0 Keep Stepping: the Same God Who Led You in Will Lead You Out!

You may feel that you are at your end today.  Maybe you’re on your last dime.  Maybe you are saying, “God, I don’t want to work here.”  Or “God, I don’t want to live here.”  Or maybe, “God, I don’t want to go through that.”  Maybe you have waited a long time for your miracle.  Maybe there are things you desire from God and you have waited what seems like forever.

I want to encourage you today to hold firm until the end.  The same God who led you in will lead you out.  The same God who has taken care of you in the past will come through for you again.  He has not changed or lost His power.  Nor has He forgotten you or given up on you.  He will come just in time.  Keep stepping in faith just like Abraham.

Remember how God tested Abraham and instructed him to take his promised child Isaac and sacrifice him on a mountain some distance away.  The Bible states that Abraham, in faith, got up early the next day and set off on the three day journey to the mountain.  Genesis 22:1-4.

God’s plan, however, could not have made any sense to Abraham.  God had promised that through Isaac, Abraham would be made a great nation.  Imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind the entire three day journey.  Imagine how his feelings and emotions and the enemy must have been attacking his mind.  Sometimes reading these stories we forget that these were real people with real feelings, emotions and desires.  Surely Abraham did not want to do what God asked him to do.  Nonetheless, he pushed through his feelings and emotions and kept stepping, trusting in God.  Let’s look at the results of Abraham’s trust in God:

Genesis 22:9-18


9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.  He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 


10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 


11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said.  “Do not do anything to him.  Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”


13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 


14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.  And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” 


15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 


16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 


17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 


18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Note that when Abraham took that step of faith and did what the Lord had instructed, even though it didn’t make sense, God performed a miracle for Abraham:  The right ram, was at the right place, at the right time.  I like to think of it like this: When Abraham was climbing up the mountain on one side, there was a ram climbing up the mountain on the other side.  And even though Abraham couldn’t see the provision, it was coming – with every step of faith that he took – it was coming.  Not only that, but because Abraham trusted God, God promised to bless Abraham even further.  Genesis 22:15-18.

God has no favorites.  It’s the same for you, if you will hold on.  If you keep stepping, in faith, even when you feel like giving up, even when you do not understand why this is happening to you, God will come through for you.  Blessings friends!

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0 How Do You Know What God Wants You to Do?

This past Sunday we ministered again in two services to the youth at Faith Fellowship Church in Wirtz, Virginia.  We spoke in part on discerning God's purpose for your life.  As we have written here before, not only did God create you to have a personal relationship with Him, there is something that God desires to accomplish that made your existence necessary and valuable.  Your purpose caused you to be born.  God has an assignment in mind that made you essential.  No one else can do it just the way you can do it.

But the question remains, how do you know what God wants you to do?  The answer is contained in Philippians 2:13:

[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

This scripture makes clear that God puts the desire in your heart for what He wants you to do.  Yes, it is that simple.  It can be identified through your natural desires and what you sense as your inherent assignment in life.  There is an awesome sense of destiny placed by God deep inside every human being.  There are several questions that you can ask yourself to help discover this purpose:

What is my deepest desire?  What am I truly passionate about?  What ideas are persistent in my heart and thoughts?  What do I constantly imagine myself doing?   What would bring me the greatest fulfillment?  What would I do for no money or other compensation?  What would I rather be doing besides my current job?  What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

Many people on earth are frustrated, depressed, or disillusioned every day because they go to jobs that are not what they were born to do.  Trying to be what you weren’t born to be is likely the most frustrating experience you could have.  When you know you are doing something that you were not born to do, you will feel irritated in your current job.  You will not feel comfortable in it.  You will strive hard like trying to push a large rock up a steep hill.  You will achieve few results, or, even if you are successful, you will lack the deep sense of satisfaction you would receive doing what God intended for you to do.

Just the opposite is true when you find your purpose in life.  If you are doing what God intended for you, you will be highly successful.  You will have fun while doing it, or, if not always fun, you experience a deep sense of satisfaction from it.  The activity will be natural to you because God has equipped you with the gifts, talents, and abilities to do what He has purposed for you.  Note in the verse above that it not only states that God gives you the desire to do His will, but the power.  This is what Paul meant when he said that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him (Philippians 4:13).

We encourage you today to reflect on what you are doing in life.  If you are not where you should be, make the adjustments to get back on track.  The good news is that “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).  He will help you because He needs you for a specific assignment.  You are essential to God’s plan.  Only you can do what God has planned to do through you.  You are blessed and highly favored friends!

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