Life and faith are not all that it’s cut out to be. There are going to be hard times when it seems that nothing is going right or certainly not your way. It’s how you react and respond in that time that reveals where your faith, trust and hope are found. Many times, we look to God for His blessings and are quite pleased when God does as we want Him. But it’s quite a different story when the tables turn and God seems to go “rogue” and doesn’t answer us the way we want, give us what we want and at times doesn’t even seem to be saying anything. It’s in those times that you will begin to see where you faith is truly placed: in God or in His blessings.

I’ve heard it said before: “A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.” It’s in the times of hardship, silence and even doubt that our faith is being tested to see if it is real or circumstantial. Like the disciples, we often “scatter” our different ways to various securities whether they be things we hold dear or things that can hold us like retirement or a relationship.

God is a jealous God and He desires for us to be His alone. He wants to own our hearts and minds and He certainly wants our affection toward Him to be sincere and genuine. The way to best test our relationship is to remove or not allow certain blessings or “gifts”, to not answer certain prayers and or to simply offer Himself as “enough”, which He most assuredly is.

God wants you to be grounded in Him, not what He does for you. He wants you to trust in Him and to remain faithful until the end, even if you don’t get what you want. When darkness falls, He wants you to remember that it is only for a period of time…He has overcome the world!

What will it take? Faith. Trust. Confidence. Belief beyond circumstances. Sincerity. Hardship. Darkness.

Indeed the hour is coming…that you will be scattered… —John 16:32

Oswald Chambers said:

Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself. The sense of God’s blessings is fundamental.

Final Thought: When darkness falls, keep your faith in the character of God. He will remain faithful when all else fails.