Faithfulness in the No's

Sometimes we associate God's faithfulness with the success, satisfaction, and contentment in our circumstances. If life is good, God is good and faithful. If I'm receiving, He is faithful. If life is sunshine and rainbows with no storms, He is faithful. At the beginning of this year, the word faithfulness kept echoing in my mind. So, I chose that to be my word for this year. I was so excited. Maybe you've made the mistake like I did though where I expected faithfulness to look like promises and blessings and all these good things to happen. But, speaking from experience, that is not at all what His faithfulness looks like. Sometimes, faithfulness looks like a closed door, a no or wait to that prayer, a waiting season. Faithfulness isn't a promise that doors will never close or the answer will never be no. It's seeing that He is with you through whatever your circumstance and that your circumstances, good or bad, are an act of His faithfulness. You may be wondering, how? Trust me, I went through such a difficult season recently and in the midst of the difficulty, I've seen Him. I saw Him when doors were slammed closed. When my flesh and fear did not want to take a step, but He was with me, and strengthened me. I saw beauty and protection in the no and His faithfulness in providing support and better things than I could imagine. The door closing is not a denial of faithfulness to you, it's actually Him continuing to be faithful. Because, even though that door closing may not have been what you wanted, it was what you needed. He sees the full picture. He saw the end result of your desires and knew He created you for more. Our changing circumstances do not affect who our unchanging God is.

Most people don't expect to see faithfulness in the storms of life. Most people would expect God to be the farthest from them in the middle of the storm. Do you think it's any surprise that in one of the largest storms on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus was WITH His disciples? I love this miracle of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8. It is such a good reminder that the Lord's faithfulness is not that He will calm the storm before it comes, but that He will be with us even when it comes. Jesus was not unaware of this storm coming. He decided to sleep. He decided to rest. Despite knowing about this great storm coming. This reminds us to allow Him to be enough in the chaos of life and rest because He knows. Sometimes we have to go through storms to be reminded of His power, faithfulness, and hand in our lives. In one of the hardest seasons of my life is when I could see the Lord's faithfulness and presence the most. His faithfulness is there, but we might not be able to see it if we aren't spending time with Him. If we aren't in His Word, it can be hard to know His character, thus making it difficult to know He's faithful. It's so important to spend time with the Lord, especially in the storms of life, because it is there where we can see His character the most.