Woman, God has not forgotten you… Hold on to your faith

Woman, God has not forgotten you… Hold on to your faith

Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.

Word

Exodus 14:13 Moses told the people, Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.

Each and every one of us has that one person whom they know that will always be in their corner when things get tough, someone who always has their back when they face hard times. Do you know who’s yours? Do you know who sees you as that person? Let me ask you this, can you confidently stand and say that Jesus is in your corner? That He has your back? I’m sure most you answered yes and even managed to give some names. I’m sure you said yes and amen, Jesus is in my corner… But I want you to consider this…

It really sounds good, assuring and even comforting to know that you have someone in your corner, even more when you say you have Jesus in your corner. You really feel like you can conquer anything anytime. But what does God say? He says that he is FOR you (Romans 8:31), that he will fight FOR you. Now picture a boxing ring… the two opponents stand inside the ring and beat each other up like you won’t believe. The coach and assistant stand in the corner with water and towel so that when the boxer comes back, beaten up to a pulp; they wipe the sweat and blood from him and give him water to drink. They don’t fight for him but he takes his own punches and pain. But now, Jesus says… I will fight FOR you; I will stand in the ring for you and fight your fight. He’s not going to stand in the corner and cheer you and support you while you fight, but he will be in that fighting ring, fighting for you. You do the cheering through your praise and worship.

How many times have we found ourselves in situations where we really feel like we have fought the “good” fight and yet find no results? Be it unemployment, abusive marriage, loneliness and sickness. How many of us turn to bribing when we see that we have been waiting for houses with no “luck” so we end up paying whoever to make sure our names are on the lists? How many of us have turned to “connections” in exchange of some or other activity with the hope of finding a job? How many of us have been in and out of relationships because we are in some pursuit to find amabambo ethu (even women are looking for amabambo endingayazi ukuba kwakususwe ntoni kuye kwenziwa bani sele umntu elukhangela nje). How many of us have turned to traditional Dr’s trying to find healing from sickeness, attributing them to Ubuntu bethu forgetting that we acquired a new identity mhla samkela uYesu? How many of us have been trying to have babies but with no success, turn to adoption by accepting that we are just not meant to have children. We go through all these things knowing that he said he would provide for us (Psalm 132:15 I will surely and abundantly bless her provision). Now, I’m sure we can all identify to one or two situations from these and the answer is plain and simple, God takes time. Sometimes it feels like you’re all alone and that he is just watching you suffering, sometimes it even feels like he has left though he said that he will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Today he’s reminding us that he has not forgotten us.

The bible tells us to pray without ceasing and in all things give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:17)... I have been praying and praying and he is not giving me anything to thank him for cos he doesn’t give me what I ask for. Well… does this mean pray for the same thing over and over again? That’s like nagging isn’t it. Reading this scripture I pictured my five year old asking me for porridge for supper, she would say “mama ndicel’ipapa” five times in one minute. And what usually frustrates me is the fact that even though I have acknowledged her and responded that I will do it, she will continue and her tone of voice will even change and she will start crying even. Isn’t that what we do to God when we nag him about the same thing over and over again as though he said he wasn’t going to do it? Didn’t Jesus say that whatever we ask in His name we will get (John 14:13)? Didn’t he say when we pray believing that we have received what we pray for then it shall be ours (Mark 11:24)? So shouldn’t we then, pray, believe and receive by faith and give thanks before we hold it? Isn’t faith what pleases God and moves him? If you praise and thank him for something you have asked for before you can hold it in your hands, doesn’t that constitute great faith? Remember Daniel? God said to him that he had heard and answered his prayer on the first day he prayed. But the angel of blessing was wrestling with the angel of darkness until he defeated him. In the meantime Daniel still continued with his worship and praise. This tells me that praise disarms the enemy. Ask, believe, receive and give thanks…

Ok, let us say... You get a call from a friend telling you that they are taking in people at their work and that they’ve spoken to their boss and that chances of you being employed are pretty good. You thank them as though you have the job in your bag. You go there with such confidence that it’s already yours. Chances are, you will be disappointed right then or later… Now, why is having this attitude towards God so hard? Even with seeing that we have it in black and white but still but it’s still very difficult to believe that God has already given you what you have asked for. Faith in God pleases him (Hebrews 11:6)… it gets him excited and when he’s excited, rest assured that he will excite you. He will give you those “too good to be true experiences” that are so hard to believe. That experience you know that it is the very answer to the prayer you have prayed, but still you don’t believe it’s here. Hence I say, when it is too good to be to true then know that it’s from God because he is good and he only does good things, great things and when he does them, he does them abundantly more that you ask or even imagine.

Everything you ever need has already been provided for you, it has already been granted. All you need to do is believe that it is yours and thank God for it. It is not Pumza saying this but God, in his word.

I have fallen in love with the song by JC “Press towards the mark of the high calling”. God has called us for greatness, to have and do great things. Now, to me this means… Jesus is the mark for he is the High Priest; he has been given the name that is above all names, the name that all knees bow to… The bible says that Jesus is the Word! ... we are to press on him, we are to press on the word of God and we shall be that which he created us to be, we shall have all that we ask for in his name.

Isaiah 43:18 Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Forget all the disappointments; make a commitment to trust God and his word. Pray, believe and receive… give thanks to God for all that he is yet to bring forth in your life. Trust him and only him and you will see great exploits!

Happy Women’s Day and may God bless you

P