Something better

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised (Hebrews 11:39)". Sometimes back, I was so desperate and had really been praying and fasting for a job. I had been without a job for over one year and I had to depend on my parents for everything that I needed. That was not easy bearing in mind that they had already paid my entire college fee and ensured that I was well. Although they hadn’t seemed very bothered/ burdened by the fact that they were still giving me up keep two years after I had completed college, I did not take it easily. Many times I had cried to God to grant me a job. I remember I would lock myself in the bedroom and cry to God for hours or cry myself to sleep and other times go without food for a few days just to pray about it. I remember God giving me the above words one of those afternoons in the house while locked in the bedroom. They were not the sweetest words that I needed to hear that time. They were so painful and they cut deep inside me, however, God gave me the grace to take them in and He encouraged me to hold on.

I know that we all go through though times sometimes and I know to some, the experience stated above is so minor and it cannot compare to what you have gone through or are going through. I know some of you have gone through situations that sometimes people describe as worse than hell. And such words in the bible can be so painful. Sometimes you even get bitter at God and decide not to tell Him about your needs. It’s like you lose hope completely and He seems like a God who doesn’t care. I have gone through other tough times -that I would not want to mention here- that have sometimes made me feel like God doesn’t care. Though He says that He is not man to lie, sometimes I have felt like I can question this word. This sometimes is because sometimes I have had to wait for so long for Him to answer my prayers, even though I know that I am not praying amiss or that am praying according to His word and holding on to His promises. It can and be so painful.

I know so many of us have waited on God and sometimes felt like He is 'asleep'. It reminds me of the story of Sarah in Genesis 18, after waiting for so long for a child and one day when the three visitors came and told her husband that she would have a child the following year, she laughed. I believe that this laughter was as a result of the frustrations she had from waiting for so long without a child. This message to her must have sounded like a joke because she had gotten tired of waiting and to her; these words seemed like those promises that never came to pass. I say this because I have gone through such kind of tough times that I no longer seem like I believe. Those times when I look at my journal and see the promises of God in my life but then I just refuse to think about them because it feels like they don’t make sense.

In those times however, God reminds me that His grace is sufficient. In 2 Corinthians 12, we see such pain in the life of Paul. The Bible says that Paul had a thorn in the flesh that would torment him and he would pray that God would take it away from Him. The bible says that three times, Paul pleaded with the Lord to take the thorn away but God told him that His grace is sufficient for him and that God’s power is made perfect in those times of his weakness. I believe that these problems that we face are those thorns that Paul describes in His life. The thorns of joblessness, loneliness, childlessness, cruel and unreasonable bosses, broken families, sicknesses, unanswered prayers and many other problems that we go through in our daily lives. However, God’s power is perfect for us in those moments.

The Bible in Hebrews 11:40, after talking about unseen promises to the promised further tell us that “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect”. I am not telling us this to discourage us from praying and hoping that God will answer us or to make us doubt the ability of God to work it out for us. All I want us to know is that though He won’t give us what we seem to need right now, He has something better for us. Let us allow His power to become perfect in our weakness as He strengthens us and as He uses these pains and ‘thorns’ to mold us and turn us into what He wants us to be. Your ‘thorn’ will be an encouragement to someone else, just hold on, don’t give up because He has something better for you.
God bless you!

Spiritual progress

Next month marks my 8th year since I got born again. However, after doing a critical analysis, I feel like I haven’t really gotten to where I should be. I feel that if I had made spiritual goals just like I make financial and life goals and work towards them, I would be at a higher level spiritually that I am right now. I say so because I remember when I got born again, I would read my bible and pray but it did not last long. This was because I never had somewhere I really wanted to be. However, the major reason why I believe that I did not progress like I now wish that I should have is because I did not do as God required of me. For a long time, I had held on the wrong things and because of this, I could not progress spiritually.

In Numbers 33:55, God was telling the Israelites that they should drive out all the inhabitants of the land that they were to occupy. He warned them that if they would not drive them out, these inhabitants would become barbs in their eyes and thorns in their side and that, they would cause trouble to them as they live in the land that they were to occupy. This is the same thing that happens and happened to me because I failed to get rid of evil immediately. Many times in our lives, we chose to hold on to what is wrong and ungodly. And just as God warned, these things cause us trouble and hinder our progress in our Christian lives. We desire to grow deeper in the knowledge of God and in relationship with God but these things pull us down.

Spiritual progress is not wholly within our control because we can’t make it on our own, we didn’t save ourselves and therefore we can’t make it unless through the help of the savior. However, we have a very major role to play in it. Apart from read the bible, praying every day and even serving in various ways, God requires us to get rid of any and every evil in our lives. In my everyday life in salvation, God is always working on something different every time. Most of these things are those wrong things and attitudes that are in my life. He is always helping me to get rid of them and I realize that when I let go of them, I am always left better. When one of those wrong things is gone; He always gets working on another. This causes me to progress spiritual and even in my relations with Him and other people. However, I have come to realize that this progress occurs when I chose to corporate with God and allow Him to work on me.

We need to do what God requires of us in order to grow. When God asked the Israelites to get rid of the inhabitants of the land, He further gave them boundaries. He knew that the Israelites would need boundaries that would limit their interaction with those others nations. He knew that unless they had these boundaries, they would easily mix with the people that He did not want them to mix with (Numbers 34:1-2). The same thing applies to us in our Christian lives. God expects us to get rid of every evil that may hinder our progress. Moreover, He expects us to set boundaries in our lives that will helps us to keep from going back to evil thus cause us not to progress or would cause us to progress at a low pace than we expect or that He expects of us.
The word of God tells us what we should do or not do. Although salvation is not about dos and don’ts but about grace, we need to realize that these dos and don’ts help us to set boundaries and get rid of evil in our lives. Example of the dos and don’ts is when the word warns us against being unequally yoked with unbelievers or walking in the ways of the sinners or against bad company because it ruins good morals. Unless we follow these things, we often find ourselves falling and thus dragging in our spiritual progress.

Many times in the past I failed to keep away from evil and kept falling because apart from not setting the boundaries, I failed to realize that God has given me the grace to say no to all forms of ungodly. However, I later realized that this grace is always very sufficient in all times and especially when the spirit and the flesh are in conflict. In these times, we need to understand that though we face such trials, we have power over them because God can never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. Overcoming these trails, getting rid of evil as and when God requires of us and setting boundaries in our lives along side reading the word, praying, fellowship and even serving help us to progress spiritually effectively.
God bless you!