God's Faithfulness

Deuteronomy 7:8-10 (New International Version)

⁸ But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. ¹⁰ But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

I've always struggled with the idea of God being faithful. It's not that I think God isn't faithful; I know God IS faithful, but the idea of Him, the Almighty Creator of the universe, to be faithful to ME, a sinful-hearted being of His creation, just blows me away. I'm not worthy of His faithfulness. It just makes me feel so, well, sinful, prideful, arrogant, and unworthy. But the beauty of it is that it also makes me feel humble. Humility is the best feeling there is when it's God centered.

This past week we had the blessing to go to Pine Cove family camp (Bluff, week 7 - woot woot!) and had Bob Kerning as our speaker. Bob focused on the Beatitudes, and one of the ones he focused on was "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."--Matthew v:3.

I don't think I've ever really thought through the meaning of "the poor in spirit." But at Bob explicated, poor in spirit = becoming more attached to God.

1. If I humble myself (poor in spirit), it will reduce my stress because I have nothing to prove and I'm dependent on God and not myself. It's not of my power I'm working, but of His and His alone. I don't have to prove how good I am or worry that I'm not good enough. It's not ME; it's Him.
2. Humility improves my relationships because I have nothing to lose. Humility doesn't mean I think less of myself, but that I think more of other people. I'm more interested in the lives of others than telling others about my life or focusing on my life.
3. Humility releases the power of God.

When I thought through the idea of being poor in spirit, it became apparent to me that then I will rejoice in God's faithfulness because I'm not looking at it from the arrogance of my nature and my desires. I don't how many times I've told myself that God is faithful, but inside I've cringed because it just felt so selfish. It probably was, but now that I have a different perspective, I'm rejoicing in God's faithfulness in my life.

Happiness is a choice, and it begins with humility.

I've been on a bit of a bumpy ride the last few months, and God has given me an incredible peace as he used the bumps and valleys to draw me closer to Him. Closer to Him than I've been in a long, long time, well, maybe ever. The last time I had to hang on to God so tightly and realize and recognize that He was all that could do it was when we moved to Granbury to do this church planting thing. He was faithful in that He did what He promised to do in His Word, and we have seen countless lives changed. Not of anything we did, but of His extraordinary grace.

I think over the course of 5 years and all the extraordinary things He allowed me to do, all the balls he allowed me to keep in in the air so gracefully, and all the amazing experiences, I began to think a little too much of myself. Like, that I could do it all - it was Misti who was all that. While it hurt a bit to learn the lesson that I'm really not Wonder Woman, I'm super thankful that my God is Wonder God and that He has refreshed me and renewed me to a place of humility.

Tonight I'm just overcome with thankfulness and humility for God's faithfulness.

PS - I've been away for so long because I've not felt like I had a post "good enough" to share. When I was pondering my thoughts on God's faithfulness and humility, I felt the Spirit prompting me to get over myself and post.