God's past faithfulness demands my present trust in Him.
Over the last three weeks, Pastor Rob has been leading our church through the "Stones of Remembrance" through the life and growth of Calvary Chapel Corvallis. The most powerful message I have received his account of our church's history is summed up in the above statement. No matter what we happen to be going through in life, God has always been faithful, currently is faithful, and will be faithful in our future. There is never a time when we are uncared for, never a time He does not have His best interest in mind for the people He loves. Through hard times, it is vital to feed on God's past faithfulness in order to survive. We remember the times that He has seen us through the mire before and cling to the hope that He will remain faithful as He was during that fire-swamp. Just as a child locks to his parent in trouble, so shall we hold fast to our Father the Protector. He carries us through when things look destitute.
Lamentations 3:22-23 encompasses the heart of trusting in the Lord: "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Sometimes I find myself reciting this verse over and over in my head, just to convince myself that we will, in fact, survive. I must confess that I have faced minimal trials in my 23 years of life. I will not share my entire book of life now, but I am constantly reminded how truly blessed and protected I have always been. I thank the Lord for the testimonies of others who dwarf my faith and encourage me to see the fulness of God in a bigger light. However, trials never cease in this life. We live in a fallen world, plagued by the sin of all mankind. Thus, we suffer. Many pains are brought on myself by my own selfish ambition. Others appear entirely unexplainable, far from fair, and seemingly unbearable. And those are the moments in which we must hold onto the absolute truth that we will never be consumed because of the Lord's great consumed. Though it feels as if we are drowning, never will be overtaken. The Lord's compassion is never failing. God's faithfulness depends neither on what we can observe nor on our perception.
There will also be chapters in this book of life when things are fantastic. Life goes smoothly, amazing blessings happen, everything is comfortable and secure. It is in those moments we tend to forget the goodness and favor of our amazing Creator. When things are good, it is easier to loosen our grip on God. Friends, what I find is that it is in the good times that we need our Lord the most.
The world will continue to deceive us. We fix our eyes on financial stability, relational satisfaction, job security, covetous possessions. Surely God created this world, everything in it, and gave man the ability to create new things to be enjoyed. However, the moment it becomes more desirable than our relationship with Him, we sin. We lose sight of what is most important, not only one what is most important, but on the only truth that is important.
Ask yourself this: Would you trade in all your money for one day with our God? Would you give up your marriage, your relationship, your family if God reached out His hand to you and asked you to leave it all behind? Would you give up your earthly body, your quest for perfection to be covered by His beauty? Would you give up new clothes, the perfect job, your favorite food, simply to spend one second in His glorious presence? It saddens me that I do not immediately shout "YES" to all these questions. Humbly, ashamed, I merely hope I would nod. The truth of the matter is, I love things too much. I love my family too much. It is time to begin caring less.
Care less about life here on this earth. Put your focus heavenward. Store up your treasures in heaven. All things here will come to an end, but God's love endures forever. Hold on and never let go.
