This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:21-25 NASB
It’s so very easy to slip into a groove of what can only be described as a spiritual slump. We’ll be trucking along after seeing God move in our life and before we know it, we find ourselves in a tough situation and we’re not sure what we’re going to do. We feel the stress creep into our chest, we find it hard to breathe without tears escaping, and we feel almost hopeless. I say almost because a child of the Most High King should never be without hope.
Before you start feeling a sense of inferiority in light of my superb spiritual maturity – sorry, I can’t even type that without cracking up – I hope you recognize that I have the in-progress status just like everyone else. No one walks this out perfectly, but I want to encourage you (and myself) that it can get easier.
I have personally experienced physical healings, weather being modified, shackles of addictions being shattered, financial provisions and protections, and God has worked good out of horrible events in more ways than I even know. And at this point, if I’m being completely honest, I have to insert a but here.
I’ve witnessed these things, I’ve shared testimony after testimony for these things, but I often still find myself struggling when tough situations pop up. One of my favorites is car troubles. I bet you can relate to car problems, can’t you? We’re driving along and have a tire blow out. Not a good thing, but not the worst either. It still shakes us a bit. Maybe your check engine light comes on and you feel your chest tighten because you just don’t know how bad it is… yet. Or perhaps you’re in an accident – those really tend to shake us and can flood us with adrenaline.
I often get caught up in the emotions of it all – all the things that get thrown at us in this life – and I have to be very deliberate to rein in my thoughts. Ever notice how quickly we can spiral? The door to having guests arrive for a pity party is opened by the enemy (by way of the incident we’re going through), and we can either keep it open or we can make a purposeful move to shut it.
Is it really that easy?
King Solomon said it so well when he wrote This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. As I was flipping open my Bible the other day, I landed on Psalm 78. It’s a passage that recounts the numerous times that God provided and protected His people – even when they were whining and grumbling and doubting. In this Psalm, we’re reminded that our testimony has power.
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. Psalm 78:5-7 NASB
How are we to put our confidence in God if we don’t know what He’s done? The word testimony, in the Bible, means to do it again, there’s more to come, all life long and all in the context of God’s power (H5707, H5749, H5750). We’re told to have confidence in His power because what He’s done for one, He will do for another for all time. But if we don’t know what He’s done for others, how are we to strengthen our faith that way?
One way is to crack open God’s Word – it’s the testimony of His lovingkindnesses for us to bolster our faith with. Did you know that testimony is also a word used in place of the word covenant in the Old Testament (H5715)? It also refers to a group – an assembly of people – that God provides for (H5712). If I’m understanding this correctly, the word testimony means that God is promising His power for the needs of all of His children, and He’ll do it again and again and again – all life long.
That means that every way He provided, every way He saved His people, that we read about in the Bible, He will do for you and for me. I’ve never had God part a sea for me, but I have seen Him part the rains (we prayed that our belongings wouldn’t get rained on during one of our moves, and it rained on either side of us as we drove from Oklahoma to Colorado). I’ve never paid my taxes by plucking a coin from a fish’s mouth, but I have had the IRS recant penalties they were mistakenly trying to charge. Do you recall God providing in a way that it could only be God?
Our family experienced God providing a vehicle when there wasn’t much of a budget for one. We’ve had times of little to no work on the horizon, we prayed about it, and we were able to maintain even with two extra (and unexpected) mouths to feed. We’ve sought His guidance on important decisions and purchases, and He’s always given us clear answers. I bet you have similar God-moments – sometimes it helps to write them down.
I walk in freedom from addiction – 100% freedom – because He really does break every chain we bring to Him. He didn’t leave me with any lingering desires or temptations for what I now call former addictions, and I never had to face the physical torment of withdrawal. When He broke the chains of my former addictions, it was thorough and miraculous. Do you believe that He’ll do for you what He’s done for me?
Do you trust His promises? Do you believe that there’s more to come? Do you trust that they are for your whole life?
In John 14:16-21, Jesus comforts His disciples. He lets them know that even though He will physically be absent from them, they will not be left without hope or help or life. When we accept Jesus, we are then accepted by the Father. We tend to look at Jesus and think that of course God was going to take care of Him because He was God’s Son. But when we accept Jesus, we’re God’s kiddos, too. What God does for one, He’ll do for another.
I don’t want to slip into a spiritual slump, but I also don’t buy into the idea of living from one spiritual high to the next. I want to be steady. I want to seamlessly close the door on any type of pity-party-spiral that the enemy tries to bring my way. I want to go through the struggles that we face in life with grace that can only come from a confidence in God. I want to walk in – and live in – a peace that goes beyond human understanding.
I want my life to be a series of God-moments.
I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on all the moments God has showed His love for you, provided in a time of need, or brought good out of some not-so-fun schemes of the enemy. I bet you’ll be encouraged. But don’t stop there: share those God-moments with others. You might bring the boost of faith to someone who needs it.