W7D2: God Is Faithful

"The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." 1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

People can’t be with us every step of the way and they can’t decipher the deepest moans and groans of our hearts, only God can do that. Yet, in the midst of the darkest, deepest pain it can feel like He's nowhere in sight. That's when we must lean on the truth of God’s Word. He has promised that He will never leave us, that He will help us and He will never fail us. But what happens when that doesn’t “feel” true? 

When the Scriptures talk about God’s presence, power and provision, they also talk about the role we play in His kingdom. God made us to function in unison with His nature, with His creation. By acting in accord with the way God created things to work we allow Him to do His part. His nature will never change to coincide with ours, so in order to be part of His creative power, to have His presence and provision, our nature must change. 

God won't make us change; He gives us the ability to choose that for ourselves. We don’t have the power to change the nature of creation, but we do have the ability to work with God to change ours. Sometimes we are like children who say to their parents, “I do it” because we want to do things our way, until something goes horribly wrong. That's when we turn to Him and ask Him why He left us and allowed this pain to happen.

But sometimes, we are doing our part. We do love God and love others. We seek His will, desire His presence and His guidance above all things. Yet, something tragic happens, a failure, an illness, rejection, or death. We're hit by the harsh realities of life and it stings.  So where is God in this?

We may not always “feel” His presence, but as we do our part, we draw closer to God and understand that while we are living on this earth we will have trials, struggles and pain. We're not isolated from the consequences of our sin or the sin of others.

This is why we study the Scriptures, so we can know Him and His faithful nature. Time and time again we read how God has remained faithful, even when people are not. We see how the bad things that happen work out for good in the end. We see that our limited perception clouds our narrow perspective of life’s trials and pain. 

We worship God because it helps us realize that nothing touches us without being sifted through His hands first. He uses adversity in our lives to help us grow; to positively influence our lives and the lives of those around us. We seem to think that a life of pain and adversity is the opposite of a life of abundance and joy, but in truth we can’t have one without the other.

Do you believe God is faithful? What are some examples of God’s faithfulness that you have seen in your life or in Scripture?

Meditate on “And God is faithful"