Day 33: Everything is God’s Will

Acts 16, 17, 18

Have you ever wondered why certain things happen to you?  Whenever I’m in a rut, I used to wonder if I deserved it.  Now, I try to accept each and every thing (even if I may not understand it) as part of God’s plan for me and those around me.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with my faith.  I feel that the “honeymoon” feeling that I had in the beginning of this project has dwindled and I am now being tested.  I notice myself falling and growing weaker – spiritually and physically.  It makes me sad to realize that I am still so weak in my faith that the tests of faith are actually breaking me.  It’s such a blow, that I can’t even pray about it.

Through this, after reading Acts 16 – 18, I realize that the Paul (Saul) didn’t have it easy either. Through the unknown lands and people in disbelief, they proclaimed their faith in Christ.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. Acts 16:5

¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:10

Through heavy persecution (including stints in prison), they still maintained their faith in God.

²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. ²⁶From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. ²⁷God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17:25-28

This should explain to all of us who proclaim that God is unknown to them.  After reading this, I’m reminded that it’s not God that needs us, it’s us that needs Him.  We try to fit Christ into our earthly lives and fail.

Dear Lord: As you know my heart, I am burdened by my inadequacies.  My hardened heart reads the words and what should be a sense of comfort, I am left defeated because I don’t feel it.  Let me trust in your promises.  Let me trust in Your will.  I ask that you soften my heart and open it, so that I may openly and freely obey Your words. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Day 23: Through His Will

John 5, 6, 7

Everyone struggles with the concept of “I can’t do this” and you are right in thinking so.  Time after time, we are reminded that it is not on our own accord that we can accomplish our ascent into heaven.  But as Christ reminds us that it is through Him that we can come to the Father, he eloquently reminds us that He is also not here to do this on his own.

As a man, Jesus had the temptations and urges that man faced, but through God, He prevailed.  He reminds the disciples as well as the thousands that followed Him for his sermons that it is through God’s will that this was all possible.

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. John 5:19-20

³⁰By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. John 5:30

⁴⁴“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:44

Ultimately, this had all been cleverly planned by our Father, lessons, trials and all – for us to understand that it is not through any of our human strengths and will, but by God’s divine plan – even for his own son, Jesus Christ.

Dear Lord, as I continue to meditate on your word, it becomes increasingly clear that none of this can be done without you.  No matter how much we push you away, because you have chosen us to be your children, we are gently reminded by your graciousness.  Help me to stay steady in your Word, that I may truly seek peace and acceptance of my salvation. Amen.