In the Beginning, When the Going gets Tough, He Does What He Says He'll Do!

I think I somehow missed a week posting, I will try to make up for it this week!

As you all know, if you keep up with my blog, God has done some pretty amazing things in my life over the last year. I have been blessed many times over and God has taken me through some things I never thought I would have the strength or courage to go through. This week I have really been praying about what God wants me to do next. As you saw from my last post finances have been at the forefront as of late. I feel like he is really asking me to make some big changes, ones that will definitely have me stepping out in faith. They are long term and VERY goal oriented. As I was reading my dailies this week for Sunday School, and again in Sunday School and during the service, I feel like God just gave me a promise, that if I will remember, will help me in the future.

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

                                                                       Philippians 1:6 (KJV)

God has shown us time and again through out the bible that if we will trust in him and follow his path he will be faithful. This morning we were looking at the story of Miriam, Moses's sister. She was a witness of God's power from a young girl. She saw how he protected her brother and insured his safety, how he brought that same brother forth to help free them from slavery in Egypt, and she sang praises to God when he parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass and then sent the waves over the Egyptians that followed. She received the manna from the skies when she was hungry in the desert and the water from the rock when there was no water to be found. She knew the power and goodness of God and yet she did not trust him when it counted the most.

Miriam questioned God and her brother, Moses. Things didn't seem to be happening in the the timing she thought was fair and she basically thought that she could do better. Because of her audacity and discontentment she was sent out of the camp for seven days to have a heart to heart with God. (Exodus 11 & 12) And ultimately, because of their lack of faith the Israelites as a whole had to wait 40 YEARS to enter the Promised Land, because even after everything God had done for them, they still didn't have enough faith to believe he would complete his work and give them the land he had promised them.

How often do we become discontented with where God has us, or how God is instructing us? Do you question his will for your life? Worse yet, do you wander from his path and try to accomplish things on your own? Do these attempts ever seem to end up working out the way you plan them? Most likely they don't. As I have learned the best way to accomplish your goals is to make sure they are of the Lord, follow his lead, and DON'T TRY TO MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN! So how do we remember how faithful the Lord has been in the past when the going gets rough? That was one of the questions we discussed in Sunday School, and the pastor answered it brilliantly in his sermon.

3 He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation and stopped working.

                                                        Genesis 2:3 (GNT)

God took a day, just to enjoy his creation, he wasn't tired, it wasn't like he couldn't do more if he wanted to, he was just finished. He has created all that he wanted to create he had COMPLETED his work. God ALWAYS completes his work. There is no promise that God made in the old testament that he did not complete or fulfill. Not one! Sometimes it was a blessing and sometimes it was a curse, but if he said it he did it! He is a God of completion!

Do we set a time apart every week, or DAY, to reflect on what God has completed in our lives? How he has blessed us, or chastised us, or challenged us? I think this is the secret to keeping on track! Reminding ourselves as often as needed of all the ways God has been so faithful to us in the past and present so that when the going gets hard, the answers aren't coming quickly enough, or the trials are lingering, we know that God is a faithful God and what he begins he does finish! It may not be in our timing, but it will be in the perfect time, because God is perfect and he is just and all good things will come to those who wait upon him!

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

                                                        Lamentations 3:25 (NIV)

And so I ask again, where is your hope? Do you stop to acknowledge everything the Lord has done for you regularly? When times get tough what is your reaction? What has God completed in your lives that is a testament to his faithfulness and love for you?