Seeing God’s glory in hard times

(Resolving Personal
& Spiritual Conflicts)

John 11:40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?Faith activates God’s power. Doubt and unbelief limit God’s power. The choice is yours. When we fail to see the glory of God manifested in our difficult situations, the issue is never about the inability of God to do things for us but it is always about our lack of faith in His power.

In most cases we fall short of the glory of God not because we do not have any faith, but we let the negative things we see, feel and hear contaminate our faith. Faith contaminated by fear will not produce positive, desired results. But pure, unsullied faith in God’s ability is always effective in yielding the expected results. We do well to develop unshakable and steadfast faith in God regardless of what we see, feel and hear in the external circumstances. It takes patience, perseverance and a lot of encouragement to come to such maturity of faith where situations will not move us. The problem is that we have a natural propensity to resist and doubt the invisible and the untouchable. Faith, which is belief in the unseen, runs contrary to this natural inclination. However, once we master this law of faith of believing before seeing we will always please God and see His glory in our difficult and pressing situations.

Jesus spelled out this principle of believing before seeing in response to Martha’s doubt that his late brother Lazarus who had been dead four days could be raised to life again. Moved with compassion, Jesus wanted to use God’s power to raise Lazarus from the dead. Accordingly, He gave instruction to the mourning crowd to take away the stone that shut the tomb of Lazarus’ body. Regrettably, Martha contested that instruction saying, “But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days” (John 11:39). Instead of acting by faith on Jesus’ words, she doubted. This is the tragic error most of us make.

You might be saying that your life is now hopeless, your business or employment unprofitable, your children irredeemable, your spouse’s love cold, your differences with your superiors or in-laws irreconcilable or your sickness incurable, but I dare you to believe in God’s power that makes the impossible possible. Do not worry about the length of time your unfavourable situation has been like that. God exists outside time and space, thus He cannot be limited or controlled by space and time. In fact, He is so sovereign that He can manipulate time and space to work to your advantage. He made the sun to stand still for Joshua to finish a winning battle. He carried Phillip on His Spirit’s wings back to town after successfully carrying a soul-winning task.       Doubt your doubts and accept the truth that all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23; Matthew 17:20).

– For prayer and counselling call 0772889766 or e-mail mairos78@yahoo.co.uk