I asked my brother Hiram, Senior Pastor of Love, Power & Grace, husband and father of two beautiful girls to write today's post on Faithfulness. I pray that you may be blessed just as I was when I read it.
Very recently my wife and I found ourselves in the midst of another storm in our lives. This one has come in the form of yet another loss of employment for me. I say another because throughout our marriage (of over 16 years), that's been the primary avenue in which we have seen God mold and test our faith. During the early years of our marriage our response to this was much different. I can recall one of the first storms. Our first daughter was still an infant and we found ourselves living in my parent’s house. The three of us living out of a bedroom that was once a living room. It was a struggle and a blessing at the same time. It really tested our faith.
It actually challenged me to reevaluate my personal spiritual life. Storms have a tendency to do that you know. As Christians we rush to try and find an explanation or the slightest reason as to why this is happening. It forces one to take a long hard look at their spiritual life and hopefully come to a point where you can acknowledge any and all unresolved sin. Don't get me wrong, not all storms come because of unresolved sin, but in our case it was, and it was primarily mine. You see, I was truly failing as a husband and hadn't yet truly stepped up as a father and the spiritual leader of my home. My faith was shaken and I found myself being tossed back and forth among the waves.
Fast forward a few years and again, another loss of employment. We now have 2 girls and they are a little bigger, but still too young to understand what's going on. They don't recognize the elevated stress levels. But they're also not able to recognize the stronger faith that's being manifested this time around. In all sincerity, this time the storm dropped me prostrate. Man, I can recall like yesterday the increased intimacy level that there was between The Lord and me. Another self-evaluation caused me to make some personal changes but the experience God granted me was beyond words. There was a little bit of worry in my heart but my faith wasn't as shaken as the prior occasions.
Fast forward to 2014. Yeap, another loss of employment. This one actually brought about our biggest financial hit to date. The girls are much bigger now. One of them just entered her teenage years and the other just turned 10. They’re not dumb, they can see for themselves and they can understand more than we would like to give them credit for. On top of that, they are in the middle of the longest gap for me without work (6 months). No one is perfect, we are all sinners and can reach deeper levels within our spiritual lives, but this time, after the self-evaluation, I didn't find anything that I could pinpoint and say “this unresolved sin is the cause.”
I was actually just beginning my 1st year acting as a Senior Pastor in a new ministry that God had placed upon our hearts. What in-opportune timing right? Or was it? On the contrary my wife and I will testify to the fact that this time around, the loss of job and serious financial hit that came didn't shake us. We tied up our boots, made some financial adjustments, trusted in God and He’s been seeing us through.
The kids were big enough so, we sat them down and spoke clearly with them. We explained to them what just happened and we explained to them our plan of attack. We shared with them the multiple times (since they were little) that we've gone through this and we explained to them how our God (who is also their God), saw us safely through the storm back then and how He's gonna do the same now.
There was no wavering of faith. There were no tears. There was no doubt in our minds that this was clearly God’s faithfulness on display and we believed that it was for a bigger purpose that we were not yet aware of. We shared that with our daughters. We can hear their hearts during bedtime prayers as they would ask The Lord to give me a new job. They saw in their parents an unshaken faith. They saw the confidence in us toward Gods faithfulness. To them it was life as normal. Nothing more than slight changes. They were so at peace that they included prayers for a 3rd addition to the family (I can't say I was on board with that but they prayed anyway).
The storms throughout the last 16 years have molded us and empowered our faith. We've had a front row experience of God's faithfulness in our personal lives. Because of that, we've had the privilege of becoming an up-close and personal example for our own children of what trusting in God is all about. We can talk to them about God’s faithfulness and how good He is, but when they can witness their parents acting and standing on the words that have been passed down to them, it takes on an entirely new meaning. There will be more storms, in our lives and in theirs as well but as a #FamilyAfterGod we will face them head on and remain deeply rooted in the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father who has yet to let us down.
My prayer is that you too discover the assurance and peace that comes in having your faith placed in the correct thing, the only one able to fulfill His promise. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Hiram
Senior Pastor
Love, Power & Grace
PRAYERS FOR FAITHFULNESS
May _______________ fear you, Lord, and serve You in sincerity and in faithfulness (Joshua 24:14)
May ______________ your steadfast love be before ____________'s eyes, as he walks in your faithfulness. (Psalm 26:3)
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake ______________; may he bind them around his neck; write them on the table of his heart. (Proverbs 3:3)
May ______________ say to himself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will hope in Him." (Lamentations 3:24)
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