Daily Devotional: Test of Faithfulness
Today’s devotional centers on Romans 8:28 and comes from Oswald Chambers’ beloved My Utmost for his Highest. In it he explores the difference between claiming we are faithful to God and actually being faithful to God.
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.
Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.
The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.
Hog wash… God does not control every little detail in our circumstances. God does in deed work “for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Rom. 8:28, but that does not mean He’s meddling in every single little detail, and yes, I do complain, just as David did in Psalms, when life hurts. God takes the messes we make, the messes others make in and of our lives, and refines us into what He needs. Only God can take a human made mess and draw excellence, strength, and growth from what otherwise might seem to be meaningless misfortune. God will never, ever violate human freewill, what Madeleine L’Engle calls the “terrible gift”. If I choose folly, I will pay, and God in His love will help me grow through it if I listen.
Dear LCurtiss,
I appreciate your response and I support your opinions her but want to remind you IN KIND to settle your tone a little bit as each of us as I’m sure you would agree has a right to their opinions on matters such as this. I’m a firm believer that God works through us and not for us and we set the path that we walk in life and if we follow the guidelines that God sets for us in his word that our road will be less rocky then if we did not follow his word.
All I’m saying Brother is too express your thoughts with the Love that Christ showed all of us even to his own death!
Thanks for listening I hope you understand where I’m coming from here!
God Bless,
JPM
i appreciate the sharing, jus to add more.faith is assurance of things we are hoping for Hebrews 11 vs 1.with faith u create wat u do not see which is permanent,2corinthians 4vs 18.when u believe this u dont loose hope, dnt doubt yourself.u need to pray unto God that u dont loose hope or u doubt. above all u need to feed with the word always,then u pray so that spirit of the Lord will help or guide u always.
amen