Over the past year I have truly seen how wavering, conditional, and human my faith in God is. In the past I was very arrogant in my thinking that I would be able to withstand any problems without being tested in what I believe and am passionate about. I was very very wrong. At the end of the day thought what REALLY matters is that God is faithful. I have been studying Genesis and the three people that have really stood out to me are Abraham, Sarah. and Joseph.
God makes a covenant with Abraham that he will give him land, numerous offspring and blessings. He promises to make Abraham's people a great and prosperous nation. God gave His word to Abraham and in that moment he had unwavering faith in what the Lord would do. Later on through circumstances and just life happening in general, Abraham's faith falters and he doubts the Lord's promises, but God was still faithful. When God promised Abraham and Sarah that He would give them a child in their old age they both doubted. Sarah even laughed at God's messengers and yet when Isaac was born yet again they were shown how God is faithful. Before Isaac was born Sarah did as we women sometimes do and tried to outsmart or out scheme God. She tried to out maneuver the Creator of the Universe. How insane is that?? Anyways, Sarah gave her servant to her husband Abraham to sleep with and they had a son Ishmael. This caused a lot of strife and turned into a dysfunctional family situation. God eventually had to intervene and send Ishmael and Hagar away. All of this could have been avoided if they had just remembered that God is faithful. With Isaac's birth God kept His promise and with his descendant's success, wealth and prosperity He fulfilled the covenant he had made with Abraham. God is faithful.
I love the story of Joseph. I wrote my Pentateuch paper in college over his story and since then I have related to him on a different level. My absolute favorite part of Joseph's story is how God sovereignly directs the sequences of events so He fulfill His purpose and plan. After all the mess Joseph went through with his brothers selling him into slavery, making his father believe he was dead, him being imprisoned for years, and then finally the Lord raising him up to be the Pharaoh in Egypt's second in command. God is extremely faithful.During all of these hard and difficult times amazingly enough Joseph NEVER wavered or at least the text does not speak of it. He always knew that God would make all things work together for His good. God uses sin and evil to glorify His name. Joseph understood that just because hardships occur that it does not mean that you are not in God's will. Circumstances are not an indicator of God's will. God used the awfulness Joseph experienced to fulfill the covenant he made with Abraham in making sure the Israelites were taken care of and provided for which happened through Joseph being directly under Pharaoh. God is faithful.Joseph forgave his brothers which was not an easy feat. Joseph saw that they were repentant and welcomed them with open arms. The brothers were afraid of their Joseph's wrath and God used that fear to bring their hearts to repentance. Joseph reassured them that God is faithful.
I have learned so much from these people in the Bible. I have learned how I am certainly not alone in my human state of unbelief at times. I learned from examples of rock solid faith and belief as well. God has shown me through this section of the Old Testament narrative that I am definitely not alone in my struggles. This is comforting and yet again shows me that God is faithful.
