Tag: Obedience

At the Crossroads

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

Job 23: 8 – 14

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns to the right, I cannot see Him. But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than any necessary food. But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him.

Job found himself at the crossroads of life. Until now he thought he was right in the sight of God. He diligently followed the Lord, ensuring there was no sin in him and in his family, and offering sacrifices just in case he or one of his family members sinned in their thoughts. And yet, he found himself in a quagmire from which there seems to be no way out. He recollected if there was something in his past that could have brought about these trials in his life but to his dismay there was nothing. He was willing to seek the Lord’s forgiveness for any sin in his life but God brought nothing against him. His companions reasoning also brought to naught. Job was desperate to know why God allowed such hardships.

Job knew His God. He knew the commandments of the Lord. He knew what displeased Him and what brought pleasure. And yet he found that He could not perceive his God whichever way he turned. Many of us go through life knowing that we are on the right side of God. Diligently obeying His commands, living a righteous life, busy about God’s Kingdom and yet we find ourselves at life’s crossroads. We try to analyze what went wrong and start blaming God for all the wrong going in our lives.

While bemoaning his situation, Job was confident that his God knew which direction he was headed and confessed confidently that God will bring him out as pure gold after testing him. Job was not only confident of his own faith in God but also in God’s faithfulness towards him. He was confident that no matter what situation he was going through, God will direct his paths. Furthermore, he was confident that God will fulfill every promise. Such was Job’s faith in God.

Many of us go through situations where our faith is tested. We first try to reason just like Job if God has turned against us. Then we try to see if there was some unconfessed sin in our lives that is causing the trouble. We seek again Lord’s forgiveness even though He has already forgiven and forgotten. We remind God of our past sins when He has already forgotten. Still when our situation doesn’t improve, we come to terms that it is a trial that God is allowing and we should face that challenge with boldness. In all this, we have focused on ourselves more than focusing on God. ‘What did I do?’ ‘Why did it happen to me?’ ‘What should I do?’ ‘I did everything right.’

Maybe it is time we shift our focus from ourselves, our situations and focus on Him. Just as Job realized that God has the prerogative to do with us what He wants, we too must realize that we are His creation. Our Creator has every right to do what He pleases with us. The clay has no right to question the Potter. We are in His safe hands. The Master has the authority to fashion us according to His purposes. We just must trust Him.

Let us then abandon our confusion at the crossroads. Let us return to Him who is sovereign over everything. Let us harken to the words of Jesus: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in Him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 5) Let us enter in to His rest and allow Him to become the true joy of our lives. When we are confident in Him who is able, then no storm, no trial, no disease, no mountain, etc., can shake us. His confidence becomes ours. God was confident of Job’s faithfulness and knew that he will come out as gold. That is why God boasted about Job’s faith before Satan even before his trials started. Dearly beloved, let us become confident of His faithfulness. No matter the depths of our anguish, our Lord will carry us through. Such is His love for us!

Wilderness Wanderings – Part 1

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

Numbers 14: 22 – 24

“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.”

Israelites were eye witnesses to God’s awesome power while in Egypt, during the exodus from Egypt and while on their journey towards the Promised Land. They have seen how God destroyed the Egyptians, and their gods. They were eyewitnesses to the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They witnessed how the Lord of Hosts parted the Red Sea for them to cross. They feasted on Heavenly Manna, quail and water from the rock while in the desert. Despite witnessing and experiencing God’s protection, and provision, they still did not believe in God fully.

When Moses sent the twelve spies to scout the land they were going to possess, ten of the spies came back with a negative report. For forty days, they surveyed the land and all they could see was how miniscule they were like grasshoppers (Numbers 13: 33) before the people of Canaan. On the contrary, Caleb and Joshua, who were fully aware of God’s awesome power, believed that a God who could annihilate a massive Egyptian army is well able to dispossess these Canaanites from the land. Caleb and Joshua were certain in the power of the Almighty God. After their return, their positive report based on what they believed couldn’t prevail upon the negative report of the other ten spies who were afraid of what they saw.  

Because of their lack of faith in the Almighty God, the Israelites were doomed to wander in the desert for the next forty years, a year for each day they spent scouting the Promised Land. Until every single one of them died in the wilderness, God did not allow them to enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb, Joshua, and the younger generation, were able to enter the land, dispossess the Canaanites and claim the inheritance.

We have seen God’s awesome power, His protection, and His provision numerous times in our lives. Yet, we have not fully obeyed the Lord like Caleb and Joshua. We still doubt and shirk away from His promises. We are comfortable living in the past with our old self. No wonder we are unable to see the goodness of God in our lives. Our own unbelief is stopping us to witness the power of God in our lives. We have no right to say that God is far away or that God doesn’t listen to our pleas, when we have to introspect where we are lacking in our own faithfulness and obedience towards God.

2 Corinthians 5: 7

For we walk by faith and not by sight.

Precious Saint of God, instead of blaming God for all the evil or wrong that is happening to us, let us look within our own hearts and see where we have been disobedient to God’s commands. God has already blessed us. A Promised Land awaits us. All we need are eyes of faith and an obedient heart to enter the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, where our hungry souls will be satisfied. Let us strive to walk by faith in an Almighty God and in obedience to Him, who is well able to preserve us and lead us to the Promised Land. Let us not walk by sight in unbelief and disobedience, thereby, miss out on the blessings that are in store for us. May our good and faithful Lord preserve us as we walk in total belief in Him.