In last week's post, I spoke about how we are to shine as lights and how God is calling us back to Him through the pursuit of holiness and purity.
What I want to clarify is this, we are to shine in the darkness with the light and truth of Jesus Christ. And we are to be pure before God by confessing our sins to be purified by the blood of Jesus and His holiness.
Here's the thing God does not give up on us no matter how many times we fail mess up or say the wrong thing He forgives us and takes us back every single time.
Thus, it is like the perfect marriage relationship would be set up with unfailing love and forgiveness. That does not manipulate, or twist words or emotions but does things out of love and devotion. It is like a marriage relationship that is pure with nothing making it impure. That is exactly what God is pure and holy. (We are the bride of Christ)
God does not give up on us because He does not fail. God never fails He is always good and faithful. And God brings us the people we need in our lives when we need them the most.
The point is God does not give up on us even if people give up or walk away God does not leave us. I realize someone may need to hear those words right now. Especially, since it is February and Valentine's Day is coming up upon us and some lonely people need some unfailing love right now.
I probably need to be reminded of this, because I can lose sight of what God has done for me or even what He has spoken over me. By either distractions or lies from the enemy that tries to get me to believe the wrong things.
Plus as a single person, this is not always my favorite time of year, because it is hard being alone. Besides, I do not know how anyone dates in this year we've had or even social media-saturated decade where nobody can have a conversation without staring at their phone talking to you.
Moreover, the world and culture are trying to lure people into giving in and compromising their morals for immorality for lust and temporary pleasures.
Which is something I absolutely refuse to do. I refuse to give up my morals and standards for some kind of temporary pleasure. And I refuse to waste my time with some kind of bozo that would not respect my morals and purity.
Plus I refuse to put myself in compromising situations on purpose that would lure me into temptation because it is not worth it. Now if there were times I was alone with someone of the opposite sex, it was because of a friendship that I knew and trusted that would not put me in a compromising position that would not take advantage of me. But someone who I greatly trusted and respected.
However, back to what started this post. When I stop and reflect on the good things God has spoken over me I am reminded of how faithful He is. I realize that some might not believe so quickly that God speaks to us but he does in many different ways.
He has done it throughout the Bible and He does speak to us now through His living active word. He can speak to us through other people. God can even speak to us in an audible voice that we can hear clearly.
Also, when I look back at how faithful God has been I see that He always sent someone to my aid when I needed it.
Thus, I refuse to put God in a tiny box and limit what He can do, because He is limitless and full of astounding things. Whereas, I am finite and limited in what I can do apart from him.
God is faithful enough to not give up on the hardest of hearts. He is faithful enough to soften those kinds of hearts and not walk away from them.
God restores what is lost and takes the time to seek out the lost who need to be found. God will not give up those who are cynical or angry, or who are just plain tired of fighting the wrong battles.
Here's the thing I am learning lately, God does not always take us out of the lonely places, or from the hard things. And He does not always remove us from the struggles or fight, but sometimes He sends us someone to fight with us or come to our aid.
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."(Proverbs 27:17ESV).
And He does not always bring us someone of our choosing but someone who will sharpen us to grow in our faith. The thing is, we should not run from these things we just need to change what we fight with when we face battles.
Also, when we face lonely times, we need to reach out for help, because God will bring us what we need, what we need to fight with, and who we need to fight the battles with, we just need to ask.
Sometimes, God brings us Abishai's when we least expect them to show up.
"There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then Davids men swore to him, "You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel."(2 Samuel 21:15-17ESV).
God brings us an Abishai in the form of a friend, who will fight battles with us and come to our aid. And He can bring us, someone, to sharpen us in the form of a potential spouse or just a friend.
Sometimes God puts people in our lives like that to show us we need to upgrade how we fight against the enemies' schemes.
Although they may not be the people we expect to show up they are the people God has chosen to give us. They are unexpected blessings that we need to rest in the unfailing love of Jesus and trust God has got us covered.
Occasionally, these people are brought into our lives to sharpen our faith and test our grit factor.
Thus, we should not push these people away, but stand our ground with them and link arms. Periodically, we need the people God has brought into our lives so we do not give up the fight of faith and so we do not lose hope.
Most of all these people brought into our lives to reveal how God does not give up on us by displaying His unfailing love through them. But gives us what we need and who we need to shine as lights to glorify Him.
References:
English Standard Version Study Bible (2008) Crossway Publishing, Wheaton ILL,
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