Build Your Confidence in God
Don’t put God in a box. Don’t limit God. Don’t put God in a corner.
It wasn’t until my recent epiphany that I truly understood these sayings. At that intensely spiritual moment, I realized my faulty conviction. One thought burned in my mind and heart.
God is not handicapped!
For the past three years, my father has relied on a cane to walk. I’ve grown accustomed to seeing him hobble around. In 2006, he suffered a debilitating stroke.
Watching my father struggle in this way, I unknowingly began to associate his physical limitation with my Heavenly Father’s power. These years, I have replaced my view of God with how I saw my father, weak and powerless to change his situation.
This profound revelation blew my mind. I had lost my confidence in God. My love for the Lord never failed, but I didn’t see Him as the One who parted the Red Sea, the One who calmed the hungry lions in Daniel’s Den, the God who called down fire to consume Elijah’s watery altar. My Lord is indestructible. Nothing in this earth, or in the spiritual kingdom of darkness, can cripple my King.
This means that what He says goes. If He says you are healed, expect that miracle. No miracle – to big or small in our eyes – is too difficult for the One who created our existence. The miracle worker you know is stronger than the fears and struggles your need creates.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them [your sickness, debt, marriage problem, addiction], for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)
When you feel yourself losing faith, call on God as this psalmist does.
One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done. Psalm 62:11-12 (NIV)
If you catch yourself questioning God’s true character, reassure your faith of His might and love through reading His Word. As I sense my confidence in the Lord fading, I recall personal experience and accounts in the Bible when He has shown Himself strong. Often, the story of Hannah comes to mind (I Samuel 1). For years, she wanted a child of her own. She could have projected her lack of an heir on God, and seen Him as the One who ignores a poor woman’s prayers. Instead, she continued pressing into the Lord; she shared her pain with Him and asked again and again.
Believe me, it doesn’t help to put God in your box. Allow the Lord to show you areas of your heart that you will not allow Him entry. Let the Holy Spirit speak to your mind and strip away those lies… God is too busy for your problem. He is punishing you. You aren’t praying hard enough.
Time and again, God has shown His faithfulness. He hasn’t changed on us, so we can be confident He has the power and wisdom to walk us through our valleys of the shadow of death.
