The Bible has a clear promise from God in Isaiah 43:2 “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” NLT. There is no doubt, the world today is going through deep water situations; and most countries are in one form of difficulty or the other. In some cases, the people are being oppressed either by government policies or natural occurrences and environmental situations.
If the above scenarios are correct,
can we then say it is possible to thrive through, and in the midst of challenges?
Are we not seeing the stark realities, or are we just making a statement of
faith? The truth is that in the midst of these challenges, God has made a way
of escape and positioned us to flourish. However, a key requirement is to
develop a deeper relationship with God, so we can hear Him and receive instructions.
During a famine, Isaac was tempted to relocate to another place, but God asked
him to remain where he was. Following his obedience to this instruction, the
Bible records that he sowed in that same land and in the same year, reaped a hundred-fold;
so much so that he was envied by the Philistines (Gen. 26:1-3, 12-14). And whilst
the Egyptians were suffering the plagues from God, the Israelites in Goshen were
exempted (Ex. 9:25-26, 10:22-23); God can still create exemptions for His
children. As dire as the COVID -19 pandemic was, it was a period that birthed great
businesses that are still thriving today, and some of which have redefined the
way and manner we conduct business and our daily life.
Faith is another key ingredient,
if we are to thrive through challenges. While faith does not deny reality, it focuses
on absolute reliance on a loving God, who can do all things. Peter did not deny
he had fished all night and caught nothing. But he had faith in the instruction
of Jesus and made a net-breaking catch. The account in Luke 5:4-6 is worth
repeating here: “When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out
into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said
to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at
Your word I will let down the net.” And
when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was
breaking.” NKJV. Some Bible teachers have argued that Peter limited the size of
the catch because he let down one net instead of nets as Jesus directed. Much
like the way the widow in 2Kin. 4:1-7 did. The oil was limited to the number of
vessels her children could borrow. For Peter, his miracle started when he
allowed Jesus to use his boat, for the widow her miracle started when she took
her case to Elisha. There is something for us to do, in order to thrive through
this challenging times. It may just be to change our disempowering negative
mentality and take on a can-do spirit that helps us maximize opportunities
around us.
Our four-part series for the
month of August, “Thriving Through Challenges”, is a discourse on the
faithfulness of God and the possibilities open to us even in these times. Join
us this and every Sunday as we explore the theme.
God bless you.
#Thrive #OvercomeChallenges #Abundance #PressOn
#TrustGod #EdenSquareChristianAssembly #AugustSeries #EdenSquareTv
#BasilChukwuezi #JoinUsThisSunday
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