Since it is the season of Sukkot, The Feast of Tabernacles, in the Hebrew calendar, and this time is marked by joyous celebration in The Lord's faithfulness, provision and His covering, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on God's faithfulness to me. It's good to remind ourselves of what God has done in our lives. Not only does it help to encourage others, but it helps encourage and strengthen our own faith, trust and hope in God when things are not going the way we would like.
These incidents seemed monumental and were very difficult for me at the time. Even though the circumstance looked terrible, God stepped in and totally turned things around in my favor in each case.
I had started my first semester back at college after several years absence and had been working for a company for quite awhile. One day, not long into the semester, my manager sat down with me and questioned me regarding one of the customer accounts. Since I personally hadn't worked with the account, I had no idea what she was talking about and couldn't give any explanation. Much to my surprise, I was told to go home and not come back until things were "investigated". It turned out that someone was embezzling from our company and I was accused. It was so absurd that I couldn't really believe that it was happening to me. I had rock solid proof that not only was I not there on the day in question, but I had to take out loans to go back to college and I was driving around in a second-hand car while the actual culprit had been taking trips to Vegas and showing up at work with a brand new car. I felt like Alice in Wonderland and that I had fallen down the rabbit hole. Well, I might have been in a hole, but God intervened pretty quickly. It so happened that one of my college professors had a friend who owned a software company and was looking for a student to hire. Yes, you guessed it. I not only was cleared of suspicion from the former place of employment, but I was hired for the new position, wound up with a raise and the job was in my field of study. I received a lot of valuable training from that position and still keep in touch with the woman who owns the company. That is the hand of God coming to my rescue!
There was an incident that happened not long after changing jobs. Sometimes it's totally unavoidable through no fault of your own: someone ran headlong into my car and totaled it. Things looked bleak because I didn't have a savings account through the college years to fall back on. However, I did have God and He was there with provision for me. I wound up with a newer car with less mileage and lower payments that really helped me each semester while living paycheck to paycheck.
Something happened to me within the last year which, once again, proved The Lord's kindness and faithfulness to me. It is His way to restore things that we lose or have to let go of that will turn out better than we can possibly imagine. Even though it may be difficult for a time, short or long, God does not fail us. He allows us to go through testing, yes. And it can be incredibly difficult after we have endured longer than we think is fair or right. But He will keep us during those times and we will see His faithful hand in our lives.
It never gets old for me to remember what He has done over and over again in my life. Someone recently reminded me of 2 Corinthians 4: 8-18, "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
Take time this week to rejoice in the things God has done in your life and be encouraged that even if you are going through troubles now, don't lose hope in The One who longs to show Himself strong in your situation. It's what I am reminding myself of this season, the season to rejoice before Him. Lord, I choose to rejoice in Your love and Your faithfulness. Even if i don't see it yet, You have not failed me in the past and I believe I will see Your goodness in my future. I believe in God and so I am speaking!
These incidents seemed monumental and were very difficult for me at the time. Even though the circumstance looked terrible, God stepped in and totally turned things around in my favor in each case.
I had started my first semester back at college after several years absence and had been working for a company for quite awhile. One day, not long into the semester, my manager sat down with me and questioned me regarding one of the customer accounts. Since I personally hadn't worked with the account, I had no idea what she was talking about and couldn't give any explanation. Much to my surprise, I was told to go home and not come back until things were "investigated". It turned out that someone was embezzling from our company and I was accused. It was so absurd that I couldn't really believe that it was happening to me. I had rock solid proof that not only was I not there on the day in question, but I had to take out loans to go back to college and I was driving around in a second-hand car while the actual culprit had been taking trips to Vegas and showing up at work with a brand new car. I felt like Alice in Wonderland and that I had fallen down the rabbit hole. Well, I might have been in a hole, but God intervened pretty quickly. It so happened that one of my college professors had a friend who owned a software company and was looking for a student to hire. Yes, you guessed it. I not only was cleared of suspicion from the former place of employment, but I was hired for the new position, wound up with a raise and the job was in my field of study. I received a lot of valuable training from that position and still keep in touch with the woman who owns the company. That is the hand of God coming to my rescue!
There was an incident that happened not long after changing jobs. Sometimes it's totally unavoidable through no fault of your own: someone ran headlong into my car and totaled it. Things looked bleak because I didn't have a savings account through the college years to fall back on. However, I did have God and He was there with provision for me. I wound up with a newer car with less mileage and lower payments that really helped me each semester while living paycheck to paycheck.
Something happened to me within the last year which, once again, proved The Lord's kindness and faithfulness to me. It is His way to restore things that we lose or have to let go of that will turn out better than we can possibly imagine. Even though it may be difficult for a time, short or long, God does not fail us. He allows us to go through testing, yes. And it can be incredibly difficult after we have endured longer than we think is fair or right. But He will keep us during those times and we will see His faithful hand in our lives.
It never gets old for me to remember what He has done over and over again in my life. Someone recently reminded me of 2 Corinthians 4: 8-18, "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
Take time this week to rejoice in the things God has done in your life and be encouraged that even if you are going through troubles now, don't lose hope in The One who longs to show Himself strong in your situation. It's what I am reminding myself of this season, the season to rejoice before Him. Lord, I choose to rejoice in Your love and Your faithfulness. Even if i don't see it yet, You have not failed me in the past and I believe I will see Your goodness in my future. I believe in God and so I am speaking!
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