What do you have an easier time believing? Are you a cup is half empty person or is the cup half full? It’s funny how we tend to fall into one category or the other. How do you know? When you’re walking through life without a care in the world and suddenly the wheels fall off of the bus, do you see no way out and everything is just awful or are you looking for the silver lining? Are you looking for what God could be up to in the situation?
Scripture is pretty clear there are two sides or two teams in the world we’re living in today [John 10:10]. Jesus comes to bring life and the enemy comes to destroy life. There’s really no middle ground there. When situations happen, we must realize they are from one camp or the other. Even when the enemy is at work, God has a plan and He is for us.
Romans 8: 31-39 reminds us of the God we serve and what He brings to the equation. With God so for us, why do we fear? David Eldridge says, “If you’re scared, one of two things is going on: you are believing a lie about yourself (based on God’s perspective) or you’re believing a lie about God.” You can’t be on opposing teams, friends. You either agree and side with one or you agree and side with the other. God is on the side of truth and life [John 14:6]. Why would we not agree with Him?
What about when your circumstances support what the enemy says? Well, that’s when faith kicks in full speed ahead. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
This week I got an email from one of my India team member’s mom. She received a phone call from the passport office saying they were rejecting his passport because they sent the short birth certificate form instead of the long form. No passport, no visa. No visa, no mission trip. The mom was asking if the funds he raised could be held until his next mission trip. I immediately recognized I could agree with the position he wasn’t going, or I could jump in and look for God. I started asking where his birth certificate was located and what could we do to expedite it because he was going on this trip. He was called. He was a critical team member and the enemy would not win (I can get a bit ticked off when the enemy starts messing with people I care about).
To make a long story short, she found a friend in their home state willing to help, but it wasn’t needed. The county office clerk helped express the birth certificate to the passport office for them. Now that was an answer to prayer and a sigh of relief, but God didn’t stop there. The friend who was willing to help had no idea this young man was going on a mission trip until the fiasco and she mailed him a check for a hundred dollars. Now tell me, does God or does He not work everything together for good [Romans 8:28]? If we’d agreed with the enemy we would have lost a team member who is critical to our team and we would have missed the financial blessing of God. He allowed the situation to go on for a couple of days because He knew He had it all worked out with a blessing to boot!
Who are you going to believe? The father of lies or the King of kings and the Lord of lords who loves you enough to hold nothing back [John 8:44, Revelation 17:4, Romans 5:8]? You have to agree with one side or the other. You can’t have it both ways. To quote Joshua 24:15, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”