What if____?
Do any of you ever go down the ‘what if’
road? What if I don’t make any friends in our new community? What if my
marriage does not get better? What if my husband loses his job? What if this
pain in my body is cancer? What if my kids don’t love Jesus?
You fill in the blank. What if ____?
Not long ago (July 2018 at the time of
writing this) I decided it was time to read through the Bible again. These days
I am in Chronicles. To be honest I have been struggling in my trust of the Lord
lately. There are so many unknowns in our life and it is beginning to wear on
me. I know God is faithful and good. He has taken us through some very deep
waters. But 'what ifs' race around the track of my mind like the cars in the
Indy 500! What if the house doesn’t sell? What if we don’t find a suitable
ministry? What if we didn’t hear God correctly? What if we go bankrupt and end
up homeless?
As the end of our present ministry (remember this is from 2018) looms
on the not so distant horizon and no ministry opportunities have materialized
and no offers have been made to purchase our home, anxiety knocks at the door
of my soul begging entrance.
In 2 Chronicles, Israel and Judah have
parted ways, with Israel serving pagan gods but Judah still remaining faithful
to God. The Ethiopian army, outnumbering Judah 2:1, declares war on Judah.
“Then
[King] Asa cried out to the Lord
his God, “O Lord, no one but you
can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name
that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord,
you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!” So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians in the
presence of Asa and the army of Judah, and the enemy fled. Asa and his army
pursued them as far as Gerar, and so many Ethiopians fell that they were unable
to rally. They were destroyed by the Lord and his army, and the army of Judah
carried off a vast amount of plunder.” (emphasis mine)
(2
Chronicles 14:11–13, NLT)
The army of Judah didn’t even have to do
any fighting. They got to carry off the blessing of the plunder. Then, for 25
years, Judah experiences peace under King Asa’s rule.
But two chapters later we read that
Israel is attacking Judah and seems to be gaining the upper hand. So, Asa sends
a note, along with the temple gold as a bribe, to a foreign king asking for his
help.
God sends a messenger to Asa with this
message:
“Don’t you remember what
happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their
chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you.” (2 Chronicles 16:8, NLT) [Emphasis mine]
I was instantly convicted.
“Connie,
don’t you remember the faithfulness
of God all your life?! Why are you overwhelmed? God, your God, is the same
yesterday, today, and forever!”
I had made agreements with ‘what if’. ‘What
if’ is a spirit of fear and anxiety. That is not from the Lord. When you become
aware of lies, fears, and curses that you have believed and acted upon it is very
important to ‘take those thoughts captive’ as it says in the scriptures.
The way I have learned to do this (taken
from Nothing Hidden Ministries) is to say out loud, “I nail_______ (fill in
whatever it is you have allowed to control your thinking) to the cross of Jesus
Christ and I break all agreements I have made with __________ known or unknown,
and repent of joining with it”. Then I ask the Father to send them far away
from me. I always ask him what he wants to replace the lies, fears, and curses
with because it is not a good idea to leave the place in your soul vacant, as
worse lies will come and take their place.
So, I nailed ‘what if’ to the cross of
Jesus Christ and I broke all agreements I had made, known and unknown, with it,
and I repented. Before I could even finish my question of what Father wanted to
replace it with, I heard him say, “I AM”!
I have seen I AM in action in my life. I
AM your Deliverer, I AM your Provider, Protector, Redeemer, Healer, Comforter –
and the list goes on. That was all I needed. He is all I need. Things
may turn out differently than what I hope or expect but He will be with me. He
will sustain me. He knows what I need.
Life on this side of heaven may never be
easy, i.e. without pain, sorrow, grief, etc. But we can choose to walk daily in
His presence or to squander grace and peace by making agreements with ‘what if’. We have no guarantee that life will turn out
the way we hope it will.
Why not take some time right now to
recount the ways in which God has provided for you, how he has protected you,
and comforted you?
…take a new grip with your tired hands
and stand firm on your shaky legs.
Hebrews 12:12 NLT
…and give thanks. Jesus is right there
by your side! Just keep walking, keep your eyes on Jesus. Trust him. He is
good!
Brief update: January 2020
September 2019, my husband was called to
be the Lead Pastor of a church (meeting all the requests our grandson asked of
the Father: a safe community where we can go for walks after dark as a family,
within a 2.5 hour radius of his house, and an indoor pool where we can go swimming
when they come to visit). Our house still has not sold but the Lord keeps
paying the mortgage. Some days we receive good news and others we receive bad.
God is faithful and he is good. We always have enough for today: enough food,
enough energy, enough resources to accomplish what God is asking of us…Best of
all we have His Presence.
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