Christian Women Online

In Part 1 of ‘Building Up My Faith’, I discussed our need to ‘Call on God’.   This in itself is an act of faith, as by it we declare our dependency on God.  Calling on God should not only be our first response when challenges arise, but should be our daily habit.  We ALWAYS need God.  Our very breath depends on Him.  Grace, truth, mercy and all good things come only from Him.  Don’t ever fall into the trap of believing you are a self-sufficient individual who only needs to call on God in an emergency.

The second thing I do to encourage my faith is to ‘Remember’.

God told the Israelites to do that.  They were instructed to ‘remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them’.  They were frequently told to remember how they were once servants in the land of Egypt and how God delivered them; to ‘remember’ what God did to Pharoah; to ‘remember’ how God led them in the wilderness, to ‘remember’ how they provoked God to anger and suffered His judgement, to ‘remember’ what happened to Miriam because of her disobedience; to ‘remember’ God’s promise spoken through Moses that they would receive a land to call their own; to ‘remember’ that it is God who gives them their wealth - not their own power; to ‘remember’ .. to ‘remember’ … to ‘remember’.

The remembering had two broad purposes.

1. To encourage them. To remind them of God’s faithfulness in the past - how He had led them this far and done wonderful things for them.  And for that reason, they could be confident that as they obeyed Him, He would continue to be faithful. He hadn’t taken them that far only to get distracted and go on to other things.  As He had been in the past, so He would be in the future.
2. To teach them to fear Him. The Israelites were instructed to remember God’s commandments and not follow after their own lusts.   Disobedience brought consequences.  But then God told them to remember and learn from those times.  He hadn’t changed His mind.  Disobedience would always bring its consequences.  However, if their past mistakes and consequences motivated them to choose obedience, then they would be walking in the fear of the Lord and would receive the blessing, protection and provision that God had for them.

There are times when life feels pretty tough.  Sickness, financial stress, lack of clear direction, rebellious children, relationship issues can challenge us, de-stabilise us and bring us plain old stress.

On these occasions, I ‘remember’ how God healed me in the past, or saw me safely through an illness, or provided miraculously for an urgent need, or gave wisdom, or rebuked me by calling me to account’.  I ‘remember’ that I haven’t always understood what was going on, but how when I have come to a place of trust I have received His peace despite my circumstances.  I ‘remember’ His faithfulness and how He has never failed us.  Then I ‘remember’ how He is the ‘same yesterday, today and forever’, so He hasn’t changed His mind about His love and care for me, and how He has ‘brought me this far by His grace’ and isn’t quitting now.  I ‘remember’ how He KNOWS - my situation isn’t hidden from Him, and if it is not yet resolved it must be for a purpose.

There are also times God calls us to do something that we feel ill-prepared for.  That too can bring its share of stresses.  Moses certainly felt ill-equipped for the challenge of leading the Israelites out of Egypt.  He came up with a number of excuses that God met head on until Moses had nothing more to say.

Over 20 years ago, God called me to start a new chapter of an international Christian women’s organisation.  Enough confirmation came for me to finally accept the call, but throughout the process, there were times I began to doubt my call and my ability.  The thing that kept me going was ‘remembering’.   I particularly remembered how God had confirmed His call to me, and then I would remember that if He had called me, He would equip me.

About 16 years ago, God called my husband and I to have two more children.  We already had five, and our youngest was 12, so having two more children would be like starting out all over again.  My previous two pregnancies had been particularly tough, as I suffered an undiagnosed debilitating illness throughout both of them.  There were also other circumstances that made having two more babies particularly challenging, so though my husband and I believed it was the right thing to do, our obedience was going to require a great deal of sacrifice and personal challenges.  Then, from a totally unexpected source that originated from a misunderstanding, we had the kind of confirmation that we couldn’t ignore.

The next four and a half years were indeed very challenging.  The pregnancies were much worse than the previous two and I nearly lost my life twice during two miscarriages.  I was saved in the first miscarriage by a miracle as someone prayed for me, and in the second by emergency procedures at the hospital.  I ended up having caesarean sections, then spent 4-5 months after each birth with serious debilitating back pain.

As we faced all these difficulties, there were times I wondered if I was kidding myself.  Had God really spoken to us and directed us to have two more children?  It was at these times that I ‘remembered’.  I remembered how He had quietly spoken to me over a three month period about having more children.  I remembered the circumstances where both my husband and I were independently challenged on the same day to have two more children - even though I had never told my husband what God had been saying to me over the previous three months.  I remembered the strange circumstances of the confirmation that came through a misunderstanding.  And I remembered the witness in our spirits - of joy - at the thought of obeying God by having two more children.

This was all I needed and it kept me going despite the difficulties.

‘Remembering’ is a powerful tool.  In the same way that God used ‘remembering’ to encourage the Israelites and teach them to fear Him, He will do the same for us.  In the two examples from my own life that I have just given, God encouraged me through remembering, and taught me a deeper level of fearing Him - as demonstrated by my obedience despite the difficulties.

In Part 3 of Building Up My Faith, I discuss the role of ‘Believing’.