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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