The Lord has been speaking to me recently about hope, and faith, and His promises.
To be honest, I can tend to be negative; pessimistic. Anxious.
I have an overactive imagination. Imagining extreme things that could happen.
Imaging the worst.
Even though I am praying about things.
Even though I am His. I am forgiven. God has forgiven my sins and made me His child. Because of Jesus Christ, I can be at peace. Trusting in Him and following Him, the sting has been taken out of fear; of death; of disaster. God is on my side.
Yet still I fret.
Even when God gives me promises that He will take care of things.
His Word is full of them. Those who follow Jesus (and God gives no promise to answer us if we are living in deliberate sin) have a lot of wonderful promises we can claim.
And sometimes you just know. You just know you have committed something to the Lord, and that His answer is on the way.
‘Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.’ Psalm 34:5
And, somehow, trusting Him; having faith in Him, is significant in it all.
I know God doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way we want or expect. This world is broken. Things can take time. His ways, in my experience, often seem to be on another dimension to what I expect.
But why does that need to take my hope, when His promises are bigger than the mess and the pain and the waiting and the tears, providing for all of my objections?
Through Jesus, I belong to the Father. He has promised that all things work ultimately for my good (see Romans 8:28).
I know my prayers have weight in Heaven.
There are so many promises I can claim as my own.
And there is also provision. Every time. Abundantly.
Even for the waiting… the tears… the times when we don’t understand.
He always has a good plan in the end for those who follow Him.
‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11
So what about this?
What if I lived in the light of the answers to prayer that are coming?
The solutions that I don’t see yet that are on their way?
That may not look the way I think or expect, but are God’s provision?
What if I lived like God is always going to come through in the best way?
Like He is going to answer my prayers?
Like even suffering works for good for those who trust Him?
Like He hears me?
Like He promises to take care of me?
Because He does.
I look back on things He has done in the past. Abundant provision. I really didn’t need to worry! His provision was so good… so kind… so thorough, I had no reason to fear.
Trusting in His provision could change my attitude. Free me up to care more about others, because I’m less consumed with myself.
Because the Father’s children don’t need to be anxious; fretful; torn up inside.
Of course we suffer. It’s a broken world, and we’re on a collision course with the direction of the rest of the world, which is in rebellion against God.
But we can also know deep joy, and peace.
We can live like the Father’s listening, and He has got our backs. Because He has. 🙂
He showed me this recently:
‘I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God;’ Psalm 17:6a
What an encouragement not just to pray, but to believe that He will answer, and to stand in faith for the answers that are on the way.
To pour out my heart and actually believe He will answer. 🙂
That means I don’t need to carry the burdens anymore.
I can be at peace, trusting His Father heart.
You know, sometimes I find myself suspicious of Him. His ways are higher than mine. I can be suspicious of what I will do.
‘8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.’ Isaiah 55:8-9
But He is good.
Actually, the verse before that gives context. He is kinder than we think He is. He is merciful (see Isaiah 55:7).
He is better than we think He is.
Our ideas of Him and His ways are always too small.
‘5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;’ Proverbs 3:5
He is good. He is kind. He is faithful.
So I can commit my cares to Him, trust… and rest in Him. 🙂
(We all need to have God on our side. We all need His forgiveness. Judgement is coming. That’s why Jesus came. He came to bring us back to God, when we come to Him for His forgiveness, surrender and follow Him as our Lord. There’s nothing we can do earn His favour… He calls us to receive His free gift of mercy, and find love and faithfulness we’d never dreamed possible. This world is broken, but eternity is coming. Come to Him, follow Him, surrender to Him, and you’ll find help for this life, even through the tears, and hope for all eternity).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Caroline Abblitt 