Faith

He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass;
 and has set darkness in my paths. Job19:8

    

      Have you ever found yourself feeling that God himself has walled you in? That in spite of exercising your authority in Christ over your circumstances nothing has changed. That everywhere you turn is an obstacle and you feel surrounded by darkness rather than light? All of us at some time or another will experience these times, no matter how spiritual we are, and more likely because we are spiritual. I have found myself in such a place for much longer than ever before but oddly I am now drawing strength from what I am learning rather than becoming weakened through the process. It didn’t start out that way though, trust me.

     What do you do when all you hear from Him are the words “stand” and “wait”, especially when it seems that where you are standing is in the middle of a train track and what you “seem” to be waiting for is the train? I used to think that being in darkness was a sign of a lack of spirituality and what's more, not being able to explain why signified an even greater measure of that lack. I don’t think that anymore, and if you have been like I was, neither should you.

 

     We need to realize that it is during those times that true faith is made manifest and if we will submit to the Lord in it, we will become stronger. I think sometimes we want to understand the why of what we are going through but for the wrong reason. It is one thing to want to learn from our mistakes (what have I done that has brought this about?) and that has it’s place, but too often I think our desire to understand, to want to be able to connect all the dots or cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s comes from our inability to just trust Him. We want to know what God’s purpose is for this, why has He allowed this, and the desire to want to know that is one thing, but could it be that we want to draw our comfort and peace as well as put our faith in what we understand and can figure out rather than trusting the God we feel has left us?  As much as I would love to say I never experience times where it seems God has taken a holiday the truth is I can’t. And from what I have learned over the years, neither can anyone else I know who has learned to really trust Him.

    

     How can we connect all the dots when trying to walk with a God of mystery, no matter how much of that mystery He has chosen to reveal to us He is a God of understanding that cannot be fathomed and of wisdom that cannot be measured and yet we will try like the dickens to rationalize the circumstances we find ourselves in because they are so contrary to what we believe they should be.

     Consider King David, referred to by God to be a man after his own heart and yet over and over through out scripture we read of times where he felt cut off from the Lord, where he felt he was at the gate of death itself, times where he was surrounded by the enemy and surrounded by darkness as well. What a source of encouragement God has given us in the Psalms as David penned his struggles as well as his victories and allowed us to peer into the reality (not the false preconceived idea of what being spiritual looks like), of the life of a man who was intimately acquainted with God.

     But the word tells us, ”Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses).” Hebrews 11:1 Amplified.

     The most important exercise of our faith during these times is believing that God does love me, that my way is not hidden from Him nor my cause disregarded by Him, even when everything seems to be screaming the opposite, which is probably why we have such a hard time hearing the still small voice of the shepherd, yet He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.