Who Told You That You Were Empty?Sample

WHO TOLD YOU THAT?

Difficult times come and go. Sometimes we see them coming and other times we feel ambushed. These difficult times provoke responses, including how to live in the midst of this unwelcome presence.  Do we confront, overlook, deny, accept, flee, embrace, or reconcile its presence?

Though we are more apt to focus on the storm of difficult times, a larger matter is consideration of our storm preparedness. What would you think of a person living in an expensive luxury home without flood insurance in an area with a history of flooding? 

Storms reveal foundations. Consider Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders. The foundation of the wise builder’s house was rock, whereas the foundation of the foolish builder’s house was sand. The same storm conditions beat against both houses and the storm impacts were strikingly different. The house built on rock didn’t fall, yet the house built on sand “fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7: 27, NIV). 

The foundation, not the storm, is the heart of the matter.  

If our faith in God is shallow, our ability to effectively use faith as a weapon to overcome difficult times is uncertain and likely unproven. Accordingly, we then tend to speak and act with uncertainty. Given this, we could then readily reason the difficult times to be in the more powerful position. This sounds like the report of the ten leaders sent to explore Canaan: “…All the people we saw there are of great size…We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:32-33, NIV). Who told these leaders they were grasshoppers?

Reflections:

1. Difficult times come to all. Have I developed my faith in God to anchor me in difficult times?

2. Love never stops loving. Why am I apt to doubt God’s love for me in the midst of difficult times?

Scriptural Demonstration of God’s ways of loving:

Isaiah 43:2, NLT: “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”

Jeremiah 31:3, NIV: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness”.