'Cause You Gotta Have Faith

"The Lord your God Who goes before you will Himself fight for you. He did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way you have walked until you came to this place.'
Deuteronomy 1:30-31 (NLV)
"But now that you're here, you won't trust God, your God— this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go." 32-33 (The Message)

I have, recently, decided to read the Bible front to back again and in doing so have just come upon a juicy little tidbit in the studious book of Deuteronomy.

"No," you might say, "not in Deuteronomy!"

But, "Yes!" I reply, "in Deuteronomy!"

I can very much relate to this scripture. You see, in preparations for my departure to Australia to go to Bible college in the new year, there have been doubts, fears, worries, anxieties, frustrations, and, well, you get the picture.

God has brought me through so, so much, and he has always been good to me. He has always followed through, and he's redeemed to me all the things that I have lost, and in his typical fashion, when he redeems, he does it and then some.

I have come to a place where God is trying to bring me into a greater level in my life, and I am saying "Are you sure about this God? This is scary, what if I can't pull it off? What if you can't pull it off?"  I like how The Message puts verses 32 and 33 in a present tense, whereas most other translations do it in the past tense. It just sticks to me better.

Check this out:

"God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?"
Numbers 23:19 (NLT)

God is not going to put a promise in my heart, a fire in my belly, an unyielding desire to do this, without following through for me. The Bible says also that he will give us the desires of our heart:

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

I believe in this, I really do! And I believe that he enjoys giving us those desires! I also believe that God often puts desires into our hearts for things. Now, obviously, not every desire in our heart is from God, as our hearts are prone to corruption and to bend to the desires of our flesh, but I do believe that God made every part of us for a reason. He knows what our hearts want, and he knows what he wants for our lives and the way that we tend to live our lives based on the desires of our hearts. Wouldn't it make sense for him to put certain desires there for us to find so that we live the life he plans for us to live? I think so!

I encourage anyone reading this who is struggling with faith, or just needs some encouragement to remember the words of this blog tonight, and also to remember this verse:

"And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed"
Deuteronomy 31:8 (NKJV)