from the column "In the Garden with Jesus"

Faithful in the Valleys and the Highlands

God’s faithfulness is really amazing.  He’s always constant, never-changing, and will never let us down!  I love reveling in this wonderful, lovely and beautiful fact, realizing that God is faithful to me- and I don’t come close to deserving it! 

Through out history, He’s been faithful to His people.  He led the Israelites out of Egypt.  When there was no food, he provided Manna, which means, “What is it?” --because it was a heavenly, unidentifiable food.  When they were thirsty, He commanded Moses to strike a rock, and it sent forth gushing water.  All the way through the present time, He’s never- not once- left one of His followers.  He’s with the ones who lead quiet, happy lives; the ones who are persecuted for His Name’s sake; the ones whose sorrows seems never to end.

Have you ever been in total despair?  Have you ever felt helpless?  Abandoned?  Like nobody cared?  Like your world was falling apart?  Or maybe any one of these on a much smaller scale? 

Recently, God put me through something which at the time seemed rather painful.  As I was wading through it, crying out to God for help, He kept saying to me, in a quiet, gentle whisper, “Brianna.  Brianna, I am faithful!”  Suddenly, I realized, God was faithful, and that was the only thing that mattered to me just then.  I began shedding tears, but this time of joy, because of the overwhelming sense of God’s faithfulness.  Somehow, through this trial, He seemed more real and faithful than He ever had before.  He didn’t put me through it because He didn’t care.  In fact, it was only because He cared about me so much that He sent this my way. 

It’s a bit like this: We’re walking down a straight and narrow path, following in Christ’s foot steps.  It leads up, down, and curves all around.  On the wayside, there are many “jewels” that appear to be beautiful.  But if we reach over to pick one up, we’ll fall off the path, into a pool of almost hopelessness.  I’d eyed one, and it looked beautiful just then.  I knew I shouldn’t grab for it, but I didn’t put half my strength into walking straight along the trail.  Yet my Savior loved me, and when I didn’t listen to His gentle calling, jerked me back on the path.  (And taught me a lot, as well!)  Sometimes, God will put a big stone in the middle of this narrow path, to test us in a different way.  In this, too, He’s faithful, for He’s holding out His hand, ready to help us scramble over.  We need only to stop griping long enough to see God’s purpose through all of it.

Trials and temptations are never easy to battle, and impossible to battle on our own.  But let’s remember to ask, why are we here in the first place?  Is it to enjoy an easy ride?  Or are we here to glorify God in everything we do (yes, I mean everything!)?  It’s not so hard to praise God in the good times….but what about the so-called bad?  I think often, God reveals His faithfulness the most during trials, if we’re seeking to serve Him with our lives, and not grumbling when the “going gets tough”.  God can use everything for His glory, if only we’ll let Him.  It’s when we’re “friendless” that God proves Himself to be the greatest friend and/or perhaps provides a friend in a unique way- one which you never could have imagined.  It’s when we’re helpless and “in the depths of despair”, to quote Anne Shirley, that God shows Himself capable of handling everything, with no need for us to worry from the get-go.  Only, it’s not until we finally feel helpless that we allow God to show His competency and faithfulness.  When we’re ready to give up, God’s ready to take command.  Have you ever stopped to wonder how much easier life would be if we would simply trust God’s faithfulness?  Yet, though we may know it as fact, how often we forget His greatness, and feel we need to take things into our one hands in order to get them done.  How many of us can say that we’ve tried doing something ourselves, because God wasn’t moving fast enough for our liking?  Ouch- that hurts, put down in black and white, but really, most of us have been there, done that.  And, we’ve figured out that taking things into our own hands doesn’t help a bit.

How often we rely on the things of this world, or on friends or other people, to make us happy.  Sometimes, we’re relying more on them than God, and so, because He is faithful, He removes that comfort, or sends a storm our way.  He does this only, however, because He cares for you.  He loves you, He wants you.  Sister, He’s standing there with open arms, and all we need to do is run into them, to be safe from the storm.

Rest in the arms of our Everlasting Savior, dear Sister!  We, as humans, have a tendency to want to take things into our hands, and figure things out ourselves, when a problem arises.  We have a perfect solution and even a plan for our lives over the next ten years, and God’s just not working things out very well, or so we think.  But dear Sister, if we only rest in Him, trusting in His eternal faithfulness, He’s made a beautiful promise, in Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”  If we are willing only to wait, and to trust in His faithfulness to bring us through, He will provide.

God is faithful- will you trust Him with your life, or will you entrust your happiness to less-eternal things?

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Featured in the August 2006 issue of  With all of  Thy Heart. (c)  2006  With all of Thy Heart E-zine