NEVERTHELESS

NEVERTHELESS…

After the long day at work in his cubicle, the young man simply wanted to go home, relax, and prepare for his next day at work. As he made his way toward the elevator, he heard screaming and saw black smoke and flames billowing out of the hallway. Panic gripped him as a succession of thoughts flew through his mind, Im on the sixth floor. Ill never make it down. Im going to die! What he considered to be his only escape the hallway was engulfed in flames and impossible to navigate. As his mind continued to race, he heard fire engines and remembered that the office was lined with tall windows all across his floor.

He coughed and staggered to the windows in hope of a swift rescue. Instead, when he looked down he could see nothings but a curtain of smoke covering the area. Through the smoke and flames, he realized that a crowd had gathered and along with the firemen everyone was yelling, Jump! Jump! The young man felt a cloud of fear envelop him. Over a loud speaker he heard the voice of what he assumed to be a fireman, The only way youll survive is if you jump. Weve spread out a safety net. Youll be perfectly safe. As the crowd continued to yell, the young man realized he didnt have the courage to make the leap without being able to see the net. His feet were cemented to the floor. Then, over the loud speaker came the voice of his dad, Its okay, son, you can jump. As the familiar voice reached the young man, he felt the grip of fear lift. The trust and love that had been established between dad and son gave him the courage to jump safely down into the net.

Without faith is impossible to please God. Why is so faith so important to God? Let me ask you; why is God so important to your faith? You might reply: because if I pray, only God can answer Beloved, God feels the same way. Why pretend to place your trust in Him when you really trust in self? In reality, you think God is not trustworthy. Oh, No! you say, you believe He is trustworthy..but?

Do you see what I am getting it? Either we trust God because He is trustworthy or we don’t because He is untrustworthy. If He is trustworthy, then everything He has revealed about Himself is true. Every word of His book, the Bible is true. Every promise that He has made is true. His declarations of love, assurance, blessings, compassion, guidance, forgiveness, provision and peace are also all true. If He is trustworthy, we can place our faith securely in Him. Faith is trusting in the unseen hand of God, even when we don’t see; even when things look like the opposite of what we expect. Our faith must be a perfect trust we can hold on to that will make us stand firm through anything we face.

The enemy of faith is doubt. Doubt cast a huge unbelieving shadow on God and His word. Doubt moves you from pleasing God to despising what God has said. The original author of doubt was Satan. Satan knows if he can get you to question God, you are defenseless, useless and out of Gods will and on the road to disobedience. The first question in the entire Bible was posed by Satan to Eve tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit in the garden:

Let me take a moment to point out a few things about this transaction. First, Satan twists Gods word, which He is infamous for. God had warned Adam and eve not to eat of two particular trees, not every tree, as Satan suggest. The devil LOVES to blow things out of proportion. Secondly, the devil is a tempter. Out of the most magnificent garden ever beheld by human eyes, he points Eves attention to what God has forbidden. This whole line of questioning is to get Eve to doubt Gods words, what He meant and why He didn’t want them to partake of this fruit. He runs the same old game on us today!

Thirdly, when He gets Eve doubting God in her mind, Satan, flat out accuses God of lying to them by saying if they eat, nothing will happen but the receiving the good things that God is afraid of sharing with them. See the web doubt weaves? We follow Eves footsteps. We learn God’s Word; then we feel fear and doubt creep in and says Has God indeed said? We panic and try to do things our way, not Gods. Often, we doubt so much, we don’t even consider God nor even try to trust in what He says when its brought to our attention. We are swept away in the strong current of the sea of doubt.

Jesus told Peter, an experienced fisherman to let down his nets once more after they had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Peter probably thought Jesus was out of His expertise here; Rabbi: Yes, Fisherman: No. Leave the fishing to me, but Peter faithfully said, NEVERTHELESS at YOUR Word.

Notice what faith looks like in action: nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net. Simon, (who was later called Peter) was an expert fisherman by trade. He knew how to fish and where to catch them. He and his companions had been out all night. He knew there was nothing to be caught that day. Nevertheless: He stepped out of the ordinary into the extra-ordinary; from the earthly to the spiritual, and experienced the miraculous!

How long will you stand there and mumble that doesn’t make sense to me or why can’t I do it this way? Start being like Simon and say nevertheless Lord, and jump! This is faith that pleases God and yields results. You have to be willing to trust God even when it doesn’t make much sense to you. Many of you are still stuck in your present situation, cemented in life because you are afraid to trust God with everything and step out in faith for things.

God’s love and faithfulness is unfailing! You can trust God! You can walk out in faith! Proverbs 3:5 says: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; It is our own understanding that is often the barrier to our faith. Our faith is in a supernatural God, but we see situations with the natural eye. It can be hard to believe that God will ever lift me out of poverty when everything all around me screams that I can’t make it! Sweetheart, you must look at life with eyes of faith. Nothing is impossible with God. Look at life with unlimited possibilities.

Why do we pray as if we were at a casino throwing dice? We throw up prayers to God hoping that some will fall on the correct number and color and: Jackpot! God is not a slot machine and He doesnt want you pray just hoping you will get lucky. You must learn to pray with expectancy. Pray like you expect God to do something, why? Because you trust Him. Don’t be doubtful. Look for and expect results. If you pray for a job, look for one and keep your eyes open for leads. If you ask God to show you His will, start to listen to what comes your way. We can’t just pray and get up and walk away and forget about it. Prayer is to your Father who loves you. This is quality time. You tell Him of your needs and ask for help, expecting your Daddy to help you. Be open and honest. If you are struggling with If you are struggling trusting Him, ask Him to increase your faith in Him.

One of my favorite Christian movies is “Facing The Giants”. The failing football coach has been praying and searching for a miraculous breakthrough to end his losing seasons. God not only begins to turn his team into winners, he blesses the coach and the players on and off the field. Finally the state championship is just victory away and the coach begins to get scared; “What if we don’t win?” he says. His wife replies, “Looks like your fear is gonna clobber your faith”.

Don’t let fear clobber ‘your’ faith! Sure, there are things in life when it’s scary and certainly the unknown takes fear to new levels, but think back to Peter and say, ‘NEVERTHELESS’. So much wrapped up into one word! “God, I’m afraid and I don’t know what’s gonna happen….BUT….Nevertheless…………

You finish the rest!

God Bless,

http://waitonboaz.com