God's Promise

By Pastor Rey Diaz

What to do when you don’t think God is there?

I have responded as if God has forgotten me, as if God is too busy for me, as if God doesn’t like me, as if God doesn’t care, as if God is not strong enough.

I could go on and on, but in my years of following Jesus, I have had so many responses to circumstances that it embarrasses me.  I so often allow my interpretation of reality to distort the promises God has made to me.

The truth is that God made a promise to me – I will be with you always (Matt 28:20).  This is a promise not contingent on me, my behavior, my record, my anything.  It is God and his infinite faithfulness that will fulfill this promise.  So the truth is that God is always with me.  In my failures.  In my victories.  In my doubts. In my beliefs. When I’m scared, anxious, and worried.  God is with me.  When things are going well and when things are going bad, God is with me.

That should change me.  That truth could change me if I would surrender to it.  How would my life be different if I responded to every circumstance the way anyone would respond if they were absolutely confident God was with them?

That’s my challenge. That’s your challenge.  How would your life be different if you responded like that?  How would your faith grow?  How would your family flourish?  This month there is a group of us who are experimenting.  In our everyday lives we are going to pause as ask, “How would someone in this circumstance respond if they were absolutely confident God was with them?” 

The story of Joseph is a very frustrating story.  But it has a lot to teach us.  This young man loses it all.  He is betrayed by his brothers, stripped of his identity, sold as a slave, and sent to a different land.  How does he respond?  Like anyone would if they were confident God was with them.  So now God is going to bless him and save him and rescue him.  Nope, instead he is falsely accused of a crime and sent to prison.  He is being punished for the very crime he refused to commit.  So where is God in all of this?  The Bible is clear that God, though unseen, was very present with Joseph.  And that is how Joseph responded.  As a slave, God is with Joseph.  In the dungeon, God is with Joseph. 

Where are you?  Can you believe this truth?  Is it hard to accept?  Where can you grow? 

 Read Genesis 37 and 39.  Share the story with your family.  Come to hear part two of this story (sorry for the cliffhanger).  It will get worse before it gets better.