"In Full View & Behind the Scenes"

It's literally impossible for anyone to count the many wondrous things God has done.

There's a vastness to the marvels God does right before our very eyes, and yet, our minds sometimes tend to focus on the possible problems that could come our way — as if we don't have enough problems already!

And all of a sudden, the fear of these problems and challenges make our hearts start to pound.

Our lips start to quiver.

Our legs start to tremble.

…Well, maybe not literally, but it seemed like Habakkuk was able to relate.

Habakkuk's Prayer

[Passage found in Habakkuk 3:13-19]

In the Bible, a prayer Habakkuk made started off with a list of soooo many great things he has heard about the Lord.

But then, the tone sort of shifted.

There came a point where Habakkuk started describing how anxious he was, even after he finished describing all that the Lord has done.

I wondered why he felt this way.

Then I realized that not only does God allow us to experience His miracles for ourselves when they’re done in plain sight, but He also works on our behalf in the background. The Lord fights battles for us that we don't even know exist.

When we aren't able to see what God is doing in our lives, the enemy likes to come and try to inject false assumptions in our heads to make us worry.

The enemy tries to make us think we are hopeless and have no one to count on for deliverance, saving, healing, or victory.

Well, it's all a big LIE.

God is a God who takes care of any and everything concerning us.

As the ultimate Guide, He sees what's ahead.

As our biggest Supporter, He has our back.

As our greatest Friend, He is always right beside us, through thick and thin.

Even though we can't see what God is doing, we can trust and believe that He's working everything out for our good when we love Him and submit ourselves to Him wholeheartedly.

We can patiently wait for victory to come our way because victory belongs to the Lord Almighty.

The Script of Life with God

It takes a lot of heart to be confident in our current situation in life when our current situation seems stagnant, unprogressive, or infertile. Whenever it gets too hard to live out that confidence, think of it this way:

Life is like a school play.

Even though everyone gives their undivided attention to what’s happening on the front and center of the stage, the show can't be a successful one unless there's action taking place backstage to make sure everything goes smoothly.

What happens behind the scenes allows the vision of the play to be manifested in full view for all to see and be in awe of.

With that being said, whenever we feel surrounded by nothing but fear, failure, and hopelessness, we should put our hope in the Lord — the One tirelessly working behind the scenes to keep this show we call life going.

God has been good before, God is good now, and we can rest assured that God will forever be good.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

- Habakkuk 3:17-18

“7 Things to Thank God For”

On this Thanksgiving Day, I reflected on how God's intervention in my life brought me both healing and victory three Thanksgivings ago (November 22, 2018). So this morning, after having the urge to read about the story of Jesus healing a man of leprosy in Mark 1:40-45 (NIV), I decided to also list some of the takeaways I got from that encounter Jesus made with the sick man.

Although it's definitely not much compared to the countless reasons for giving thanks to the Lord, here are 7 things about God that I'm thankful for:

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

1. He is full of compassion.
God not only sees what I'm going through, but He truly cares about me and understands me.

2. He has a never-ending willingness to help me.
Not only does God see what I'm going through, and not only does He care, but He is always ready to reach out His hand and turn things around for me. He never grows tired of coming to my rescue when I'm in distress, when I'm vulnerable, or when I'm close to losing hope.

3. He is able.
God is not all talk and no action. When He says He'll do something, I can believe with my whole heart that He will; if He's done it before, I know that He's able to do it again every time.

4. He has my best interests at heart.
The plans God has for me are always for my good. When God's hand is at work in me, the results are always full of nothing but goodness because it was done out of His love for me.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

5. He makes my life a living testimony.
My whole life—my whole existence—is proof of how wonderful God is to me. I can't help but share God's greatness and almighty ways with others so that they can at least get a glimpse of who He is and what He can do.

6. He makes me want to draw closer to Him.
After reflecting on the immeasurable love God has for me and the multitude of blessings He continuously pours over my life, it all makes me want to draw closer and closer to Him. Who else can be as good to me as God is? Or who else can love me as much as God does? Because of who He is and all that He's done for me, being in His presence is what my heart desires more than anything else.

7. He is always in my corner.
It's ironic how the road isn't easy for believers of God, and yet so many people still make the decision of choosing Him above all else. What I've realized is that no matter what it is that may make the road far from easy, it's better than being on the easiest road in life if it means having God on my side every step of the way.

I like to think that we all have more than enough reasons to make every day Thanksgiving Day; I hope these 7 reasons for giving thanks to the Lord spark even more reasons in you!

“Faith: It Goes a Long Way”

All is well when God's presence is near, and we can count on His presence being near whenever we may feel like we need Him more than ever.

In the passage about the dead girl and the sick woman, Jairus’s daughter was dying and the sick woman had an internal bleeding for 12 years.

Even though the story doesn’t mention how long the daughter was in the stage of dying, one can assume that it was definitely long enough to the point where it was more than her and her family could bear.

The same goes for the sick woman; imagine bleeding or having the worst disease you could think of, going to doctor after doctor to find a cure for it with no answer, and having to deal with it year after year!

It sounds like it all eventually got to being more than she was able to bear, too.

Fortunately, both Jairus and the woman were in the right place at the right time while Jesus was passing by, so they took advantage of the opportunity they were blessed with.

When we seize the day and place our faith in the God who can be depended on for anything, we can believe that He will show out in due time, which is His perfect time.

FAITH IS KEY.

Having faith is a key component that goes toward receiving what God has in store for us and wants to offer us.

The sick woman had enough faith story believe that touching the edge of Jesus’s cloak in the midst of the large crowd would heal her, and of course, it worked.

There is so much power held in the faith we place in the Lord, even if it means carrying that faith out through the smallest act in the middle of a chaotic situation.

So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Luke‬ ‭17:6‬

Not many people would probably build up the courage to do something like what the woman did (I honestly don’t think I would), but it’s a good thing that she set this example for anyone who feels desperate and hopeless about a situation they are currently in.

I certainly took her situation to heart; I believe that it’s important to pursue faith in God with no limit and under no condition.

Going on to the dead girl’s situation, one thing that really caught my attention in the story was how the crowd of people at Jairus’s house laughed at Jesus when He said the girl was only sleeping and was not dead.

As we place our faith in the Lord, many people may try to bring us down by ridiculing us for believing that something seeming almost impossible could ever happen;

that’s why Jesus only allowed a few, selected amount of people to be in the room with Him when He went to see the “dead” girl.

Instead of surrounding ourselves with people who will make us question our faith in God and discourage us from having any, we need to be around people who will help us hold on to it.

When we remain faithful to the end, we will see the great things God is able to provide us with start rolling in: victory, prosperity, deliverance, success, healing and restoration as they were seen in this situation, all of it!

We simply need to remember that having faith in God is key. Faith is never a waste of time, it is never something that is done in vain, and it goes a mighty long way.

[Passage found in Luke 8:40-56]

"Living by Faith"

First of all, what is faith?

I think the best way to describe faith is by taking a look at what God’s Word defines it to be:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

Faith requires doing God's will for our lives, even when it may not make any sense at the moment; it’s impossible to be faithful while doubting the Lord and His all-knowing ways at the same time.

When we faithfully start working on what God has instructed us and called us to do (even when we don't see the purpose of it quite yet), we will never regret it!

That’s why we should get started on His plans for our lives right away!

Faithfully doing God's will prevents us from experiencing the regretful guilt of disobeying Him when we decide to go against His will; from personal experiences, I could honestly say that looking back at what could have been is one of the worst feelings ever.

To refrain from having regretful feelings of "what could have been," we need to faithfully obey the Lord right now in order to receive the rewards that will inevitably come along with doing so afterward.

Called for New Beginnings

Going off of the idea of having a faithful lifestyle, there may be times when we're in a certain position in life that God isn't in favor of;

not necessarily because of anything that we've done wrong, but because of the fact that He wants to take us to a higher position and a better environment in life.

When God wants to make improvements in our lives, we shouldn't argue with Him or make excuses for why we should stay somewhere we've outgrown.

Similar to Abraham's situation after He received a calling from God, we may not know where we're headed specifically either (Hebrew 11:8). Even though we don't know all the details, by faith, we can always put our complete trust in the ultimate guide: the Lord our God.

After getting to where God wants us to be, we may feel strange and out of our comfort zone without the environment of people, places and things that we have been used to for so long.

Our job during this stage of transition is to have faith in our Heavenly Father; He is the One who is constantly molding us into everything He has created us to become during the whole process.

Life can be tough at times when we are going through new beginnings.

However, in spite of it all, keep in mind that we serve a God who always comes through about keeping His promises.

When we place our faith in Him completely and wholeheartedly, we will soon see His work being performed and carried out in our lives.

He is the God who is able to work in ways that will make us, and even others, prosperous and blessed as we uphold a life of remaining faithful to Him.

[Passage found in Hebrews 11:8-19]

"The Right Surroundings"

In so many ways, God lets us know that we can't do this thing called life on our own, without the right people by our side.
Simply by asking Him, He is able to send these people our way.

While Elisha was with the other men in the passage, he was able to get them out of a dilemma that they were worried was impossible to get out of (with God’s help, of course).

The whole situation reminded me of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, which says
"Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up."

It is best to have people like Elisha on our side who are willing to help us when we need it the most;
those couple of verses lets us know that being alone and lacking a positive relationship with others means there's no one to help us in times of trouble, which is an unfortunate position to be in!

I feel like the axhead in this passage represents people who do NOT have the right people in their lives to accompany them in this journey of life.

Later on, having the axhead fall into the water is where the problem began for these men;
similarly, being alone can lead to being plunged into the toughest situations in life where, most of the time, we honestly don't know what to do.
On top of that, we can't swim our way out on our own because of the heavy burdens that come along with these tough situations in the efforts of weighing us down even more.

BUT, if we ask God to provide us with people who have the same spiritual mindset as us, who have a connection with Him, and who are willing to pray FOR and WITH us while we go through difficult circumstances, He will send us what is represented by the stick Elisha threw into the water in this passage:
the right people; the right surroundings.

By throwing the stick into the water to lift the sunken axhead up, Elisha (again: with God's help, of course) was able to help his friend out of the situation he found himself in,
which shows the importance of having the right people in our lives.

I don't think it makes sense to constantly be surrounded by people who make us feel even worse than we already do when we're going through a hard time, or people who make our situations a whole lot worse than they already are.
When Elisha found out his friend was in trouble, he didn't make him feel worse;
instead, he asked "where did the axhead fall?"
He had intentions of doing something about it, which shows that he genuinely cared.

Choose to surround yourself with people who are willing to assist you in solving your problems instead of pushing you towards dwelling in them more and more;
Choose to surround yourself with people who are able to push you towards reaching your fullest potential, and who are willing to WORK with you to reach them;

Choose to surround yourself with people who represent the axhead + stick combo;
people who are willing to help you and uplift you when you need the help and encouragement the most.


[Passage found in 2 Kings 6:1-7]

“The Challenges We Face” (Part 2: Peer Pressure)

There are two challenges being faced in this passage:

self-identity and peer pressure.

PART 2: PEER PRESSURE

Living to please God is a necessity in our walk with God;

but at the same time, there will always be people around who will try to force us into living in a way that satisfies them instead, which can lead to living against God’s will...

better known as peer pressure.

This peer pressure is exactly what Pilate went through in this passage when deciding whether or not Jesus should be set free (Matt. 27:17);

Pilate was stuck in the middle of making a decision that would satisfy the rioting crowd or that would truthfully be the right thing to do.

When you find yourself in a situation like this where you’re stuck in the middle, who will YOU choose to please?

Always remember that God gives us our own free will; at the end of the day, you are the one who holds the power of deciding who you want to please and who you want to live for.

Don’t be like Pilate, who ended up doing what the crowd, the leading priests, and the elders wanted him to do even though he knew it was the WRONG thing to do (Matt. 27:21-24).

Our job is to recognize and pin point who these certain people are in our lives in order to put a stop to peer pressure.

I think it’s only right to say that the only “pressure” we need in life is the one from God;

the type of pressure that will mold us into becoming who He has created us to be, not break us down and drift us farther away from Him (Isaiah 64:8).

By being confident in the fact that God knows what’s best for you, you’ll start to learn how to depend on Him instead of looking for validation from others.

Don’t let the pressure of others make you say or do something you know you might regret, but instead, choose to live to please God;

I guarantee you that you won’t regret it!

[Passage found in Matthew 27:11-26]

“The Challenges We Face” (Part 1: Self-Identity)

There are two challenges being faced in this passage:

self-identity and peer pressure.

PART 1: SELF-IDENTITY

The moment we accept the Lord into our lives, we become children of God and find our true identity in Him.

Despite what others have to say about you and who you are, trust in who God has created and called you to be.

When Jesus was before Pilate, even HE had to face this challenge of staying true to His identity; when everyone denied who He really is and made accusations against Him, He remained silent (Matt. 27:13-14).

Silence.

This is something that plays a huge role when dealing with others who try to denounce who you have already been called to be.

Through the many silent moments of Jesus, He was falsely accused to the point of reaching the cross, where He died; and what all those people who were ridiculing Him didn’t know is that God always has the final Word.

Three days later, after all that silence and no action, Jesus rose from the dead and clearly assured everyone who kept saying otherwise that He truly IS the Son of God!

In the same way, God has the power of revealing to our own naysayers that we are His children; because of Him, we have been called to be great and nothing short of that, no matter what others have to say.

At the end of the day, THEY will be the ones to be left silent and jaw-dropped when seeing all that God is doing in our lives (Psalm 8:2b).

[Passage found in Matthew 27:11-26]