My, Devotion to Him #160
“God is late, inattentive, and unaware. My life is on the brink of falling apart, but He doesn’t seem to care that I’m hurting. I’m not even sure if this whole “God thing” is real anymore.” If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
Sometimes life throws us a curveball; and in those moments of fear, doubt starts to creep into our lives. As believers, we begin to question the very existence of God Himself because He doesn’t seem to be concerned about our problems. Did you catch that? Our problems. The reason we allow doubt to override our beliefs is because we’ve turned the focus to self. When trials and tribulations come, we forget about what God is doing all around us and we become fixated on the obstacle in our own little bubble. Ultimately, we’ve lost sight of the bigger picture, but His works are higher than our worries.
John the Baptist was a righteous man; he obeyed the law and did as God asked him to do. His obedience would one day cost him his life. There was a huge scandal between King Herod and his brother’s wife, Herodias, and John called them out on it. Herodias was furious because she was openly humiliated, so she wanted John dead. Since Herod respected John, he threw him in prison instead. Jesus heard that John was in prison, but never came to check on him, didn’t send him a care package, or even send a friend to comfort him. John started having doubts. He sent his followers to find Jesus and ask him this question, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” John, who paved the way for Jesus, (his cousin by the way) doubted that Jesus was who He said He was. Then Jesus replied with words I believe were meant for anyone who has doubts about God. He said, “Blessed is anyone who is not offended because of Me.” In other words, Jesus was saying to John—and ultimately to us—blessed is the one who doesn’t fall away from his faith, who doesn’t quit believing, who doesn’t turn away from me because of what I do or do not.
See, Jesus had a mission, a mission to save the lost. And as John sat in prison wondering if he wasted his life preparing the way for the Son of God, Jesus was doing the work of the Father. John was focused on his own condition; Jesus was focused on the condition of the world. John was worried his life was in danger; Jesus intentionally put His life in danger for humanity. John could only see as far as the walls of his prison cell; Jesus looked ahead in time and saw you and me.
So what do you do when your life is falling apart? Remember that God is working all around us, and think of the things He is doing for the Kingdom of Heaven. We can’t waste all our energy on worrying about what this world can do to us; we should instead be focusing our energy on making sure everyone we know hears the sweet message of Jesus Christ. We need to be a generation that seeks God first above all things knowing in our hearts that even when His hand is not evident in our lives that He is still in the balance holding it all together.
Copyright © 2018 by Justin Johnson
Published by SpiritWarriorMinistry.com as in agreement agreed upon between SpiritWarriorMinistry.com and author Justin Johnson
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