January 11 | John 20:30-31
- David Thompson
- Jan 11, 2025
- 3 min read
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Faith Journey
by Dave Thompson
Today's passage tells of a very simple principle that we can all learn to do and to believe in when bad situations arise. Before I speak to that, these two verses of this passage remind me of a story that happened about 13 years back. I was applying for a position at a Christian institution. In their application package were a number of questions that you needed to answer in a positive way so the application committee could know about you before they met you. The question applicable for my challenge for you was: When were times God answered prayer? At first, I was not connecting to the task, but once I did, the situations where God answered prayer or worked with me to know why a prayer was answered came through loud and clear. There were many times when looking back God worked things out for me. The times I recalled God working things out reminded me of one of my favorite promises from Romans 8 in the KJV: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to HIs purpose." Things like my daughter being healed overnight from being in a coma for days with little hope of a good prognosis. Like my brother being saved from certain death by miraculous means and many more.
You see, when the hard times come, most of us are only thinking about the hard times instead of thinking about God, prayer and believing in Him for relief from the situation. Sometimes the answer is "No" and those can be very frustrating in our own finite minds. We want to know why God didn't answer the prayer just the way we thought it should work out. In John 9:1-3, it tells a story about a man who was blind from birth (approximately 36 years). Jesus' disciples wanted to know who sinned to cause this blindness and Jesus replied that no one had sinned, but the blindness was there for Jesus to show His power and to work God's ultimate plan. Perhaps someone dies young and you can't understand it, but through that person's death others are saved. You see God has a plan and He is continually working His plan. Through all that God does for us or through others around us, we can see God's power. Through all that happens, both good and bad, we must understand that God has a plan and we will someday see why things worked out the way it did.
So, I challenge you to take a walk back though your life and write out something I will call a "faith journal." Outline what the prayer request was and how it worked out. Little things are important to this exercise. Because as you see God working in both the little things and not so little things, you will build an unwavering faith in a wonderful God.
PRAYER
God, thank you for caring enough to have a plan for each one of our lives. That seeing and believing in you as our father, creator and all-in-all will help us to get though life with a miraculous confidence. Give us patience and understanding when it is hard to accept the not so good things that come our way. In all things as it is written in Mark 9:24, "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief." Let it be so. Amen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVE THOMPSON
I am the administrator of the Daily Worship Blog. My wife, Carla, and I have been attending UALC for seven years at the 9 o'clock service at Mill Run. We have two children, Catherine and Aaron. I have been a Christian for 53 years and am thankful that my Savior has given me two spiritual gifts that have carried me both spiritually and vocationally all my life: they are teaching and administration. I look forward to spending many years here at UALC to serve my Lord and Savior.
Thanks Dave....always good to look. More times than not, we will not know why something happened. But if we look we can see what God is doing and where God is working.
He is there faithfully certainly!
Excellent words, Dave. And so true!