What’s your favorite household chore?
Your answer says a lot about you.
You know what mine is? Vacuuming. Although dusting lands a close second.
Want to know why I like these two tasks best? Immediate gratification. Yep, I love seeing miniscule dust particles wiped clean with a whisk of my wrist. I love seeing flattened carpet fibers spring to life with a push of my Hoover.
Bottom line – I like results. And the quicker I can get them, the better.
If I’m not careful, though, this can trip me up in my walk with Christ. Because whether I like it or not, sometimes God doesn’t give me immediate results. The question then becomes: will I trust Him anyway?
This morning I was reminded of God’s faithfulness.
Last summer I went through a season of feeling distant from God. There was no reason for it, really. No sin. No crisis. No drama. Just a perpetual feeling that though I read my Bible daily and prayed faithfully, God seemed to be holding me at arms distance.
It wasn’t a very good feeling. So I begged God to show me his love. I asked God to direct my path. And still I felt nothing. In fact, I felt a bit abandoned.
This morning I read a passage that I read this time last summer. I know because I marked and dated it. Here’s what I read:
“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk for I give myself to you….Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.” Psalm 143:8-10
Next to the passage I wrote, “This is my prayer for me, for us and for Crossline.”
A year later I realize that though I didn’t feel close to God during my spiritual drought filled summer, God was right with me, bending low to hear the cries of my heart. How do I know? Because this past year God has done what I asked. He has showed me where to walk; He has taught me to do His will; His gracious Spirit has led me forward on firm footing.”
Last summer I couldn’t see it.
I couldn’t feel it.
I couldn’t hear it.
So I just had to trust it.
Looking back one year later I see that it was so.
By the way, did you happen to notice how many times I used the word feel or felt in the previous paragraphs? Just so you won’t have to go back and count, let me tell you: Seven.
Feelings come and go. One day we feel close to God, the next day we don’t. There is nothing wrong with feeling our feelings. We are human, after all. But we don’t want to live by our feelings – feelings are much too fleeting to base a life upon. Instead we live by faith, or trust, as the Bible calls it.
It’s this faith – this trust – that gets us through the times we don’t see and don’t feel immediate gratification or results. And it’s this trust that gets us through times when we don’t see or feel the closeness of Christ.
After I read the Psalm 143 passage I flipped the page and my eyes landed on these words from Psalm 145:18, “The Lord is close to all who call upon Him”.
“He IS close….”
Even when we don’t see it
Even when we don’t feel it.
He is.
