“I’m starving, we are NEVER going to eat dinner!” Say’s our eight-year-old in a very frustrated and forceful tone. It was 6:00 pm.
“Buddy, have I ever NOT given you dinner?” I replied. I thought it was funny that something as consistent as dinner would be the thing that he was suddenly panicked wouldn’t happen. He knows that every night he has dinner. Whether an elaborate multi-side dish meal or a slap leftover’s together kind of meal, he always has dinner.
His words struck me and although at the moment I thought it was silly, I found myself thinking about that interaction hours later.
I find that I have similar interactions with God. I have seen His faithfulness in my life, over and over again. Yet at times, the slightest challenge that throws me off balance, finds me questioning if He will be there again.
Have you ever felt that way?
An unforeseen expense, a health issue, a relationship that is struggling, something that catches you off guard. In those times, have you ever doubted God’s faithfulness?
We wouldn’t be the first to do this. Even the disciples who walked with Jesus and saw Him do incredible things, found themselves questioning His faithfulness. One moment Jesus would do something totally epic, and at the first sign of the next challenge, they would panic. I can so relate!
Let’s look at Matthew 8:23-27
23Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The storm came without warning. Have you ever had a “life” storm catch you off guard? The disciples immediately panicked and thought the worst, “We are going to drown!” At the start of something challenging, do you ever find yourself going right to the worst-case scenario?
Jesus tells them, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” I should frame that verse and place it all over my house, I need that reminder! How about you?
The winds and the waves obey Him. That doesn’t mean that things in life will always go our way, or that we will never have problems. However, it does mean that He will always have our best interest in mind.
We are His children, He loves us and will never leave us. As we walk through the storms of life, we can be assured that He is with us. I am often surprised by the challenges that come my way in life. It may be a surprise to me, but it is NOT a surprise to God.
Several years ago, my family went through a really rough time. I remember crying out in prayer, desperate for the peace that I knew only He could give. In a moment of desperation, He dropped these words into my heart;
“I know the end FROM the beginning. Things that are out of your reach, are in the palm of My hand.”
Those words brought me to tears. Although I didn’t have a solution to our problem, I knew that I could trust God with the outcome.
In Mark 8:14-21 Jesus tells the disciples to “watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” Not understanding what He meant, they discussed that He must have said that because they had forgotten to bring bread and only had one loaf.
This made me laugh! Only 14 verses earlier in Mark, Jesus had just fed 4,000 people on seven loaves of bread. Right after that, the disciples think that Jesus is worried about not having any bread. Really?
I can relate to the disciples!
You would think having just seen the miracle Jesus performed, they would believe anything was possible. Surely they would not have doubted that Jesus was worried about not having enough bread.
I can think of many times in my life that God did something amazing and then the next day I panic and wonder if He will be there for the next challenge. Can I get an Amen!
Could it be that we sometimes doubt His consistency?
Just as our son Matthew knew that he always gets dinner, he wondered if today would be different. Would today be the day that we were not consistent to provide his needs? I have wondered the same about God.
Hebrews 13:8 tells us that God is the same yesterday and today and forever. My friends, THAT is consistent faithfulness!
The same Jesus that fed 7,000 people on 4 loaves of bread & a few small fish, will take care of your family’s future. The same God that parted the Red Sea for the children of Israel to cross safely will be there to move mountains for you!
The God that closed the mouths of Lions for Daniel will protect you. Jesus who calmed the storm for the disciples, can calm the storms in your life too. We serve an unchanging God in a time when everything around us is consistently changing.
How quickly we forget. We would love to hear in the comments below, about a time when you realized God’s consistency, in the middle of your doubt.
Below is a quote from St. Augustine that really hit home to me…
“Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”
St. Augustine
The last two weeks have been a doozy for me. Things showed up out of nowhere. Fears. Doubts. Anxiety …. ironically all surrounding a great gift God bestowed recently in my life. I was stunned. Shattered. Full of fear.
After a solid week of not sleeping more than 2 hrs a night (the enemy’s chatter is as relentless as Christ’s love for us) I was at my end. Every night I had prayed-all night long with tears-faithfully-yet sleep never came. The enemies voice didn’t silence. It just got louder. My tears didn’t stop. Still I prayed. I asked why? Why is this happening NOW? What did I do wrong?
The story continues (too long to share here-I’m no blog hijacker!!!! Lol) but what I can say is with exhausted, continued prayer and faith that I believed this would somehow stop. Finally, we’ll into the third week….it has. The enemy pushed hard. So hard. God has now flicked him away like a buzzing fly. It took time. It took faith. It took consistency. It took honesty and reflection.
God is here. He is here in His time. Unsolved mysteries are part of Life. I may never know why this attack from the enemy came but what I do know is that God never abandoned me.
Morrighan, I am so sorry to hear about your past couple of rough weeks. Way to persevere and stand in the midst of the battle! That is not easy. I will be praying for you for rest, joy, and peace. His light shines in the darkness, I love that you kept your focus on God in the midst of the dark. Remembering your lemon tree. 🙂 Hugs to you my friend!
Amen! I had severe back problems and two weeks before my baby girl was born, the back problems went from manageable to terrible. I thought I would be healed once she was born because I believed her position was the root of the cause. Days after she was born, I was literally holding a miracle in my arms, a baby I wanted so badly for my whole life and when I did not get pregnant right away I was baffled because I believed my heart for her was in alignment with his. I was studying her eyelashes, nose, lips, soft baby skin and again, holding this miracle and I was filled with hopelessness because my back was not healed with her birth. It was not long-lived because I was surrounded by people of faith and they must have transferred faith in the prayers they prayed or the food they brought me or the hugs they gave me because four months later I truly was healed. I still have days of discomfort and my mind can wander towards doubting and dispair, but God is faithful and my doubting never changes him, it just increases the number of times I am reminded how faithful he is.
P.s. your eight year old can always come over here for dinner 😉
“God is faithful and my doubting never changes Him.” That really stood out to me! What a great point to keep in mind. He is big enough to handle all of our doubts and despair, He meets us within it! SO beautiful!
P.s. Thank you! I may take you up on it this summer! 🙂
Excellent devotion Denisha. I am reminded God is always consistent in protecting my teenage daughter when she is driving. Bring a novice driver, I get concerned about her, especially at night. God always brings her home and I’m so grateful.
Ruthie, that is a great mama reminder! In 25 days, I will have my first driver in the house. Thank you for the reminder that God is with him even when I can’t be. That is good news! 🙂