From The Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley)

© Bill McCown | www.myghcf.com

Faith in God…rings a little hollow sometimes, heh? You pray for a job, yet  are still unemployed after a year or two. Your brother is diagnosed with cancer, and you pray your head off for his healing; but, instead, end up weeping at his funeral. Maybe you have earnestly prayed, believing God, for a mate and, yet you remain single or are married and pray for the gift of a precious child and, yet remain childless. What is going on?

I would like to suggest a slight change in approach here. When you go before God, don’t put your belief in what you want Him to do first; instead, put God first. That is faith, really. Believing God that He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5); believing that He has a plan for your best interests no matter what shape it takes (Jeremiah 29:11); and believing you are sealed with His Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13) and that you shall be with Him for eternity. That is what we need to believe and in and around that God will shape His plan for us.

You need to be very careful when you pray that you don’t “frame up” the answer ahead of time. When you don’t get what you think you need and how and when you need it, you just may either curse God for His inefficiency towards you or go ahead and step out on your own to “help” Him along. Both are dangerous places to be!

That delay in getting a job may be God’s twofold move where you learn patience and trust as well as receive the perfect alignment of both timing and opening of a more excellent job. The loss of your brother may be because God was going to do more with the shock of your brother’s death than with the continuance of his life. And that lack of having your own child may be a reserving of your time frames to be available to serve others in a manner not possible as a hardworking mom or dad.

Faith is deeper than wishing…it is being bound to Christ, no matter what; knowing that the most excellent results are being formed. Endure the fire…it’s producing pure gold!

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