Turning the tables

Happy Easter! 

Lately God has been taking me on a journey where some of my previous blog posts have come back to haunt me...I mean 'remind' me of what I've learnt along the way. One's about being a victim...I've been reminded how with God and His processes (that involve what life throws at us, the decisions we make and also the decisions others make that we have no control over). I think the devil must delight most in self pity, in those times when we feel so sorry for ourselves that we do his job for him and lock ourselves out of ever seeing breakthrough because we're so busy wallowing in the situation we find our lovely selves in. Bottom line, there are no victims in the Kingdom. No one is at the mercy of a natural situation. Everyone has the DNA of an overcomer inside of us to rise above.

What if every trial, every situation, every crisis, every storm, was viewed with an internal motivation to suck that experience dry of any learning and self discovery we could do to come out the other end a better person? What if we took that another step and decided that come what may, through every storm and trial, we would allow that thing, the very thing the devil is trying to use to draw us away from the Father's heart, to actually draw us deeper into who He is, to take us to a place of dependence, a place of reliance, a place of seeking refuge IN Him, that we would never otherwise have been privileged enough to experience. Wow, what would we see happen in our lives if we took everything the devil throws our way and use it to grow closer to God's heart? How mad would he be? I have to admit something here, sometimes my motivation for deciding to do the right thing has a LOT to do with how much I hate the devil and is not all about how much I love God. Don't get me wrong, I love God with all I am but I HATE the devil and that his mission is to rob, kill and destroy the very one's and the very lives God gave His life to save. 

I have been awakened to the sad realisation that not much has changed over thousands of years. Since the days of the Israelite's abandoning God to worship neighboring gods and God allowing devastation and destruction in their lives, then they'd come back around to that realisation that God is God and they needed Him. I used to read those account in the Bible and think about how dumb they were. The ones who saw God deliver them from slavery, who literally saw the Red Sea open up for them to cross it, the ones who were led by a random burning fire through the night... they left THAT God to follow idols. Isn't it uncanny that we do the exact same thing? We get saved, we encounter a mighty, powerful, undeniable hand of God in our lives that changes us. Then comes complacency and it often takes crisis and trials to bring us back to God. It's only then that we realise it's all out Him. The only thing that matters is our journey with Him. 

Isn't it amazing how the King of the universe, the Almighty Creator, the God holding it all together, orchestrates and allows things so He can get to our heart? How frustrating it must be for Him that we just don't 'get it' from the start. That we don't live in a constant state of faith and seeking Him, that we don't pursue Him relentlessly regardless of whether we're pressing in for a breakthrough or a miracle. We are so fickle, so changeable. He is constant, never lies, always faithful. Why does He bother with us? But He does. His love doesn't make sense but is demonstrated in a relentless pursuit of our hearts and relationship with us.

I believe this truth can change the way we see what's happening in our lives. SO often we react in fear to the natural, forgetting two things. One, God allows trials and storms to test our faith, to give us situations to put our faith into action and to see His hand move. Situations that will draw us to Himself and leave us changed, never the same as we go into the next chapter of our lives.The storm is never meant to be the end of the story! If God hasn't got a testimony of victory out of your story it's not the end! Two, God is on our side. Their is no begging, pleading or convincing our Father to help us or bless us or do a miracle. He has provided everything necessary for us to overcome, but how will we learn to fight, learn to overcome if we never have any trouble. Jesus Himself said, IN THIS WORLD WE WILL HAVE TROUBLE, BUT TAKE HEART FOR HE HAS OVERCOME THE WORLD. SO why are we surprised when we have trouble? 

I pray that as I journey my journey with God, what has encouraged my heart will encourage yours. Whether it's for now or later. Whether it's a storm in your job, a bomb-shell of bad news from the doctors, a trial in your family or an impossible situation in your marriage... God is for you, He is GOOD and trials are GOOD. If you let them, they'll wake you up from complacency, they'll lead you back to your source (of joy, of peace and of strength), they'll give you the training ground to see your faith in Him produce a testimony of His faithfulness and your story will have a better ending than an uneventful one that had no platform for a miracle. An impossible situation is a platform for a miracle. If you're at a dead end, you're in the perfect position for a breakthrough! Don't lose heart because as long as you hang in there, you have a God wanting to show you what He can do, not just for you but for those around you and those coming after you who will look at your story and be amazed.

Take heart. Trust is only tested when you don't understand everything. Faith is only useful when there is something you can't do in your own strength. You'll never know God as your help in time of need and your hiding place if everything always goes well. 

I love that we get to decide. That's true love, giving us the choice. Will we let the storms break us? Will we let them shipwreck our faith or will this be the making of us, the event that positions us with a loyal heart that says to God, come what may, (even if you don't save me out of this), I will seek You and trust you. With that as your end goal I don't believe we, as children of a good Father, will ever lose.