"So Keep up your courage, men, I have faith and believe God that it will happen just as He told me" Acts 27:25).
Believing God. Sounds pretty simple, right? Sounds like you just believe and move on with your day! Actually, believing God IS something that should be just that simple, but unfortunately many of us find ourselves believing for maybe an hour and then by lunch we believe everything BUT God! Or what if you have been believing God and holding on to His Word about something you are certain He has promised you,and days have turned into weeks and weeks have turned into months and years. Maybe you are fighting the urge to let go and give up in a specific situation and fear is mounting in your heart. Is it finances? Is it a child who is suffering in your home? Is there someone you love who is away from God? is there a medical report that paralyzes you with fear? I want to write just to YOU and say, BELIEVE God and don't stop!
This beautiful scripture in Acts 27 has an amazing context. The Apostle Paul had been held prisoner for quite some time and was being transferred by ship to Italy. The problem was that He had tried to speak reason to his captors and convince them that it was too dangerous to make such a voyage during the winter and that they were headed for a certain disaster! Of course, no one listened to him! And of course, they faced a great storm.
Everyone on the ship began to realize that shipwreck was imminent and there was great panic! The best part of the story so far is that an angel appears to Paul and tells him what they are about to face. BUT promises not one man would be lost!! Not one!
What is it about circumstances that cause us to stop believing God's promises to us? It is so easy to look at natural things and not see past them. But the more we know and BELIEVE God's word, the more we train our eyes how to see. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith and NOT by sight!" As people who know Jesus for ourselves, we have to train our eyes to see through faith!!!! It doesn't come naturally.
I remember years ago when my brother Carl was away from God and doing his own thing. He was in a place where there really wasn't anything I could do to change His mind! He was determined to do the opposite of everything he had ever been taught was right! We didn't know what to do and much like that ship wreck moment for the Apostle Paul, there was a choice of what to believe in that moment! Do I give up on him? Or do I dare to believe in the promise of God? Well, in that season God gave me such comfort as I read Numbers 23:23, which says, "God is NOT a man that He should lie. Nor the son of man that He would change His mind! Does he speak and then not act? Does He promise and not perform?"
When I first read that scripture, something inside of me broke. I held it up to the ceiling and looked up. I said, "God? THIS is your Word! THESE are YOUR promises! I believe you are prepared to KEEP this word to me. I choose to SEE you... Not what IS right now. I believe!"
It didn't happen overnight. But it DID happen. Carl, as many of you know, is serving God with everything now, living out the promise God spoke to me so many years ago. On a foggy day in the Spirit. Do you want to know something? God IS working on YOUR behalf today. You might not be able to see when, or how, or what. But God IS working.
I want to leave you with a compelling story from a great devotional that, if you don't have you should get called, "Streams in the Desert".
"I went to America some years ago with the captain of a steamer, who was a very devoted Christian. When off the coast of Newfoundland he said to me, “The last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, something happened which revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. We had George Mueller of Bristol on board. I had been on the bridge twenty-four hours and never left it. George Mueller came to me, and said, “Captain, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec Saturday afternoon.” “It is impossible,” I said. “Very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement for fifty-seven years. Let us go down into the chartroom and pray.”
I looked at that man of God, and thought to myself, what lunatic asylum can that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing as this. “Mr. Mueller,” I said, “do you know how dense this fog is?” “No,” he replied, “my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.”
Excerpt From: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. “Contemporary Classic/Streams in the Desert®.”
God IS working, but will you believe Him today? Jesus wants to give you more than you think He does. Keep your eyes lifted. Keep looking at Jesus. Stop praying for the victory, pray to see Jesus and all of His power because when you see HIM, you will see that He holds your victory in His mighty Hands!
