I have been talking a lot about rest and trust in God in my recent posts, and today I will dwell on the same theme. The physical environment around me is depressing if one dwells on it. Unofficial inflation is pegged at over 1000%, 80+% of the working population is not formally employed and government seems to have no willingness to implement the solutions that are widely accepted as the ones that will work i.e. dollarization.
Against this backdrop, it is sometimes hard for us to remain calm, focused and completely trusting in God as our source and our sustenance. We are after all designed to contribute meaningfully to society and are wired to prosper. So when the routes to that goal all seem blocked, it is easy to lose hope, and trust. It is easy to forget that God is bigger than our problems and to be honest, He is not intimidated by them.
What I do want to remind you today is to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He came for a people who did not ask him, and died the death of a reject society hated. Yet, He chose to die this way because He knew what it would do for you and I. It opened a new and living way for us to have access to the Father of lights. And with this new and open way, there now exist no barriers for us to receive of the goodness of God. I speak exclusively to those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and saviour; because it is only for these that the promises are true.
Jesus is not intimidated by our circumstances because we are-neither is he limited in what He will do for us if we let Him. Think about it this way-all of creation today was spoken into existence out of a dark, gloomy earth. To this day, there are many species we are yet to discover, many galaxies we do not know and many phenomena we cannot explain in nature. But just from His words all of this came into being. How big of a problem is your situation compared to the mystery of creation? Put in that context, it does not seem too big now does it?
Now that we have settled the question of His ability, let us look at whether or not He actually wants to do it for us.
Romans 8: 31-32
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
He promises us that there is no condition to his gifts-they are free, without qualification. This for many of us will seem too good to be true. But then I have a couple of questions-is God prospering you a bigger gift than Christ? Is God meeting your physical needs for food, shelter, transportation and education more significant than Christ? Now if we did not pay for Jesus to come, but rather he came freely-why do we so easily burden ourselves with desiring to pay for far lesser gifts?
Sometimes it does not even occur to us that we ought to ask God to take care of our physical needs. Often, there is an unspoken assumption that when we suffer, or when we lack and have poverty, it brings glory to God. It used to make sense to me before I realised that God is a Father. No good, rich earthly Father would desire for their child to have no bread to eat and survive on donated porridge to survive. Yet, there is a belief that looks at God and believes it is His desire for us to learn discipline through poverty. That is wickedness. Take a look at what the Bible says about it, do not take my word for it.
John 15:7-8
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Matthew 7: 7-11
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
It is God’s will to prosper you, to provide for you and it is independent of your circumstances or your nation. Our conversation, our prayers and our expectations should change once we realise this. Neither should we remain intimidated by the size of our problem. Rather, facing it head on; our attitude ought to be like that of David before Goliath. We come before it in the name of the Lord and it will bow before us in the name of Jesus.
In and through the lives that we lead, our nation will be changed.
Selah.