“did God really say?”

In the garden of Eden, we don’t know how much time passed from when God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Maybe they were told and so much time passed that the warning became dilute through time passing and so it was easy for the devil to come and ask…”did He really say…?”

And it is still like this today. We can have a word from God, but as the time passes, the conviction can start to wane and waver, and what was once a statement has
now become a question.

How quickly our resolve can recede as we become further from the initial instruction and command. At the start, we can be so strong and convicted, and yet as time passes, the strength and conviction will become dilute. This calls for the act of will and continuous submission and obedience to God and His
Truth and what He has said- whether we feel like it, believe it, or even desire it..

We have to obey the instruction that God gives because through time there will
be different seasons of conviction to not bothered, from disappointment to unbelief…

I believe God uses this time to mature us and to show us our true state of faith. Will we still trust and obey Him even when the voice has become faint? Will we
still agree with Him, or let circumstance or natural vision and feelings dictate? As our trusty prayer partners start to drop away, will we stay faithful to God or
leave our position and follow our brother or sister..?

Let us never be afraid to wrestle with God and the honest questions we have. God knows exactly what we have within us- faith, doubt, trust, independence…we
are the ones that don’t know what is hidden and lurking in our depths (or even shallows).

Let us always wrestle, but wrestle into blessing and not away from it.

the eleventh hour

Over the last week my watch has worked during the day and then stopped overnight- always within the eleventh hour. After 6 nights of this I thought that maybe I should consider that this may be some communication from God- as it is unusual and consistent and catching my attention.

As I considered what He could be saying, I reminded myself that the eleventh hour is the very last minute of getting something done and also checked out that Biblically the eleventh hour is when there were workers hired at different times throughout the day and at the end, each one was given the same amount of pay (Matt 20.1-16).

Within this week of the watch stopping during the night, I have had some heartbreak and difficult pain to wrestle with, and yet I believe that God is within all of it (of course- since we can’t escape from His presence), and that it is a reminder that there is still time… It may be late and in the last hour, but there is still time.

Keep on praying. Keep on believing. He is the God of breakthrough.