“And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” Isa 58:11 (Amplified)
What is the most expensive word today that describes that special feeling that people will pay trillions to have? It is CONFIDENCE and is what makes the world go round. The lack of it is the root cause of economic stagnation, recession and depression. You would have had to have been living on Planet Mars not to know that there is a global economic crunch, which is making lives, the world over, a misery. Human confidence in long established human institutions is being shaken and gradually undermined, even as God shakes the very foundations of our modern civilisation. Many people are realising to their cost that they had indeed put their confidence in a bubble that has now burst leaving wreckages of financially ruined lives in its wake.
Confidence is that vital engine that drives the world be it in relationships, commerce, appliances and just about anything on the face of the earth. Nevertheless, it is by no means restricted to the terrestrial planes, for without it we can have no spiritual life. The implication is that confidence in God represents the beginning of wisdom. So, just as it drives the engine that is the world, it is also the sole engine that powers our relationship with God and which enables us to function in a parallel spiritual world.
As Christians, we are creatures of two worlds – heaven and earth. Hence, while we are not of this world, we still live and function, at least for a while, in this world. This means that we can’t but help be impacted by whatever is going on in this world – wars, famines, disasters and of course the credit crunch. So, how should we respond to the hullabaloo that is going on around us? Unlike the people of the world, we have to understand or remember that our resources are not limited to the confines of this world. In reality, the bulk of our resources are, according to the bible, in the heavenly places, 2 Pet 1:3. So, the challenge for us is to switch the focus of our confidence from the failing world system and focus it on the heavenly system that can never fail. We need to start making significant withdrawals by faith from our heavenly resource account in order to meet whatever shortfalls we are experiencing in the world. We can accomplish this lofty end by placing our confidence in God’s infallible promises made to us in His word, a good example of which is our anchor verse.
God has promised to guide His children continually and satisfy us in drought as well as in dry places. If this is really true, which it is, it means that our lives are not subject to whatever fluctuations that goes on in the world. Consequently, we are expected to live well both in the good and bad times. As we seek God this week, I pray that you too will, as I have lately, come to understand His limitlessness and also develop the ability to apply His promise to your life, so that when people are talking recession, you will be able to confidently retort, what recession?
Prayer:
Father, teach me how to live above the fray just like you do. Help me to begin to fully appreciate and appropriate the heavenly resources you have placed at my disposal. Teach me to focus on you and not on my circumstances so that your glory will shine through me in Jesus name. Amen.