is some promise of God and some instance of how He brings it to pass. God is not a man the He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has he said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19). If God speaks a promise into our life, we should hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who has promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).


Children of the Most High God, if God tells you that He is going to do something spectacular for you and you find yourself laughing, fall down to your knees, repent, and just begin to praise Him, worship Him and give Him the glory because God is getting ready to do an awesome thing for you. If He said it, just believe it and get ready to receive it. And if you want to laugh, laugh because you’re happy glad at the great and marvelous thing your God is getting ready to do!!!


God spoke today through my husband and the Encouraging Word devotional… and as I was running errands, God spoke to me and reminded me of something that He spoke in July of 2002. God wants us to get this today. He is READY to do THE IMPOSSIBLE in the lives of those who will believe. Be encouraged. God is so mindful of you and He wants you to know that He is real, and He really, really loves you today!