OUR GOD IS FAITHFUL!

“The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.” Deut 1:29-33. In this first chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the Israelites “Look people, you witnessed with your own eyes how God went ahead of you searching out places for you to camp. He carried you like a father carries his child He went before you fighting your battles for you and He didn’t leave you in the desert to wander around alone. God was and is always with you! Even though you knew better, you still did what you wanted to do. “So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country” Duet 1:43 And guess what? Because you rebelled when the Lord told you not to go fight the Amorites, they gave you a sound whipping and like a spoiled child, you ran back to the Lord saying “Ok, ok! This time, we promise, we will do it your way. “You came back and wept before the LORD, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.” Deut 1:45

Does this sound like us today? Maybe instead of the word Israelites, we can just add our individual names? Sure sometimes we catch ourselves moaning and groaning and saying “Woe is me! I’ve got it so bad!” Do we really have it so bad? Look at your life and see where it was really, really bad. I’m not trying to make your problems sound trivial, but I want you to take a moment and reflect back over your life. Granted, many people have had a hard life and I respect that, but I want you to look back and see the many times that God went ahead of you and cleared a path for you. I want you to take a moment and reflect on those times and really think about them....Did you see God in the situation? Have you ever said to yourself “Now that is a God thing!”

If we never take the time to look back, to reflect and to remember all of the times when God has gone before us and watched out for us, then we are in danger of becoming like the Israelites -- forgetting what God has done for us and especially forgetting the God things that we have seen with our own eyes! We think we can do it on our own and then when it goes wrong, we blame God for the situation that we are in or we decide that maybe God really was leading us in the best direction all along and we should have been obedient and followed His will from the beginning.

Since I have been back in church, I have seen God working in my life in so many ways. In the beginning God let me see Him in very small things, but over the years I have seen Him working in my life in very big ways. God gives us the little things to see Him in because He knows that we can handle it. Then as we grow in our faith the things He shows to us becomes bigger and bigger. I have written down all of the God things in my life and I encourage all of you to do that. I know that I will never forget the times that God has shown Himself to me, but it does help me to go back and read about all of those times and each time I read them, my faith grows stronger! By reading about all the God things that I have seen, it helps me to realize that God is bigger than any obstacle that I have to overcome.

I encourage you to take the time to reflect upon the many times that you have seen a God thing in your life (big or little) and write it down. Then when you start feeling sorry for yourself or you start thinking that you can do it alone or you start thinking that God has removed Himself from you, just read (in your own handwriting) the many, many times that God has made His presence known to you! Open your eyes and your heart and see how faithful our God truly is.

@copyright 2010 LVC Ministries, Inc