Mark 11:22-25 (NLT) Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

Every one of us has those areas that we sometimes struggle with.  I happen to at times struggle with faith.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I have faith.  I preach faith.  I practice faith and I live in the realm of faith on a day by day basis.  It was ingrained in me as a child and it continues to be a vital part of my life.  But, to be honest, sometimes I struggle with trusting and believing that God is really listening or in control.  I know this might come as a shock to some of you but it’s the truth.  There are things that I’ve prayed over and over for and have never seen the results.  Yet… on the other hand – there are things that I’ve hardly given any time in prayer for that are immediately answered.  Go figure.  What I do know though is this – I’m not God and I still live on this earth where I have to process my walk with God on a daily basis.  He is teaching me to trust Him – even when I don’t understand and even when things don’t make sense to me.  My faith is deeper now than it has ever been.  Difficult times have shaped me and tempered me much.  I see life now through a different prism and I walk hand in hand with my Lord on a day by day basis.  I don’t need to know all the answers and I don’t need to know all the time where my journey of faith will take me.  I trust in the Sovereignty of God and am excited about the future because it is in His hands and not mine.  So… do I still struggle?  Absolutely.  But I do know this – He is holding onto my hands right now and I’m not letting go.  I trust Him to see me through.

Mark 10:14-16 (NLT) …He (Jesus) said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

The other day I was on my way to church and decided to swing by Michelle’s house and see baby Josiah. He was asleep but I couldn’t resist holding him in my arms and putting kisses on his cheeks. He was safe. He was trusting. He was content. He was right where he was supposed to be – safe in my arms. In the same way – yours and my heart needs to be like a child when we come to God. We must come to Him with a trusting heart – knowing full well that He will protect and guide us and take care of our every need. He loves that you come to Him and He will never ever push you away. If we could just stay in that trusting position we would do well in life but,as we grow up, we become more self dependent and a little more absorbed with ourselves. We stop trusting God like we should. Instead of coming to Him – we push Him away and we try to make things happen without His help and His guidance. Finally, we come to the end of ourselves and we turn back to God. Praise God He is always there for me but I would rather learn in the first place to just trust Him. I want to be like Josiah – very contented to be in His dad and mom’s (and my arms). It’s the way God intended for us to be.

Job 19:25-27 (NLT) “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

Sigh… life gets hard sometimes. Difficulty and hardship seem to follow all of us wherever we go. People are hurting and are extremely broken. Even our earth is groaning over abuse and misuse. Job was experiencing those things in his own life and relates this throughout this chapter. People had let him down and life was spiraling downward. He experienced losses in his family and his body was giving out on him. And, I’m sure at times, that he felt like giving up and wallowing in his misery. Yet… in the midst of this picture there is a glimmer of hope. He knew something and held on to something in his heart. Even though his circumstances were bad – he knew his God. He knew the promises that had been made to him and he knew the end result – that he would see God. All of a sudden – the circumstances and the problems didn’t matter. He knew the end of the story. He relaxed. He waited. He trusted. He didn’t allow the severity of life to dictate what he already knew in his heart – that… his “redeemer lives” and would redeem and restore him. He focused on that instead of his difficulty and was overwhelmed with the possibility of what God was going to do. You and I can do the same thing today. Get your eyes off your circumstances and get your eyes on God. He will do what He promised He would do. You can take that to the bank today!

Matthew 18:21-22 (NLT) ²¹ Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” ²² “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

Someone came to me the other day and mentioned that they were dealing with something in their lives. They went on to say that everywhere they turned that God was dealing with them about forgiveness. We looked at some scriptures and talked it through of how important it is to forgive and prayed together. However, I left that conversation a little empty because I knew that this was an issue that God was dealing with in my life also. It wasn’t a big issue but a gnawing and annoying issue. I have noticed recently that my thoughts were going to a specific situation over and over. Obviously, I still had some residual of un-forgiveness that I needed to deal with. The fact of the matter is this – We all live on this planet together and stuff happens to all of us. People will end up hurting us in small and big ways. We will end up being wounded and be let down by those surrounding us. Frederick the Great once said, “The more I study people – the more I like my dog.” Funny perhaps. Cute quote. But it doesn’t work. God’s way is this – “the more we study people – the more love and compassion we should have.” People are hurting and hurting people hurt people. Situations will happen. We will get under one-anothers skin. Life will hurt at times. But… God heals all the time. He knows that you and I can’t forgive in our own strength and power. We can; however, look to Him for help in this area. Peter was saying, “God, I only have the strength to forgive seven times.” God’s response to him and to us is the same – “I can help you forgive as many times as it takes. I will help you. Trust in me today.”

Psalms 139:17-18 (NLT) 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

I’ve been pondering over the last few days about how God views and sees me. We often see our lives from our filtered viewpoint.  We see it through the lens of our failures and let downs – our past and our mistakes.  The list could go on and on.  But God sees us so differently.  He views us as special and precious.  His thoughts about me are so numerous and good about us – even more than the grains of sand in the ocean.  This last week was a reminder to me in this regard as my daughter was able to give birth to a healthy son.  There were, at times, when I didn’t see or understand why she and her husband would go through the trial of losing their firstborn and if God really was watching over them or us. It was hard to see why I or any of my family would have to suffer so.   I never turned my back on God but I did have my questions of the way He was leading all of us through this seemingly dark and long tunnel.  I didn’t see how God was doing a new work in me and preparing me to be stronger in the ways of the Spirit.  God wanted to do some things in me that would only come by going through the valley of despair. At times it was more difficult than I could understand – but God came through.  His goodness came into our lives – over and over.  His faithfulness was proved over and over again.  I feel so blessed.  I am in awe.  I am overwhelmed.  Wow!  What a good God we serve.  He never, never leaves us or forsakes us.

Job 3:25 (NLT) ²⁵ What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true.

Overcoming fear is one of the greatest obstacles in a Christian’s life.  It seems that I am constantly dealing with this not only in my own life but in the lives of others.  It is a tool that Satan has used to halt your Christian growth and to make you ineffective in your walk with Christ.  Job stated what we often feel.  We take a negative thought and turn on the switch in our brain that keeps thinking about that thought over and over again.  It is what we think about at night and it is what floods your mind during the day.  Philippians 4:8 teaches us how to counteract this by saying:   “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” We are to” fix” (set) our thoughts on that which is true and right and holy, etc.  We are to “think” upon excellent things.  You don’t have to walk in fear today.  You don’t have to live with the dread of tomorrow.  Put your eyes on Christ today and let Him show His plans for your life and not the devil’s. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT) ⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Job 2:10 (NLT) ¹⁰ But Job replied… Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

Most of us try to put God in a box.  We feel it is our right to determine the course of our lives.  When good things come our way – we are happy but when bad things happen we are quick to blame God.  I don’t understand why some people deal with cancer and others live healthy lives.  I don’t know why some people deal with grief or depression or financial ruin.  The problems that people face are overwhelming at times – even the things I have had to face in my own life.  I used to blame God by complaining that “it’s not fair” but I try not to do that now.  I know that God has a bigger plan then what I can see.  He knows what is best for my life.  He sees and knows things that I don’t know.  He is Sovereign.  God used Job to be a lesson to us all.  He used a man who was wise beyond his years.  Satan tried to throw all sorts of things his way.  He trusted God.  He accepted the good with the bad because He knew God was in control.  My prayer is that each of us will learn to trust God – no matter what our situation is.  That, like Job, we will praise God during the good and the bad.  God wants to use you in life but in order for you to be trustworthy He will allow trials to come your way.  Learn to accept what God has allowed to be in your life.  Keep trusting Him and He will lead you to the place He wants you to be.

Acts 4:13-14 (NLT) ¹³ The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say.

As a pastor I try to take God’s Word, break it down, and bring it to people in such a way that they can live it out in their daily lives during the week.  I am always asking the question – “How can we apply this to our lives and how can we make it work in our homes and places of work.”  This passage helps us in understanding those questions a little bit.  Here we have “ordinary men” going about their day by day life just trying to serve Jesus. They are living out their Christian experience and getting bolder along the way.  The difference was this: Yes, they were just ordinary men but they were men who had been with Jesus.  People saw it in them and saw the authority working through them.  When people see each of us – they should say – “There is a difference about you.  I can tell that you’ve been with Jesus.”  I don’t think that there is any greater compliment that a person can give me then that.  I want to live a life in such a way that people will look at me and say, “You’ve been with Jesus.”  I want His light to shine on and through me that it is noticeable in everything I do and say.  I pray this upon each of our lives today.

Psalms 1:1-3 (NLT) 1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

When I was younger – my dad used to take me hiking and fishing a lot.  We would hike into the back country of Yosemite just to find that perfect fishing hole that we could brag about to all our friends.  One of the things that I enjoyed was seeing the creeks coming off the glaciers and then forming into a rushing stream making its way to valleys below.  These streams, especially in the springtime, became huge channels of destruction to anything that would get in their way.  Their force would move boulders and debris as if it was nothing.  What was interesting was to observe the trees along the banks of the river that were still standing.  The ground around them might have eroded from the waters damage but the trees remained firm because their roots went deep into the ground.  It is not different from you and I in our walk and relationship with God.  We must, through meditating upon God and His Word, allow our roots to go deep into the ways of the Lord.  Storms will come and life will be unfair but we will survive because our foundation is in God today.

Nehemiah 9:19 (NLT) ¹⁹ “But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night.

Think about your deepest trial or your darkest night.  Think about that most difficult experience that left you isolated and devastated.  Now think about God and His presence was with you during that trial.  He was always there.  He never left you and He never stopped loving you.  He extended His hand to you and helped you through every part of that journey.  He protected you and brought you to the place where you are today.  As I look back over my life and reflect upon God – I am so grateful that He walked every inch with me – even when I didn’t understand what was taking place.  In His great mercy He didn’t abandon or forsake me.  He was with me then and He is with me now.  I stand amazed at God and what He continues to do for me.  Ponder this phrase - “He showed them through the night.” Whatever your trial is today – look to God.  It might seem like a small light at the end of a dark tunnel – but don’t take your eyes off it.  If you are in a “night season” – take heart because your God is with you and loves you, as His child, so much.  God will use this difficulty in your life to help you mature in Him and to be a blessing of strength and hope to others.  Your (my) God loves us so much!