Lately as I approach the Lord in prayer I have been increasingly aware of my failures, my shortcomings and the lack of fruitfulness in so many areas.  I look around and see a life that is in need of so much repair and change that honestly it overwhelms me.  My personality is such that I have the propensity to concentrate on the negative anyway, but for some reason the Lord has allowed me to see the negative with such clarity that I just want to cry.  I didn’t use to be a crying man but now just call me Jeremiah the weeping prophet.  It’s like someone said one time “we don’t know how far man has fallen until we start the journey back to our Father”.

Sometimes I hide myself behind good works and success and the Lord has to open my eyes so I can see.  See what? See me, through the eyes of His holiness, and His truth and immediately I am awakened to how much I desperately need Him, and how thankful I am that in spite of my condition He still loves me and will never let me go.

There are a couple of verses the Lord has given me during this time that have really comforted me and turned my eyes back to Him.

2 Tim. 2:13
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Think of it:  when I run out of faith, when I have nothing left to give, when my motivation has dried up, when I look around and it feels and looks like a desert, I lose my strength to hang on, I want to throw up my hands and give up. Have you been in this thing long enough to realize that you don’t have as much in God as you thought you had?   Like Peter, “I’ll never deny you” was Peter sincere in his desire to never deny? Yes, but he came face to face with himself and the Bible says in Luke 22.62 “that He went out and wept bitterly” I know the feeling do you?

The scripture in 2 Tim says if we are faithless He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. What’s at stake here is not our condition or our nature but God’s Nature; it’s all about our God.  He is Faithful that’s His nature He cannot be or ever do anything other than that because that’s who He is, Faithful. To do anything to the contrary would be to deny Himself. He is faithful to me not because I deserve it or have earned it but because that’s who He is.  You see it’s all about our Father from beginning to end it’s all about Him.  His being faithful to finish the work in you has nothing to do with your condition, good or bad, it has to do with who He is, He is FAITHFUL and He cannot deny Himself.  So my fellow sojourner, I think I am going to put my confidence in who He is and not in who I am. What about you? What a rest this brings!

The next scripture the Lord gave me is:

1 John 3:20-21
in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Is this powerful or what? When our heart does condemn us, (like what’s been happening to me lately) “our God is greater than our hearts”

And finally the last scripture He gave is:

1 Thes. 5:24
Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

I can believe this not based on who I am or on my condition or how I’m feeling at the moment.  I can really believe that He will finish the work, He will bring it to pass because it’s not connected or tied to anything I am or am not it’s based on who He is and He is FAITHFUL. In the end we will have more faith in God’s ability to keep us in this thing than in our ability to keep ourselves.  One time a little boy was hanging on to His fathers little finger while they were walking through a carnival. The Father noticed that his son’s grip was getting weaker as time passed.  Then suddenly the sons grip on his daddy’s finger was broken and he totally let go.  The father immediately sensing what had happened almost instantly reached down and firmly yet tenderly grasped his son’s arm and then his hand.  So it is with our heavenly Father you may let go at times but that is where He will grasp you too.

The Lord bless you and keep you even in the face of open eye experiences
Doug