Don’t give up!

I truly believe that the God we love and serve is not like the one who dangles a carrot in front of us. He is a good father who loves to give good gifts. Have you ever seen an earthly father wrap up empty boxes with beautiful wrapping paper and bows and then when you open it there is nothing inside…no! Our God does immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

I have been deeply moved by what has happened over the last six months. First with lockdown, my heart went out to those who were on their own, especially single parents and widows. For them life is hard enough as it is but even harder because of the restrictions that were put in place. Then there was the ‘black lives matter’ movement that affected so many people that we know personally. For some, things seem to have got worse not better. More recently there has been the explosion in Beirut where people have lost their loved ones, homes and livelihoods and these are just some of the many terrible things that are happening in the world.

In the chapters this week, God’s word clearly says that “God has put the body together giving greater honour to the parts that lack it so that there should be no division in the body but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers then every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured then every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 13 v 24-26)

Over the last few years we have seen the Liverpool church planted and established, Bradford church relocate to a better location, Manchester completely transform its building and Beirut get off to a flying start. God is building His church!

As all of the world events are happening it could feel like why am I bothering to believe what I am believing and why am I doing what I am doing. The enemy loves to come in at these times and get us to drop back and not push forward but give up on the promises that God has given and even think that God is not faithful.

Life, whoever you are, is useless unless it is done in God and even then it can be like Paul facing death every day but like him there is something we hold on to that is more than just human hope, it is the eternal promise that Jesus will appear to us face to face.

Things may not look as we want them to now but it will get better and we will see victory!  The word says that when one suffers, we all suffer and that may have happened for some of us but the word goes on to say that when one is honoured the whole body rejoices. Whatever the season looks like for you, know that as we push into Him we are going to see victory and there is a time of great rejoicing coming!

Let’s open the ‘gift boxes’ our heavenly father has for us and see his amazing goodness.