A Faithful Generation.

“God is within in her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” Psalm 46:5

I had my whole day planned. My bags were packed, my car was in the closest parking lot possible, and my boss knew I wouldn’t be in that day. I had 2 hours and 15 minutes to make a 2 hour car ride. Everything would go smoothly. Or at least so I thought. It all started going downhill when my teacher seemed to want to hold our class over five minutes. Five minutes I absolutely did not have. As I rush down the interstate, everything seems to be going fine despite my delay. Then I get to the last thirty minutes of the drive. A drive through Tyler, Texas. A town unlike Dallas with its appealing freeways. A town with slow speed limits and lingering red lights. Needless to say, I had a hard time staying calm. I probably looked like an absolutely crazy person at some of those red lights, as I anxiously yelled at the light and talked to myself about how I could not deal with this right now. It’s kind of embarrassing really. I had been running like a chicken with her head cut off all day long. I was overwhelmed. I was worried. I was faithless.

In the midst of crazy schedules, final papers, and demands form classes, work, and church wrapping up the semester can seem overwhelming for all of us. Projects and exams continue to build up, and somehow it almost always ends up being due on the same day. The end of the semester seems so near to our reach, and yet at the same it seems forever away.

To add to all that, I’m reminded in my own life that I have to raise $7500 to go on my summer mission trip. If this doesn’t seem impossible for a college student, I also had to raise it within six months. Ah! Feeling overwhelmed, worried, and stressed has been common place for me the past few months. I have been one anxious woman.

However, even in this anxious semester, the Lord has proven himself over, and over, and over. See sometimes in the middle of seasons like this in our life we can hear verses like Phillippians 4:6-7 (Don’t be anxious about anything…), Matthew 6:25-34 (…your heavenly Father knows that you need them), and others that are supposed to encourage us. I’m not sure about you, but sometimes those are hard to listen to when I don’t have enough time to study, the money is not coming in, or I‘m late and I hit EVERY red light in town. Sometimes in those moments, God’s word is hard to swallow. Or if we are honest, hard to believe.

And then I’m sitting in class one day, and a professor teaches me something so profound I’m amazed no one has ever explained this truth to me in such a way as he did. (And let me just take a moment to say how thankful I am for Ron Proctor and his commitment to allowing Jesus to passionately teach students, not Ron Proctor.) See he explained to me that faith was not just simply believing. It was not simply trust. Cause I mean, has anyone actually taught us what real trust in God looks like anyway? He said, “Faith is believing that God’s word is true despite our circumstances, our feelings, and our culture.” Do we see that? Our faith/trust/belief in God is not wrapped up in what’s going on around us. It is absolutely wrapped up in God’s word and truth. My present reality says I don’t have the money. God’s word says, “They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out” (Isaiah 49:21). My present reality says I am overwhelmed with work, school, and church. God’s word says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Faith is believing that God’s word is TRUE and REAL, no matter how REAL and CONTRADICTORY our circumstances may feel.

And you know what happens when we think like this? Then when we read God’s word in the midst of our challenges, sufferings, pain, despair, anxiety, fear, hardships, and so much more, we see God’s word as our rock. God’s word as our truth. God’s word as our reality. Jesus as our reality. We need to take off the blinders of this world, and look through heaven’s eyes. We need to set our minds on things above. We desperately need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
Though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Psalm 46

Though your whole life may fall into the heart of the sea, God is your refuge and strength. Make his word your reality, despite what your circumstances tell you. He is God. The Almighty is with us. See what He has done. And we will no longer be a faithless people. We will be a generation who is faithful.