Today we continue our series “God is faithful!” I have been flowing in the vein of God’s faithfulness towards us and what it means to us. One of the things that it means is that since God is faithful towards us, we should be faithful towards Him. The more we meditate on God’s faithfulness, the more we will be able to tap into God’s power when challenges come; and they will come! Since satan will do all he can to get us to give up, cave in, and quit, we must find strength in God’s faithfulness towards us. Let’s talk about it!
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God is looking to partner with you on the earth.
— Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not. God has chosen to work through humans on this planet.
— God made plans for us, and He is tirelessly committed to those plans. However, He will not manifest the plans in and through us if we don’t open our hearts to them. In other words, God has provided grace, but we must provide faith. God has said, “YES,” but His yes won’t mean anything in our lives if we don’t provide the “AMEN!”
(2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV)
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God
— For God to fully operate, we must cooperate with Him. Our faith comes in agreement with God’s grace.
2. We must believe that God is working, even when things get hard.
God is committed to finishing what He started in your life. Paul said it this way:
(Philippians 1:6 MSG)
There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
God started the work in your life, and He is committed to finishing it. He will not give up on you. Believing God will never give up on you is critical to maintaining your faith. This is why religion is so detrimental. Religious focus on your performance. The problem is that your performance will never be perfect. Faith is all about confidence, and religion strips you of your confidence, putting the spotlight on your works and not God’s commitment to you!
Paul also said, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13). When God looks at you, He sees the blood of His Son, He sees His precious Spirit, and He sees the plans He made for you before the world began. For God deny you, He would have to disown Himself. WOW!
3. The Apostle Paul is an excellent example of someone who tapped into God’s grace with their faith to overcome tremendous opposition.
I know Paul is an extreme example because the Apostle was assigned to minister the Gospel message to the Gentiles when the political and religious climate dictated that Christians could be put to death for believing in Christ Jesus as Lord. Nonetheless, Paul was fully committed to his assignment despite the opposition.
When looking back on what he had been through, Paul said, “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked” (2nd Cor 11:23-27). While you may not have to face what Paul faced, to be clear, you will have to face and overcome opposition to accomplish anything of significance in God’s Kingdom. The key is to never give up!
Paul held on to the end. In his last letter, he said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2nd Tim 4:7). He knew what his assignment was, and he also knew that it had been completed. Paul did not live much longer after writing this letter. In this same letter, he said the following to his spiritual son Timothy: “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus… Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” What was Paul doing? He was helping Timothy get mentally and spiritually prepared for the challenges he would face on the road to fulfilling his own life’s assignment. Paul was not alone in this mindset. James said, “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end” (5:10,11).
Here are some closing thoughts for today:
— God has provided the grace for you to become the man/woman you are born to be.
— God’s grace is there, but your faith must be there. You must set yourself in agreement and alignment with your divine assignment.
— God has already said YES to whom and what He called you to do. Your part now is to say AMEN!
— If you tap into God’s grace, you will be able to overcome every obstacle, challenge, setback, and dissapointment you will face on the path to your destiny. God never said your path would not include these things. He just promised to be with you as you overcome each one!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for leading me to LEVEL UP in this season. I LEVEL UP by fully embracing Your grace with my faith. I refuse to allow opposition or challenges to cause me to quit. There is NO QUIT in me! You have given me a Warrior Spirit! I am determined to die empty. I will get out of me everything You deposited in me, and I will get it done before I die. I will do this by Your grace and for Your glory. Now, I know the devil and his demons will not sit idly by as I seek to fulfill my life’s assignment. But when they come up against me, I know Your grace is on me to come out on top. I am not in this fight alone. You are on me, in me, with me, and for me. You are on my side, and You are more than the entire world against me! This is how I know, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
