Daily Devotional – 4/17/12 “Faith won’t let you down!”

For you whose faith is wavering on today because you think God has forgotten about you, hold on because God hasn’t left, you just need to put your focus back on him in order to see what he is trying to show you. Don’t you know that God has already sent you the answer to your prayers, the confirmation to your request or the solution to the problem? Yes, he has already done his part now you need to clean off your glasses, refocus your eyes and move away some of the stuff that’s blocking your view before you let it pass you by. 2 Corinthians 5:7, says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” See, many times on this Christian walk we have to walk down paths that we can’t see the end too or we have to journey to a place before we even know the destination but that’s why we have faith. If you have faith in God then you should know that he won’t ever send you to a place that can harm you. Yea, I know that you can’t understand why God allowed you to be a drug addict or alcoholic but it wasn’t God’s choice for you to put a crack pipe or bottle to your lips but it was yours. Now, God is allowing you to walk that path because once you get to the end and he cleans you up, the struggle you had to go through will make you stronger and wiser to now stand and proclaim to the world that God can do anything but fail. He has allowed you to be a living testimony in order to help all the others that are thinking about trying drugs and/or alcohol. So you see, God hasn’t forgotten you but you need to stop forgetting him. Thank him for your struggles because without them you wouldn’t have known how powerful God really is.

For you my brother or sister whose faith is slipping away because you tossed and turned all night and God still hasn’t come even though you keep calling but have you checked the number you dialed? Many times God isn’t answering because we are too busy calling other folks with our problems and then expecting God to eavesdrop or overhear. If you want an answer to your prayer tell God directly. Why should he have to hear about your problems from somebody else? It’s like you sending your husband to the doctor for your back pain, it doesn’t make sense. You ask folk to pray for you and then they go before God with the situation that you should have brought before him yourself. Yea, I know that God is aware of what’s happening to you but the only way for you to get the right way out, YOU have to ask. Stop relying on other folks to solve the problem for you. See, you have to put in knee time to pray. You have to put in study time to know God’s word and you have to sometimes put in face time, in order for God to hear you. I don’t mean talking to God face to face because that’s not possible but that means lying on your face during your time of fasting and praying. God doesn’t press ignore when he sees you calling and he doesn’t let you go to voicemail because he is on the other line. Just because he hasn’t answered, leave a message (that’s a prayer) and see if he won’t return the call because Psalm 50:15 says, “Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”

For the sleepless husband or wife whose faith is on the back burner because you’re still mad at God for not healing your spouse of their disease although you constantly prayed, don’t give up now. I know that it’s hard to bury the person you’ve slept next too for years but have you stopped to think that maybe their prayer to God was for rest? Yea, I know that you need them here and that it’s hard for you to sleep without them but isn’t it selfish of you to want them here while they suffer? Most times we don’t take the feelings of those into account that are actually going through the struggle because we are only praying for what we think they need when in actuality they have already had the conversation with God and they are ready to go. See, while we are praying for healing, after the doctors have given up they are praying for rest. I’ve never been in a situation with having to deal with a major illness with my spouse but I pray then if this time ever comes we are on the same page because I wouldn’t ever want him to suffer on this side because I’m selfish enough to want to keep him here. If he has made peace with God, who am I to question that? Would I stop praying for God’s intervention, never but would my prayer be different from my husband’s, no. We don’t know the pain and the suffering that others have to go through when dealing with cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes or kidney disease because we aren’t the ones dealing with the hospital stays, radiation, chemo, dialysis and daily pills. They aren’t alone in their struggle because they have folks here with them but we cannot begin to share the pain. So hold on to your faith during this trying time, whoever you maybe, because God will show you exactly what his plan is, if you are open to receiving it. Don’t be mad at God but be happy that he hears you because when suffering is over on this side, there is rest for the weary over there. When their eyes are closed never to open again on this side, they’ve received the rest that their tired body so desperately needed. When the blood is no longer flowing through their veins, on this side, it just means God’s blood has taken its place. Romans 8:18 says “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Faith allows you to fall knowing that you’re able to get back up. Faith fills your tank even though you seem to be riding on fumes. Faith gives you favor although you seem to have lost your flavor. Faith paves the way for your fear to be faint and your fights to be few. With faith you get a solid foundation on which to stand and with this foundation you’re able to forgive and through forgiveness you gain favor and with favor you’re fulfilled and with fulfillment you’re fruitful which means everything you touch is flowing with God’s fire and with this fire there is no fault because the Father has filled you with a fresh anointing that makes you feel like running when no one is chasing you, dance when it doesn’t matter who’s watching, sing even if it’s out of tune and shout because God is just that good. Yea, faith is all you need. Even when you can’t see the end walk like you know where it is because faith will be your guide!