God’s promise for Week 1:
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us" (Eph 3:20 MSG).
Day One
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see." (Heb 11:1)
Have you ever thought: “It will be easy to have faith once I’m not in this painful place in my life; when my circumstances change, I will say that God is good, and my faith will be so strong!" Faith is not found only in the absence of pain, or it wouldn’t be possible to grasp on this earth. Each one of us holds in our hearts some measure of pain. For some it is a painful relationship that just doesn’t seem to get better, no matter how hard you try. For some it is the huge hole in your life left by the loss of a loved one. For some it is the painful reminder of choices you made that hurt others, and no matter how sorry you are the pieces just don’t seem to be fitting together again. For some it is the struggle against addiction, both past and present, that rages in your mind every single day. Maybe for you it is the battle of self-worth—you just don’t feel like you’ll ever be good enough. Does any of this sound like you? Sure sounds like me. So if faith ISN’T found in the absence of pain, where is it found? Yep, you guessed it. It’s found in the midst of pain. Right where you are today, it is possible to have a faith that won’t be shaken.
Let our prayer over the next 40 days be that we would learn to “look through our circumstances to something behind it " (Les Hack). Let us strive to have a faith like Moses, Noah, and Abraham, who “died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them" (Heb 11 MSG). Let’s take our eyes off our circumstances and put them on our true home where we will finally be free of the pain and struggles of this life. So how are we going to do this? By holding onto the promises of God like a shipwreck survivor to his lifeboat! Each week we will focus on one of God’s promises, we will write them down and put them up in our cars and homes so we will be reminded of them throughout the day. And every day we will spend time reading the Bible and asking God to help us apply it to our lives.
Prayer:
God, I give you the next 40 days. Help me to trust you more and more as I spend time with you everyday.
In Faith:
Each day for the next 40 days, let’s pray for three situations or people that we have decided are hopeless. Write them down and post them up where you will see them every day! Let’s believe that “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!" (Heb 11 MSG)
