So I have this friend whose been loosing faith lately in god. After she found out her mother was battling an ugly illness, she'd began to doubt the presence of god. To simply put, I'm the instrument of god who wants her to believe in him once more, to believe and acknowledge and to rejoice at the fact that he does exist, that he is working in our lives, and that he put these "tests" or "obstacles" in our lives to test how far we would trust him and how strong our faith really is for him. I believe prayer is one of the strongest connection we have to be able to communicate with god. My preacher even said that, in prayer, we are able to talk to him, and it must be a very enjoyable feeling. I also believe that even if we don't hear him talking back to us, he is still listening, and working in his most graceful ways to give to us all the things we ask.
So I persuaded my friend, telling her that, she must not loose faith in god. He does exist, and that I believe since I've, take it from my experience, have seen him working in my life, even if I can't physically see it myself but rather spiritually. God is not looking for someone who is strong, he is in fact, looking for someone who is weak. He wants us to accept him in our lives, and depend on him to heal us from hurt, to depend on him for strength, and most of all, deliver us from our fears so that we may be victorious and overcome them. However, backtracking to myself, just because I said that god is not looking for someone strong, that is not entirely true. By "not someone who is strong", I mean, someone who can admit that they are just human, that they make mistakes, that they can't do everything alone. He however wants you to also be strong, and by strong, I mean "strong in faith". The weakest person who admits their weakness and depends on god for strength, is the strongest person as I see it. Isn't it a exciting to think that we are invincible if we get our strength from god and not just by our own personal strength? A weak strength however, is someone who might call themselves as someone who is strong, they take on every challenge life throws at them, but at the end of the day, is their strength strong enough to overcome the challenges that god would throw at them?
A test of faith, and I will go deeper in this in my next post, is to see, if we have a true heart of gold, that even if it is stashed in the fire, for a while, it would not molten but rather, harden, and it would be worth more for being able to endure. Similarly, if one who is given an obstacle by god himself, a person with a true heart of gold would endure. No matter how painful his trial or disposition, whether he looses everything including his loved ones like Job or his sight like Saul, at the end of the day, faith in God and his son Christ is key. He even says in revelations (to the elect) when the Jews were being persecuted and leading to the destruction of Jerusalem that, we would be persecuted for believing in him, we would be trampled/threaded on but wait for a while, he will collect all these innocent souls and when it is complete he would unleash his total revenge, which was the total destruction of Jerusalem. And keep in mind that John was writing this and in his vision, the Spirit of God told him to write, he saw a throne and surrounding this thrown were the 24 elders, the 12 apostles and 12 the new testament prophets including his elect, and they had rejoiced around his throne with his Son, the lamb, Jesus Christ who delivered us from our sins.
True faith, a strong faith, is fighting for what you believe and never once faltering from that belief, no matter what trials god throws at you, it's a test to see if you really deserve the crown of life, if you really deserve the name as his child, and deserve to stand by his side in the eternal house he build for us in heaven, along with his son Jesus and eating with them in the same table, and rejoicing with our beloved brothers and sisters and angels.
Now we are back to how all of this began, although I hadn't thought of all these when I was talking to her, I'm glad I have thought of it now to share. Although I've said some of these to my friend, I believe I hadn't made my position clear enough. She is still doubtful, and I always tell her that even if she is still doubting, continue to pray. And even if I know she might forget or that she might not take my advice seriously, as for me, I never forget to add her and her mother in my prayer. I pray for the recovery of her mother so that she could see that god is indeed working in their lives, and so that her faith may be restored once more, and I also pray that she may return under his wing, to believe in him once again, and to continue to trust in him.
I believe that God has a purpose for us, and he doesn't leave us to deal with these problems for no reason. Think of it as a script, he is the writer of our life story. From the beginning he knew us, he knew what we would do all the sins and good things we would do as well as he knows what we are thinking and what truly lies in our hearts. He knows our desires, and he knows what we would do and decisions we would make before we make it. My friend told me if he loves us why would he make us get hurt? Why wouldn't he make it so that we don't make mistakes?
My answer to that is that, think of it as learning something for the first time, or riding a bike and falling. We have to experience pain and hurt and falling to know to how to go back again, to know what to do and not to do. We as humans have this mindset to persevere, to try and try again until we succeed. We are thirsty to attain triumph, and so after receiving many scars from the fall, we finally learn to stand up and try again, and eventually master and riding the bike of life. Also, if god knew us, why didn't he stop all the bad things that are happening? Simply because, its all in the balance. Without the bad things coexisting with what is good, how will we learn from our mistakes? If he made us perfectly perfect, what is the point of it all? We would be living a dull life without color or worst, we would be like emotionless robots too perfect and lifeless.
Jesus is namely believed to be absolutely perfect, he is the lamb spotless and without blemish, and that is why he was the greatest sacrifice leading to the remission of our sins, because through his blood, without it, we wouldn't be saved. Our sins wont be washed, and to this day we wouldn't know that God is just and that even with his son he had not spared for the account of many. Jesus serves as an epitome of goodness, even if he had gone through all that pain just to die for us, even after death he is still the victor, the light that outshines darkness, the goodness that envelops darkness, and brings everything into light.
Therefore, If we don't get heart broken at least once or twice in our lives, how else would we know that the person whom we thought we loved or thought loved us, was in actuality not the one destined for us? How else would we learn to not get hurt again? In Genesis as an example, god had punished Cain. He knew that Cain would kill his brother Abel, and instead of killing him as the saying "an eye for an eye" goes, he had let him walk on earth, cursed, to remind us that God is just, and that, evil never prevails, which is a lesson for all sinners, that you too can also be forgiven.
Heed caution my fellow bloggers and readers I do not own the following devotional content. These words are solely from Joyce Meyer's devotional and could be found in the bible app. I re-posted the content because I believe that many are missing out on these devotionals and recommend that if you are a proud child of god, please, feel free to join the world of rejoicing brothers and sisters in downloading the free app.
Joyce Meyer said in her daily devotional content "Pray Persistently"
About twenty years ago, this next sentence changed my life: "You do not have because you do not ask God." This short verse opened a door for me to discover the life-changing power of persistent prayer.
At that time in my life, I was stressed out about a lot of different things. I was trying to make my ministry grow, trying to make my husband do this or that, trying to make my kids act a certain way, trying to make other people do the things I wanted, trying to basically do absolutely everything on my own. As you can probably guess, it wasn't working!
As a burned-out, frustrated young Christian, I realized one day that living in my own strength was useless. I needed to take my problems to God. In other words, I needed to pray more!
When we understand God's love for us and His plan for us, then we can begin to realize the doors that He wants to open for us. But we'll only realize these things when we're constantly talking with Him, listening to His voice, and growing deeper in our relationship with Him.
In Matthew 7:7 (AMP), Jesus tells us, "Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you."
So many times, when we reach the end of our rope, we turn to prayer, but when our prayers are not instantly answered, we give up. Today, I want to encourage you to not only pray, but to pray persistently. Don't stress out trying to make things happen on your own. Give it all to God as you pray.
Remember, He promises that when we seek Him, we will find Him. Let's pray and seek Him with all our hearts.
She even blessed us with a prayer starter :)
Prayer Starter: God, remind me to bring my problems to You. I'm tired of living in my own strength. I need Your guidance and Your direction. As I seek You daily, I will put my trust in You.
