In this place that we call Earth, life can be challenging. Life provides us with happy, joyful moments, but also with moments of grief and pain. In the midst of it all, wherever you are in your life, I encourage you to stop and remember God’s faithfulness to you in your life.
If you are alive, God has been faithful. If you’re not starving, God has been faithful. If you’re healthy, God has been faithful. If you’re not in any pain, God has been faithful. If you’re in a good place in your life, God has been faithful. If you have all that you need, God. Has. Been. Faithful. Even if you’re experiencing a tough time right now, God is faithful, and has always been.
Don’t take advantage of God; He does not have to provide for us and take care of us. He chooses to do so because of His amazing, unending, reckless, never failing love for us.
God’s faithfulness often comes to us during the times when it is not evident to us yet or when we just don’t choose to acknowledge it. It’s often in the times when we are so focused on the pain and sorrow that we are facing, or on how great things are, that we don’t stop to ponder upon the fact that in every moment, God is faithful, and He will never stop being faithful. He provides everything we need at every point in our lives. Having just come out of a tough season in my life, I am starting to realize all the ways that God was faithful to me that I didn’t see because I was so hyper-aware of the dilemmas I was facing.
Even looking back on life, and remembering how two years ago this time I was applying to colleges, as well as preparing to graduate high school, and God provided for me in those moments. He lead me to a university that I had never heard of before, but had everything I would need and wanted. My college journey has not been easy, but I have seen how He is using every situation I find myself in to show me how He is continually providing for me. He has never left me, and He will never leave me.
God’s faithfulness may not be shown in very big ways all the time, but He will show his faithfulness in the smallest ways that create the biggest impact in our walk with Him. He will provide the right friends at the right time, He will send people into your life to encourage you to pursue your purpose, He will create situations that will force you to grow and come outside of your comfort zone, and He will position people in your life that will get you where you need to be.
He will create obstacles and failures in your life that may appear to be stumbling blocks, yet are really disguised as road maps; as a means of re-directing you unto the correct path. He will show up in your greatest hour of need, and get you through whatever you’re facing. Just trust Him from day to day.
The greatest challenge we face as human beings in understanding God’s faithfulness is this: we expect God to provide for us in what we think we need in our lives. When we don’t get what we want, we get upset, and pout. We say: “God wasn’t faithful, and He left me stranded”. But God didn’t promise us that He would be faithful in our wants and our needs, but He did promise that He would provide for us what He knows will be best for us. It’s about His will, in His time.
If His will for our lives is not our will, and does not meet our expectations, that’s when we throw aside the idea that God was even faithful or if He came through for us.
Alternatively, do not be discouraged! He may not provide for you in the way you think He should have, but that doesn’t mean He wasn’t faithful. It just means that your plan was not the best for your life. Trust in the one who has already seen into the future, and take His redirection of your plans as His protection over your life. He may have just saved you from something terrible or deadly that you would have walked right into on your own. Be confident in the fact He will never lead you astray if you leave your life in His hands and in His care.
Take a moment today, to stop, and thank God for His faithfulness. Thank Him in for what He has done for you in the past that you didn’t see, for the ways in which He clearly showed you His faithfulness, and thank Him in advance for what He will do for you in the future that you may or may not see.
Have you thanked God for His faithfulness today? Now may be the time to start.
