Week 7: Experiencing God
The Crisis of Belief
It’s week 7 of my online Bible study group. Here are some of the things I took away from the seventh week.
My Thoughts:
It’s Tuesday and the first day for me of Unit 7, as I missed a day when I was away.
It seems that each time I come to a lesson, it’s exactly what I need to read at the time. I have been brought to a place where a lot of big decisions need to be made, but I have no idea how to follow through with any of them; they’re so much bigger than me! But now I feel encouraged that I only have to do my bit and God will do His.
It’s also pretty great because two of my sisters messaged me today sharing how they were in certain situations that weren’t quite bright and I was able to see how todays lesson can be helpful to them too.
It’s day two and I learned that I still don’t trust God as much as I should. I didn’t remember or even realise that God reveals to me what He is going to do, not what I’m going to do for Him. That takes a lot of pressure off trying to do things in my own strength, but allows me to rely on Him like He wants me to, and follow Him with the knowledge that He’s going to get done what only He can.
Today on day 3 I witnessed how God had been answering my prayers all along. I had been praying for more faith and trust in Him for the past two weeks each day, and how my life started to fall apart since then has been actually devastating. But when I read todays lesson, I realised that I should be not only rejoicing, but moving closer to Christ as a result because these situations I’m gong through now are all in answer to that prayer I had been praying. He is showing me things that only He can sort out and asking me to trust that He will make the way out for me.
Even when I think back to all of the other impossibly seeming things I’ve gone through and how I made it out only because of Him made me wonder why I’ve been so somber now. It made me wonder why I couldn’t praise Him and rejoice. I realised that we tend to only praise God when everything is all sunny and things are looking up. I was able to walk in the pouring rain to receive some not so great news, and did so with a big smile and a song in my heart. This is because I knew and have to believe that God will work it out, because He will. Only He can do it, so why am I trying to do something that only He can? Now I have to live out the faith that I’m professing to have by acting like things are already sorted and doing the parts that I can.
It’s Friday today so the last day of this blog post. It’s day 4 of unit 7 so I have to do the last day of this unit tomorrow in order to be all caught up for next week. I may start my week from Sunday though just in case I miss a day next week as I have quite a busy schedule coming up.
Today I learned and was reminded that I have nothing to fear when God is with me. It was lovely also to know that He isn’t upset with us when we’re fearful because that’s a normal human reaction, but is instead upset when we fail to recognise His presence within those moments of fear and that He can protect us and lead us out of it.
The Meeting:
There was no meeting this week because once again, something very important came up that needed immediate attention. It was actually something very traumatic and devastating, the kind of trauma that leaves you laughing as much as you cry because the situation is so unbelievable, but I know that it’s another opportunity for me to grow closer to God and to grow in character.
✨ Nadine