Cover Our Relative Matters With The Absolute Truth

I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

What is blessing and goodness to you? Even as we may be long time believers, the definition of this can very much be battered and mixed up with very strong influences around us. These days, I find myself surrounded by many loved ones who are very burdened with their work and stress from exams. They find life repetitive and all they anticipate is their rest time at night. In Singapore and all around the cities, we are living on an increasingly quick rhythm, that leaves us almost no time, no energy or no interest to go into the “heart” things. Like praying, listening to a sermon, reading the bible can seem like a chore because they require us to step down a notch, to internalise. It gratifies us too slowly, especially for those who are looking for quick leisure and destress from their hectic lifestyle. That is why we start to find the meaning of blessings and goodness in quick and visible gains, but when we are in challenges, we immediately sees it in a negative light. The truth is, all this actually stems from a part, a corner of our hearts that still have some unbelief towards God. We cannot fully believe that God loves us wholeheartedly and that He will not break this trust. That is where we leave a gap, that is gradually widening, for Satan to dwell in. Giving us occasional insinuations, following the wrong voices and even though we know God’s promises, it steers us away from enjoying God’s power and strength. How? By making us believe that our current situation is more real and God’s word does not seem so relatable.

But if we look into the bible, we will see that the Lord is always refining His people to trust in His promises over their inabilities, weaknesses or despair. When they were in the ruts, they realised that God sticks to His promises and delivers them timely. Many times, we wish to experience God this way, like these bible characters. But the God that walked with them, are indeed, walking through with us today in our lives as well. So what we ought to do everyday, is to believe in Him, pluck out the remaining weeds of unbelief and restore God’s truth in all our circumstances. Let us do so by confirming 3 truths today:

Our situations are relative, but God’s word is absolute.

Firstly, our situations are relative, but God’s word is absolute. Our despair, stress and lack in finance today will not go on forever and it is definitely not absolute. What we do not have now, we may have later. And what we may have now, we could lose it the next minute. But through Jesus, God gave us grace and redemption that can never be exhausted nor erased no matter how weak or unable we may be. Those that the Lord loves, everything that we do through is for the moulding and building of our lives, to restore Christ’s likeness more and more, knowing we have a Master.  As 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” In our daily living, we must confirm that only God’s word is absolute, because He is not like “shifting shadows” and leads us with His complete goodness and love. When we think and do all things with this as the foundation, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the different ways God helps us. Like not feeling so fearful about our boss’s expectations but still doing our best as the Lord calls us into this job. However, still knowing who we are ultimately serving, so God will lead us through to the end. Whatever level and pace God has given us, we shall just go accordingly to that, continuing in ceaseless prayers and become more “bright and salty” in our fields (as the salt and light). Many times, we lose peace and lament because we forget. We forget the closeness we had with God, the days He has empowered and strengthened us in our despair. So, it is when we remind and replace our attention on His absolute truth and promise, on the different ways He has led us in and out of certain roads, that we will focus less on our negativity.

God leads us in His sovereignty, so we have hope for the future.

Now there are a few common gaps we will fall into in our faith walk.

We may firstly, look into our weaknesses and lack too much.

We may also start to be unsure and doubt what God is doing.

And finally, we may have certain areas that are especially hard to cast to the Lord. These are all because we have our reservations about God’s sovereignty over every area of our lives, even the worst parts.

However, the Lord reminds us in His word today, that we need to know who our God is and what is His stand again, because we may have redefined him over our many relative situations. In Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” And in Job 9:4, “His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?” When we find it hard to trust God, He encourages us to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”, as said in Hebrews 4:16. Instead of googling for answers or rushing into our go-to list to solutions, God wants us to plant and root ourselves in faith of His sovereignty, submitting to His present guidance, experiencing the grace He has prepared for us. James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” So let us humbly approach the Lord in His Word and prayers, instead of merely trying to escape our undesirable conditions.

God allows us to go through some winding roads and harder terrains.

Finally, you may ask, why does God need to give me these relative situations anyway? Why would He allow it? Romans 5:3-5 says, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” If we are going through many unknowns in life (in areas of career, school grades,  relationships and such), it is not that God does not want to bless us, but that He cares more about us becoming a more complete person in Christ. In fact, our true colours, our motives and desires are revealed even more clearly in the rougher patches of life. God knows we need to go through a journey so that we can see for ourselves the need and value to be sanctified. That is God’s main concern for us, to be sanctified through this life and transformed with a blessed outlook in all things.

Brothers and sisters, many times we can be influenced and even fall into Satan’s deceptive traps, causing us to almost lost sight of God. But the Lord has test our hearts today to reveal these areas of relativity and what requires the cover of God’s absolute truth. When we know and start right with His Word, we will then be guided by the right voice. May we all restore the new way of living by faith in our circumstances. God bless.