When all else fails, choose to believe. The Bible tells us,
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. {Mark 9:23}
God has given us the liberty and the freedom to choose, and it is up to us to choose how to live our lives. Whether we’re going to follow Him or follow the ways of the world, we have that choice. Personally I feel like there’s not much choice for me out there but to follow the Lord. The world keeps changing and nothing stays the same. Nothing is dependable, nothing is steadfast, nothing except Jesus’ love. What else choice is there? When all else fails, choose to believe in God.
But life is going to challenge us, especially in the world we live in, to keep believing in Jesus. It’s not always going to be easy to keep following Him and keep believing in Him, especially when things get hard and the only thing you have going for you is your faith. The world is going to challenge us. Our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even those near and dear to us, are going to cause us to question whether God is faithful or not. As I said, when all else fails, choose to believe in God. Why? Because time and time again the Bible has proven God to be faithful. The experiences of the faithful saints of God in times’ past, in their testimonies and in their writings, have shown that God is faithful. No matter what happens, if we wait long enough for God, He will show up. He will come through. He will prove Himself to those that choose to believe in Him.
I think about Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. He was a dreamer, and at a very young age God started to deal with Joseph and showed him what was in store for him. It looked like he is going to be lifted up and become a ruler over his family. This is what God was showing him in his dreams. One dream showed all his brothers’ sheaves bowing to his sheaf. His stood up in the midst of them and they all bowed to him. His brothers scorned him for this. They said to him when he told them the dream, “Are you telling us you’re going to be a ruler over us? You’re going to have dominion over us?” They did not like it one bit. Another dream showed the sun and the moon and eleven stars making obeisance to him, showing respect and honor. Not only were his brothers angry with him for this dream, even his own father wondered at him and rebuked him and said to him, “Joseph shall I and your mother and your brethren indeed bow down before you to the earth?” I bet Joseph didn’t even know himself what to make of this. What was going to happen to him? How was this all going to transpire? How was this going to happen? Was this is all a figment of his imagination? There was something in Joseph that made him believe. Even his brothers and his father believed because they rebuked him for his dreams. They knew that someday, somehow, God is going to do something that He alone knew, and was showing it to Joseph. In the mean time Joseph had to keep believing. Was it easy? No way! It wasn’t easy at all. As a matter of fact, because of his dreams his brothers conspired against him and sold him into slavery to the Egyptian traders they met on the road. What a lonely plight for Joseph, to be hated by his brothers and sold by them to a people and culture that was completely foreign to him. For years and years he was in this foreign country called Egypt. He had to learn to speak their language, eat their food, and dress their way of dressing. But God had a plan for Joseph, if only he would hang in there and not give up on Him. It was imperative that Joseph live the life God wanted him to live, so that He can make good of all of the dreams He had placed in Joseph’s mind.
The life we’re living in on this earth is not always going to be easy, especially when we’re going against the tide and religion of this world. The world is all about selfish goals and selfish dreams. It has no desire to please God. The Bible even tells us that our carnal mind is enmity to God, it is not subject to the laws of God. People everywhere are turning away from God. We see it in television, in the Internet and in the movies. More and more they challenge a Christian person in their belief in God. We are all being enticed to believe in an atheistic view of science and in ourselves instead of believing in God. Then when life gets tough and science and our own selves have failed us, and our self-esteem is down the drain, what else is there? What else are we going to believe in? Where else are we going to go?
God kept Joseph. God was faithful to Joseph until the end. Even when Joseph ended up in a dungeon for standing up for righteousness sake and refusing to sleep with his master’s wife, the Lord was there for him. I’m sure it didn’t seem like that to Joseph at that time when he was shackled down in a pit, and there was no one there to comfort him and tell him he’s loved very much and that it’s going to be all right. All the things he knew back in his youth, his father, mother and little brother Benjamin who he loved so much and probably many nights wished for to be beside him, were all far away from him. The only thing he had left in himself was his faith in God. He had to choose to keep believing if he wanted to live. He had to hang in there. Was it worth it? You bet it was worth it! A time did come when the Lord lifted Joseph up out of the dungeon and out of his miserable plight. His gift of dreams was from God and not just a figment of his own imagination. Joseph interpreted the king’s dream and was lifted up to be the governor of Egypt. His brothers who came to Egypt for food because of the famine that was in the land, (that Joseph had warned Pharaoh was going to happen), was also affecting Joseph’s family back home. His brothers were there, making obeisance down to the ground, not even realizing that they were fulfilling the very dream they scorned Joseph for. They had no other choice now, Joseph was next to the king and the law in the land was to bow down before him. They feared Joseph, they saw him as powerful as Pharaoh. Not only did God fulfill the dreams Joseph had when he was a little boy of his family being subject to him, but the whole Egypt and the surrounding countries had to also bow down before him when they came to buy food from him. God had lifted Joseph up very high. He fulfilled the dreams He gave to Joseph.
God is faithful to the end. His plans for us are good and not evil. His plans are to prosper us and elevate us above the world and the principalities of the darkness of this world. Don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for what the world can give you. We have a higher standard to live by. We have eternal life that awaits us, and a new world that God has created for those that love Him. We have God. We have the one who makes all our dreams and all our desires in Him a reality. He will not fail us.
Choose to believe in God. Choose to believe that whatever happens, God has a plan. He has a purpose, and in the time to come He will reveal all things, and will reward those who chose to be faithful to Him.
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? {Jeremiah 32:27}
And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. {Luke 18:27}
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. {Job 42:2}
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? {Daniel 4:35}
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: {Jeremiah 32:17}
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. {Hebrews 11:6}
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. {1 Corinthians 2:9}
Prayer
I worship You, Jesus. I love You, Savior. You are my God and You are my King. I praise You. I bless Your holy name.
There is no one like You oh Lord in the heavens and there is no one like You over all the earth. The heaven and the heavens of heaven belong to You, and nothing is too difficult for You.
I thank You, Father for Your grace and Your love for me. I thank You that there is nothing impossible for You. Please Savior, help me to keep believing in You. Help me to keep loving You. And help me to keep doing Your will in this life. Help me to follow You until the end because there is no other God besides You, and You alone reign forever more.
I thank You Father for Your grace and Your love for me in this life. I thank You for the wonderful sacrifice You did for me at Calvary to save me from all my sins. And I thank You for Your plan and Your purpose to lift me up in this life and in eternity with You. May Your name be magnified forever and ever. I pray in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
#repost5/2019