Author: marquitabp

To know me is to accept me, and to love me is to help me.
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Having Faith When the Situation Seems Hopeless

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 HCSB

How do you have faith when everything that you know comes crashing down? Have you ever felt hopeless?

I remember when I got sick in college. I had prayed that I did not have Lupus, repeatedly. In my mind, I was devastated because there was nothing the doctors could give me those two weeks I waited to find out, because they did not know what was going on. I was asking why me, why am I still alive, why am I suffering? I had lost hope, or rather I had lost faith. I had lost belief and trust in God because I could not understand what was going on at the time. I was thinking about myself, thinking about why did that thing had happened to me. But I remained prayerful, because it was the only thing I knew that would produce a result.

Of course all along I was praying, so I never lost sight of what I knew–which was that God had to heal me. Even though I was still in a vulnerable place, my faith was my reality and I knew that God’s word was truth. So sometime after I being released, I talked to one of my mentors. I told her that God was going to heal me and she said that God doesn’t heal everybody. I realized I could not receive her words because it went against the truth that God had revealed to me in my heart and in His word. I held on to that belief and rested in the fact that I could not accept things went against what I knew…and I can say that from 2003 to 2006 my lupus serologies were negative; it was positive once while I was hospitalized in February of 2006, and it has never been positive since.

I thought about these things today as I left the courthouse. I saw several men and a few women that have fallen into a state of hopelessness, or truthfully speaking, disbelief. They do not believe in anything and accept life as they see it as reality and their lives and choices manifest the evidence of it. And I asked God, how can we faith in a place like this? How can you have faith when the system (well, the legal system here in New Orleans, that is, and I’m sure several other places, but metaphorically speaking) is orchestrated for your failure?

I realized this as I got some news that would have depressed most people…but because I know that God has control of everything, I am faithful that it will work out and truthfully not concerned. We maintain faith in desolate places by remembering the truth of God’s word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17. It is the promises of God, and the things He has already done for us and for others that should serve as the foundation for our faith. I digress and I realize that most of you may not be like me; there are things that I know as truth and fact–The Word–and for those things there is nothing that can come against it. Being raised in the church and as the granddaughter of a preacher, one thing I was raised to know, was that the Word of God was, is and will always be fact. So despite doubting because I had momentarily accepted what I saw as reality, I was reminded of the scripture above that has come to be one of my favorites. Knowing or believing in a thing makes it a fact for us. When we condition our minds to acknowledge the Word of God as fact, all else fades away. It is at that point that your faith becomes your reality and the things you are believing God for are merely waiting in the queue, so to speak, to manifest. It is in having that Word database that you are able to encourage yourself and others when life may be saying otherwise.

So the key to having faith even when the world seems to be crashing around you, when everything you have known is no more, is in trusting what you know–trusting and relying on the promises of God. Even when your mind says no, you have to make the decision to keep trusting in God’s word. Trust in what He has done for you. Trust in what He has done time and time again and bear down in your faith and know that your breakthrough awaits. You must know that this situation and all others in your life will ultimately work out for your good, because like the Word, it is written.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. Psalm 34:19 KJV2000
Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. Psalm 71:20 NIV

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In First Place

You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3 NASB

In the beginning of God’s deluge to Moses on the rules of law that the children of Israel were to live by stands one of the greatest commandments. You shall have no other gods before Me. And in listening to a message on First Fruits almost two minutes ago, it dawned on me what that really meant. Have no other gods before me…this meaning I can’t have my family, my friends, my relationships, work, school, health, finances and money, anything or anyone, before Him.

I realize now that for all my life up until this point, that this lesson is what God has been trying to show me. Of course God especially personalizes this journey for each of us…but I now see that everything I have gone through has served to draw me closer to Him and to teach me this single fact. We must not have any other god before Him. Because all of these things can be come a ‘god’ for us…fame and attention, prosperity, power, lust, influence, work, our significant others…we allow these things to manipulate our schedules and control our sleeping. They influence when we wake up, what we will do when we leave work and when we get home. They even dictate how much time we spend with God, which service we go to and how long it needs to be. It all makes sense now.

It is essential to our faith that we learn to reverse the roles and the mistakes taught to us by everyday life. We must realize that it is in the reordering of those lists that the things that are most important can all be accomplished when we place those things at God’s feet after we have subjected ourselves to His instructions. It is when we start the day with prayer, praise and worship to and of Him that we can see those things fall into place before us. It is when we seek His dreams, visions, and appointed purposes for our lives that we begin to truly know who we are and truly begin to enjoy our lives here. It is when we put Him first in everything, that everything that was once a disarray and out of order becomes a flowing process. You begin to meet the right people at the right time to help you bring to pass those new ‘ideas,’ you meet that special someone because you have allowed God to reorder your life and priorities and give you a new value system, and you start really making those millions you have dreamed about (well, I know I will be making them soon, lol).

God has to be first. Before everything, every person, and every situation. God allows us to ‘go through’, revealing those voids in our lives so that we must seek Him. It was not until my daddy died and seemingly all hell broke loose that I really had to go to Him to get it all together. It was in almost having something I have always desired that I realized that I did not want that thing without God. With God first, everything you need and truly desire will manifest. With God first, there is no lack. With God first, everything comes to you instead of you seeking those things. Put Him first today, drop everything and let God give you those things back in their proper order–then watch your life take on a form you never dreamed of! Watch God blow your mind!

All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 28:2 NASB