Have you noticed that our belief system most of the time revolves around a
selected zone? Usually we believe what we want to believe and most importantly,
it is based on feelings and our mental state at a particular point of
time. But when we go through a difficult phase then it becomes even more hard
to hope and think positively. This is not the case in children, their trust
level is usually very high.
‘Object permanence’ is an expression used by
psychologists of a child’s ability to understand that objects still exist even
if they are no longer visible.
It is said up to about four months old, babies don’t have the
capacity to believe something exists if they can’t see it. If you hide a toy it
no longer exists as far as they are concerned. They reach a stage where if you
hide a toy, they will keep on looking for it. They realize that objects exist
even when you don’t see them.
This is a sign of Christian maturity: when we continue to
believe in God’s love even when we don’t see it or feel it. We remember
and recall. As we believe in the sun even when it is not shining,
we continue to believe in God’s love even in times of darkness when
we don’t feel his love.
I read an incident about Alex Buchanan who was well known as a
‘pastor to the pastors’. He was profoundly deaf in one ear, with only 5%
hearing in the other, and one side of his face was paralyzed after he suffered
nerve damage during a major surgery. He was once speaking about God’s love
and he kept repeating the words, ‘God loves you unconditionally, wholeheartedly
and continually.’
When he finished his talk he came up to a renowned leader and
said, ‘Do you believe that God approves of you?’ to which the
leader responded ‘Actually, I really struggle with that because I know things
about myself that mean I find it difficult to believe that God approves of
me.’ Alex replied, ‘We all struggle with that. But God wants you to
know that he approves of you. He wants you to know he loves you
unconditionally, wholeheartedly and continually.’
Yes, it so true that at some point we also struggle when we see
things that we expect does not go as we anticipated. We have to trust and
believe in His word, be encouraged by the history of His redemption recorded
for us in the Bible and not go based on our feelings and context. God said
in the book of Jeremiah, ". . .I
have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend
faithful love to you". Jeremiah 31:3 CSB. He is too generous to assign
days of misery in your life.
Blessings.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍......
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