What causes us to doubt God’s protection and provision in our lives?
I often find myself reluctant to
take God at his word because I fear he might fail and this would put my weak
faith at risk of being destroyed.
Ahaz (of Judah )
is being threatened by Israel
(Ephraim) and Syria (Aram Syria and Israel
God is willing to give Ahaz a sign
that things will work out okay, but why is Ahaz resistant to such an offer of assurance? Maybe his faith is weak, and to experience
defeat at the hands of his enemies, following a promise of God’s intervention,
might destroy his faith completely. But Isaiah has a warning - if he does not
stand firm he will be defeated.
If I don’t stand on the faith God
has given me and trust him then I am likely to experience an erosion of what
little faith I do have and, eventually be defeated.
God’s sign to Ahaz appears to have
had both an immediate fulfilment, in the birth of Isaiah’s son, and a long term
fulfilment in Jesus. This ‘now’ and
‘later’ fulfilment is not always evident; sometimes things only work for the
best when viewed from an eternal perspective but Heb 11:6 asserts that we need
to ‘believe God rewards those who earnestly seek him’. We all have some faith, we just need to stand
in it to see it grow.
Prayer: Lord please show me the
ways I need to be standing in my faith, grant me the strength to do so and the
eternal perspective with which to view the outcome. Amen.
(member of a homegroup)