I can't take the credit for these thoughts below. They come from daily devotions with David Wilkerson. It's been a challenging thought of mine lately and almost seems Gold ordained that this morning's devotions were on the subject as well. It's been challenging and refreshing to be encouraged with the thought that yes, I can still praise God even if my dreams and hopes and aspirations never come true. I can still praise God when everything seems like they aren't working how I would like them to. I can depend on God and have faith in Him, that He will continually walk with me through the valley and on the mountain top. Here are the words from David Wilkerson:
So, you’ve turned everything over into the Lord’s hands. You’re trusting him, casting all your cares upon him. And you believe in his promises to keep you, protect you and cause you to walk uprightly before him. You state, “I believe God’s Word. And if he says I’m his righteousness, then it’s his job to make it so in my life. He says his name is ‘the Lord our righteousness’—and that applies to me. I may not have arrived yet, but I know it’s not my job to make that happen. It is the Lord’s. And I know that somehow, by his Spirit working in me, he’s going to get me there.”
God doesn’t want your home, your car, your furniture, your savings, your possessions. All he wants is your faith—your strong belief in his Word. And that may be the one thing that other, more spiritual-appearing people may lack. You may look at another person as being more spiritual than you. But that person may actually be struggling hard to keep up an appearance of righteousness. Yet, as God looks at you, he declares, “There is a righteous man or woman.” Why? You’ve admitted your helplessness to become righteous. And you’ve trusted in the Lord to give you his righteousness.
Paul tells us we are accounted as righteous in God’s eyes for the same reason Abraham was. “Therefore it was imputed to [Abraham] for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:22–24).
You may claim, “I believe this. I have faith in the God who resurrected Jesus.” Yet, the question for you is, do you believe the Lord can resurrect your troubled marriage? Do you believe he can bring to life a spiritually dead relative? Do you believe he can raise you up out of the pit of a debilitating habit? Do you believe he can erase your cursed past and restore to you all the years the cankerworm has eaten?
When everything looks hopeless—when you are in an impossible situation, with no resources, and no hope before you—do you believe God will be your Jehovah Jirah, seeing to your need? Do you believe he’s committed to keeping his eternal promises to you—and that if even one of his words fails, the heavens would melt and the universe collapse?
