When all is gone

Life is not constant, it keeps on changing. Some times it’s anticipated while other times it is not. I look at my life and see how much everything has been changing. Just today, I received some news that a friend was leaving to a distant place where I would not be seeing this friend as often as I do. It kinda hurts big. A few months ago I had to leave my friends and a part of my family plus a life that I had been used to for 7 years, to a place that I had not been or known of before. That hurt too. It hurts everyday when someone we care about or something we value is lost or goes out of reach.  Sometimes it can cause us fear especially if that person or thing held an important part in our lives. 

Writing this, I am reminded of the story of Joshua during the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. Joshua had been Moses’ assistant for sometime before his death. He was to lead the Israelites to Canaan; The Promised Land. We learn about Joshua when he and Caleb together with other men had been sent to spy the land that the Israelites were going into. After that we hear of Joshua being an assistant to Moses. The bible in Deuteronomy 1:38 tell us that God had told Moses that Joshua would be the one to lead the Israelites to Canaan. God had further asked Moses to encourage Joshua and I believe Moses had been preparing Joshua well enough for this task.

When Moses died, as recorded in Deuteronomy 34, I believe that it must have been so overwhelming for Israelites but most to Joshua. The bible says that they mourned Moses for 30 days. Although Joshua knew that he was to take up the leadership role after Moses and that the Spirit of wisdom got into him after Moses died, it was so difficult for him. The Lord had to again come to him and remind him to be strong and courageous.  This is when he was able to get up and gather all other leaders and then he gave them the instructions on what was to happen next (Joshua 1).

The departure of Moses was a great loss for Joshua. Moses had been a great leader (Deuteronomy 34:10-12). He had led the people in wisdom, following the instructions given directly to him by God. How was Joshua going to lead? Would God really speak to him like He had spoken to Moses? I believe such must had been the kind of questions that were going on in Joshua’s mind. Moses was everything to him and ‘all’ was now gone. How was he going to manage it? However, I am grateful to God because when ‘all’ seems to be gone; He becomes sufficient for and to us. The bible says that when Moses died, God filled Joshua with the spirit of Wisdom (Deut 34:9). It further state in Joshua 1:16-18 that the Israelites fully pledged their loyalty to Joshua and were ready to be led by him. 

I believe that this was the doing of the Lord. We are going to lose what seems to be our ‘all’ when God needs it gone. However, God will be there for us and will guide us through it all. I can testify that my moving to a place I didn’t know was for my good. God has been sufficient, I have grown and many nice things have happened to me. If God take away your all, He will be your all and He will make it well for you.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

Getting through victoriously

Easter is a few weeks away and I am so excited because I will be celebrating an act served as the beginning of victory in my life. However, looking at how this really happened, I see what our lives are really made of and what God is capable of doing through every situation that we have to go through. By saying this, I am talking about the events that took place in the garden of Gethsemane before the arrest and the crucification of Jesus Christ.  Many times in His ministry, Jesus had spoken about His death. Salvation was His top on the list of goals for Him to accomplish on earth. This would be achieved through His death on the cross which was His last but the greatest thing that He was to accomplish. 

All along, Jesus seemed so ready for it, that He even at one point rebuked the devil in Peter, who was trying to say to Him that He was not going to die, which meant that He would not accomplish this purpose. However, it appears differently when we see Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane pleading with God to take the cup of suffering away from Him. It must have been so bad for Jesus to accept the fact that He would be betrayed by one of His disciples and denied by another but I believe that accepting that He would die on the cross and suffer all the pain, shame, rejection and crucifixion was even worse.

If I can be very sincere with you, this prayer of Jesus for the cup of suffering to be taken away from Him really encourages me a lot. The fact that Jesus the Messiah and my savior was going through so much pain and pleading with God to take this away from Him helps me to realize that in my own flesh I can’t do anything. That it is normal for me to want to run away from pain even when it is for the glory of God, for my good or for the good of a loved one. However, His next part of prayer in Gethsemane gives me greater joy. It blesses and encourages my soul to read how Jesus even with all the pain that He foresaw that He would suffer, He chose to surrender to the will of God. “My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done (Matthew 26:42)”. These were powerful words. I believe after these words, Jesus received all the strength that He needed to show His love for us through the events of the cross which led to our salvation.

Many times in my life just like Jesus, I have found myself resisting the will of God especially when it seems to have some pain involved. Many times I have fallen asleep while crying and continued with the crying after waking up asking God if I really had to do it. However, every time I am reminded of this story about Jesus, I wipe my tears, wash my face, put on a smile and let the will of God be done in my life. It is not an easy thing to do.  Jesus Himself told the disciples that although the spirit is always willing to go through those painful experiences that lead to victory, there will always be struggles with our weak flesh. However, I have come to learn that if we choose to surrender to the will of God and let it prevail, He will and has already given us the strength we need to go through it and come out victorious.

It can be difficult at times when we have to go through such painful experiences but the bible in 1 Corinthians 10:13 tell that such experiences are common to men and that God is faithful and can never allow us go through more than what we can bear. If we surrender to Him and choose to go through it for His glory, He will give us the strength we need and the result will be victory through Him.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

Standing on the promises of God

While trying to encourage myself through the word of God this weekend, I was reminded of the word about the story of the son of the promise and the son born in an ordinary way in Galatians 4:23. These were the sons born to Abraham by Sarah and Hagar the slave woman. The bible in the book of Genesis tells us about Abraham, the great man of faith who had been promised a son by God.  His wife was barren and he had waited for so long to receive this promise. At some point, his wife had found it ridiculous for them to keep on waiting; she may have reasoned with her limited mind that maybe God was not serious about it and that they should try getting an heir by their own way; the ordinary way.

At this thought, Sarah gave in to her flesh, doubted God’s promise and took one of her slave girl and gave her to his husband so that they could have a son through her.  This girl gave birth to a son (Ishmael) whom they thought was going to be their heir. However, the bible says in Genesis 21:1-2 that at the time that God had promised, Sarah become pregnant and gave birth to a son (Isaac). The bible records that sometimes later, the child born through the ordinary way began to mistreat Isaac. On seeing this, Sarah asked Abraham to send them away. God spoke to Abraham about it and told him that Sarah was right and Ishmael had to go because he was not the one who would serve as the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham by God.

This story reminded me about the faithfulness of God. It reminded me that I should hold on to God’s promises because they are true and in His appointed time He will fulfill them. Sometimes when God promises us things, they may look ridiculous to us or to another. You see, it is so natural that if anyone needed a child but can’t have them, they may opt for adoption. In the case of Abraham, their culture allowed for them to have a child through a slave they owned, and this child would become theirs. However, for the case of Abraham, God had a different plan. God wanted to glorify Himself through Abraham and He saw it right for them to have to wait and have a son God’s way and no other way would work for them.

This same thing may apply to us. God may desire to use us for His glory in an extra ordinary way, a way that is not common to man. I think about many other people in the bible like Job or Lot or even Adam who had children the common way. If these people were in Abraham’s time, they might have thought that Abraham was crazy to hold on God’s promises. No wonder Sarah found it crazy that God would give them a son at an old age. That explains why she laughed when the three visitors in Genesis 18 told her that she would have a son at such a time the following year.

In life, everything happens, God set for it to. However, there are things that must happen in extra ordinary manner. These things are mostly the things promised to us by God. In our waiting, someone may look at us and think that we are crazy but we need not to seek for them to happen the common ways. God is not man that He should lie, He doesn’t change His mind concerning what He promises but He watches to see His word to accomplish what He has set it to. So whether it looks unreal to everyone else, don’t doubt Him. He will accomplish it in His appointed it. Don’t try it the ordinary way, He meant for it to happen to you in an extra ordinary way. So stand on His word, stand on His promises.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.