A few months ago, six to be exact, I extolled to you, my reader, not the importance of the destination, but the journey, the moments we can’t anticipate because that is where God does His best work – when we are out of the way. At the time that piece was written, I had no idea the blessings that were to come (and they certainly did) but I had faith that God had something in store for me, things I didn’t know were coming but believed God to deliver. None of my blessings would’ve come without my faith in God, in the fact that His plans are infinitely better than anything I desired and that better was ahead. But for some of us, the crux of our problems lie in our lack of faith, in the fact that we only trust God to an extent but that extent is a limitation, and placing limitations on God, who knows none, can only be a detriment to us. He has never changed, has never left nor forsaken us but when we doubt and treat Him as though He has, our blessings and His promises can’t be fulfilled.
I write this as a testament to the fact that God’s promises are real, are yes, and Amen! There were things that I was denied before I received what God meant for me, which, for example, included an internship with Sports Illustrated. I was denied a few opportunities before receiving that one but even in my rejections, in being cast aside for things I believed I wanted in the moment, I had faith that God had something better for me, that in this case, the rejections were leading to something greater and I never doubted that. I remember one friend in particular who asked me, how do you know that God has better? And I remember saying that I just did, that I had seen God work in my life in miraculous and amazing ways before and I knew the rejections I was receiving had to be for a purpose greater than I could see. A month after I was denied an opportunity that I thought would take me to the next level and elevate my career, God blessed me with an internship with Sports Illustrated, which ultimately will do the very thing I thought something else would. Just as I was denied the opportunity to speak at my University commencement which included all the colleges apart of my university, I learned I was nominated by faculty, staff and peers to speak at my college’s commencement ceremony and ultimately, I was chosen but none of these doors would’ve opened by God if He didn’t know of my faith in Him, of my commitment to being patient, and of my relinquishing of what I wanted in favor of what was in His will.
So often we wonder why we feel stalled or question why things are not happening at the rate that we believe they should be. We think it must be God, that He’s holding out when more often than not, it is us. There are steps we have not yet taken that delay God and thus, His will for us.
We are asking God, what is next and why has thou forsaken me, but all the while, He is asking us, His children, where is your faith?
We keep getting our relationship with God twisted. He does not work for us, He is not Santa Claus who we come to visit once a year or rather, every time we want or need something and He certainly doesn’t bend to His will. We are the ones who have a debt we could not pay that Jesus Christ paid in full. We are the ones whom He extends grace to daily despite our penchant for sin and if are calling ourselves His children and His workmanship, then we don’t come to God as though He owes us something, but rather, coming to Him as our Father who art in Heaven, as Jehovah Jireh our Provider, and as the only consistent thing in our lives. God has done everything under the Sun to reconcile things between us and Him, to ensure that we do not perish, but have everlasting life and yet, some of us waver in our faith, still only have hesitant spirits, and one foot in and one foot out. But God can’t bless us that way and He certainly cannot bring us to what is next with that kind of attitude.
What God desires from us is a relationship and in a relationship, you get to know the other person, you build trust and over time, you cultivate faith in that person and they in you, so why is a relationship with God any different? God blesses us regardless. As the hymn says, morning by morning new mercies we see. All we have needed, His hand as provided. If you’re reading this, it means you are alive with breath and your body, which means you have survived a year that millions have not, and that, in it of itself, is a blessing. If that alone doesn’t strengthen your faith, does not make it easier for you to trust God and relinquish your plans for His will, then I’m not sure what will.
My father has always analogized faith as a muscle to me. It is something that we need to continually and consistently exercise and whether we realize it or not, our faith is being tested in so many ways.
Our instinct when we find ourselves in difficult or even unprecedented circumstances is to fold, is to allow anxiety to creep in, to panic, and then go to God after we have already let the enemy in. But instead of running to fear in these situations, run to God. React not to your circumstance or whatever you believe to be lacking at the moment, but rather, react to the God you serve who has a perfect track record, react to the fact that greater is He that is in you than that he that is in the world and react as if you know that He has the capacity to do anything. React as if you know there is nothing too hard for Him and as if you know that He created our very world from nothing and us from dirt.
I was told no by the world on more than one occasion, but my Spirit knew better, and God’s track record was simply too pristine for me to believe He would forsake me and not leave me with something better. So, the next time you believe you are stalled or that God is taking too long, and not blessing you with what you thought you’d receive or in what you believe is a timely fashion, ask yourself, where is your faith?
