Worry or Faith - Day 53 Month 2-22 Week 8 Day 4

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)


Exodus 27 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2027&version=NIV

Psalm 44 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2044&version=NIV

Isaiah 41:1-16 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2041%3A1-16&version=NIV

Mark 4:13-41 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%204%3A13-41&version=NIV


Worry or Faith


The details have been provided for the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness.  If you are curious about the tabernacle and surrounding court, check out the following link.  https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/illustration-02-tabernacle/


Though Israel was God’s chosen people, we have read in the books of Psalms and Isaiah that Israel struggled when they did not follow God’s direction for them.  When they did not follow God’s direction, things would turn bad and they would realize their mistakes. In Psalm 44 verses 23 to 25, we read their desperate plea: “Awake, do not reject us forever.  Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?  For our soul has sunk down into the dust…” and then in Isaiah 41:10 at a different time God would remind them and say “Do not fear, for I am with you.”


When we turn away from God, we sense that God is rejecting us when in reality He is there all the time.    It feels like there is a distance but the distance is often caused by us.  Other times it’s not necessarily anything we’re doing.  That is OK too.  Does it mean we should turn our backs on God? No.


For 20 years or so, there was a distance between God and I.  It was mostly caused by my inconsistency.  However, in those 20 years, God was able to work through me.  He always provided for my needs and many of my wants.  God was there when I didn’t think He was.  


Yesterday, I mentioned that God knows why Jake the dog was staring at me while I was writing the blog post.  Well Jake knew there was something wrong.  It was Sunday and we went off to church.  When we got home, the bandage that was supposed to be on Jake’s paw was gone.  We were thankful that we found the bandage (Jake tends to eat things and the last thing we wanted to find out was a bandage was in his stomach).  We took a look at the place where his surgery was done last week on his paw and noticed swelling and some discharge from the wound area.  If Jake had not removed the bandage, we would not have seen this.  Sylvia immediately said we needed to call the emergency vet and I panicked.  


You see, Jake is very expensive to look after.  Most people with dogs don’t need to budget $10,000 per year for the health of one pet…..but we do.  He’s very sickly.  We are on a tight budget and we’ve already had to put out $700 for his fairly minor surgery last week and now the cost of emergency vet care.  So rather than thinking “God’s got this”,  my mind went straight to “We can’t afford this!!!”  This is only a small glitch in our lives but it creates a storm.


When I am going through difficult times and it seems that I’m alone, I can look at the place in Mark where we see Jesus has the power to say “Hush, be still” and the storm goes away or He says “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  That’s when I reset and realize that Jesus is there and even if I can’t avoid the storm, I can have faith that He is with me in the storm.


Have a great day!

Steve


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