Many believers doubt that God is with them. Their main evidence is they cannot feel God is with them. They assert that if the condition of their faith is not sound, it is a valid reason for God not being with them. To overcome this, they either pray harder or diligently do something else to prove themselves.
When people are not sure God is with them, this means that their faith is not firm. Why is their faith not firm? It is because they have no standard of what faith is. People who regard feelings or intellectual confidence as the heart of faith doubt if they are even saved. It is difficult to expect a life of obedience and service from them. However, a life of obedience and service is the way to prove a person’s faith. It is the method to call God’s presence.
The word ‘belief’ has the meaning of ‘a recognized knowledge about salvation’. But a broader meaning is ‘an obedient attitude to the Lord’s guidance’. The word that realistically express this is ‘faith’. If ‘belief’ has a momentary dimension related to intellectual understanding, ‘faith’ has a long-term dimension related to a changed attitude. In short, true believers are radiant in life when they have the attitude of obedience and service.
If people’s circumstances do not go smoothly, many think God is not with them. However, we must not judge by worldly standards. God sometimes leads us through difficulties and trains us through them. The world’s circumstances lead us deny God, but God wants us to recognize He is with us even in hardships and become mature by obeying His guidance.
When you think you are in the middle of hardships, do not think the Lord is far away. The Lord is always with us and helps us so that we do not fail in our faith. Particularly, do not despair when you have hardships because you are serving in church by the Lord’s command. This is because the Lord still watches you and will help you at the right time.
At one time, the disciples obeyed the Lord to get on a boat, and they encountered a storm. The disciples did not expect this. They did not suffer trouble because they defied the Lord’s word, but faced it as a result of their obedience. The disciples rowed unceasingly. They probably thought the Lord forgot about them. But when they were most desperate, the Lord appeared to them in the most unexpected way and saved them.
The Lord cherished the disciples’ faithfulness for obeying Him and going onto the boat - though they knew a storm might that day. From the world’s perspective, the places where the disciples went were very dangerous, but those places were in fact the safest. This is because they were places of obedience. A safe place for believers is not where they like, but where they obey the Lord’s will. Let’s not be afraid, no matter what troubles we face because of the Lord’s word. Let’s trust in the Lord and obey Him, since He is with us and commands us, “Take heart”.
(Lord’s Day Service on July 18, 2021)
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