Finding God In Tough Times – 7 Biblical Facts To Lean On When Things Get Tough

Jason Koeppe — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:35:34 +0000

God is all powerful, all knowing, all encompassing.
Nothing gets by Him, nothing surprises Him and nothing catches Him off guard. While there are things that disappoint Him, we must never forget even when He’s disappointed, He’s not surprised.
He is Creator God.
He created the heavens and the earth which we call the universe and everything on it, in it and around it…put simply, He created EVERYTHING.
He loves every single person He created.
He knows them intimately even to the cells of their body and the hairs on their head being numbered. That includes us. He loves us more than we love ourselves or even more than we love our own children. He loves our children more than we love them. His love is unimaginable. We should reflect that love to others. In doing so, we fulfill what we were put here to do; glorify His name by making Jesus our all consuming passion.
He wants the best for us.
This is a natural outpouring of number 3. He isn’t always going to make our paths easy (in this world you will have trouble), but he will make them straight (Proverbs 3: 5-6; but make sure you read what your/our part is in that one…it’s critical). Another even clearer scripture is this one: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11 Make no mistake the Lord loves us and wants the best for us even when we can’t see it. Our problem is how we define “best”. We think of best in earthly perspective; money, health, fame, riches, happiness because of our circumstances. God defines best as how much glory your life, even in and through your suffering at times, brings Him. In other words, the best He can give us is Him and when your happiness comes from Him DESPITE your circumstances.
We have a part to play.
Sometimes I think Christians fall into the temptation of thinking that all they have to do to be in good standing with God (and be an effective Christian) is avoid sin, go to church and tithe. I know I have before and still struggle sometimes with feeling vindicated or good enough or entitled. But the question is What does God require? Hopefully you’ve read Worship by Joseph Garlington that I recommended a while back, but if not, I HIGHLY suggest you get it and read it. In the beginning he reminds us of an old testament scripture where God told the people; no worship, no rain. I’ve quoted this several times on stage. There are conditions sometimes for provision. I think sometimes we forget that about God. Don’t misunderstand me, we could never EARN our way into heaven that’s what being saved by Grace is about and we should all be thankful for that one. BUT, we should ask…What Does God Require? We should all be asking ourselves that question every day. For that day, for that situation, for that hour, for that time, for our lives, for our family, for our church, for our team, for our FILL IN THE BLANK HERE.
He is God, we aren’t.
Sometimes as believers, we seem to outgrow our “britches” as my grandma used to say. See, our kids don’t always know why we’re having them do something or endure something or wait for something or go through something, but we’d NEVER hurt them or subject them to pain unnecessarily. Neither would He and even more so. And finally…
Is my focus on the earthly aspect or heavenly aspect?
It’s good to refocus and re-align every now and then and especially at cross roads like you find yourself and I find ourselves in at times. But always, all the time, in all ways, in every situation, with every person, our focus should be sooner rather than later the heavenly aspects of the thing. The question I always ask here is God what do you want me to learn here? What do you want me to see here and how can I affect the Kingdom positively in this thing.

How To Find God, But Are You Looking?

Jason Koeppe — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:03:32 +0000

The Way Of A Worshiper by Buddy Owens

Are You Looking For God?

That is the first line of a book I just read entitled “The Way of a Worshiper“ by Buddy Owens. It’s a question that I would propose most born again, bible believing Christians would answer instinctively and adamantly, YES! And as Buddy Owens points out, the pursuit of God has been going on since the day you were born and lasts a lifetime, that’s for sure.

But the real question is this…

Are you the hunter or the prey?

The Danger of Making This Blog

I am not an extraordinary Christian or person.

The danger in producing a blog with the theme of “helping you…” do anything is that you’ll think that I’m writing from a place of having “arrived” to where you desire to go spiritually – that I’m something special and you’re not where God is concerned; or worse yet that it will sound like I BELIEVE that I’ve arrived.

But knowing that neither is true I’m willing to take this risk.

The truth is, I haven’t “arrived” anywhere that God Himself didn’t want me to go nor have you. We are all on a journey and it’s that journey and process where we find Him. Not at destinations or merely certain points along the way.

And that, in essence, is precisely why I’m creating this blog/site.

I believe that a lot of well meaning, good hearted, even passionate Christians might feel disconnected from God – like He’s turned His back on them. Or maybe they feel connected to Him, yet wonder where the power to “do even greater things than these” has gone.

John 14: 12
When Jesus tells the disciples that anyone who has faith in Him will do all that he has done and even more

The truth is, God NEVER turns His back on anyone. In fact, that pursuit of a lifetime I mentioned in the first paragraph begins with Him pursuing us…relentlessly. We’ll sense the presence and manifestation of God to the degree that WE show up, not to the degree that He shows up in our life. Said another way, the Lord shows up…even when we don’t. And that is good news, cause we can choose or decide to show up or not to…it’s up to us.

There’s a video that illustrates and models this in such a simple and powerful way that I can’t begin to tell you how it affects me every single time I watch it.

Pay special attention to the character representing God at around the 1:36 point in the video.

Want some more good news?

He takes great pleasure in you, me, us being present with Him. Now like Buddy Owens says in his book, I know me. Why God would take pleasure in me is hard to fathom, but He does. In spite of you and in spite of me and in spite of all that we are and are not without Him, He takes pleasure in us and I thank God for that fact.

Psalm 147:11
The LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Psalm 25:14
The friendship of God is with those who fear him

And if that wasn’t enough good news to blow your mind, then try this on for size. You can live in God’s pleasure, having nearly continual dialog with the Holy Spirit indwelling you and experiencing His power in your life. God doesn’t play favorites when it comes to His children. It’s the ultimate in equality…we all have access to the same Father, the same Kingdom, the same friendship.

So what do we do with this information?

I am making a commitment in my own life to press into what God has for me and daily seek Him and walk with Him and dialog with the Holy Spirit and learn about the power through the spiritual gifts that I have access to to “do even greater things than these”. I am doing this for many reasons not the least of which is my deep realization of my need for Him and friendship with Him on a much deeper level than I have now. I am also attending a home group bible study that is centered around the spiritual gifts. With all of this I am anticipating, trusting and expecting that as I show up more, God will reveal more of Himself to me and thereby transforming me by the renewing of my mind

Romans 12:1-2
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It is my sincere hope that as He does and I remain faithful to record it here, He will use it to bless, encourage and build up others. In addition, I don’t want to miss anything and so I want to leave a record of what He chooses to do.

So this is Day 1.

What = To be transformed to the likeness of Christ. To become an unstoppable force for the Kingdom of the Lord.

Why = It’s our reason for existing. Read this post for the why.

How = By presenting my body as a living sacrifice, by not conforming to the patterns of the world any longer by claiming I don’t have time to press in, by being transformed by renewing my mind, …in essence I’m going to show up.

So back to my initial question…are you looking for God? Buddy Owens closes out the first chapter of his book by saying this…

“Jesus said in John 4:23 that the Father is looking for worshipers. So if you’re looking for God and just can’t seem to find Him, stop what you’re doing and worship Him – and he will come find you.”

Let’s find God together by sharing our experiences on this blog and become an unstoppable force for the Kingdom together!

Radical Christian Living - Learning How To Live For God By Learning How To Worship God » finding god