For the Glory of God...

Okay, so I looked up the term revive in the dictionary and it means "to bring back to life". This week at our church is Revival. I learned a few days ago that apparently that is an occasion only had in a Baptist Church, but I have grown up Baptist and not been much elsewhere so how was I to know? Anyway, the word has really got me thinking. Obviously we are not literally raising people from the dead this week, that would just be creepy. But, what about those who are dead in their faith? Those who once believed in a God that could work miracles and that any and everything was possible with Him? What happens in a person's life that brings them to the point of spiritual death? Could it be that they prayed and prayed for something and they felt like God was either not listening or just didn't care? Could it be that they have lost something or someone so precious that they are angry with Him because they don't understand why He took something or someone they thought they couldn't live without?

The pastor this week has touched my heart with the reason I sometimes feel spiritually dead, it is my unbelief. My unbelief that God could truly love someone as wretched as me. He made the statement that if you don't believe that God loves you in the good times, you are going to have a hard time trusting that He will see you through the bad times. I mean, if you don't believe someone loves you, you aren't going to believe that he or she is going to help you in your time of trouble and humanly speaking, they generally don't, do they? But that's the thing about God. God has that Agape love that no matter who we are, where we are, where we've been, or what we've done, He is there to meet our every need and most of our wants. He knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows what we need and don't need.

Sometimes our trials are like the death of Lazarus, so the Glory of God may be seen through the situation. Had Lazarus not died and been in the grave for 4 days before Jesus commanded him raised from the dead, God would not have been glorified and people would have still suffered from the sin of unbelief. Sometimes they are like Paul and Silas while they were in the prison, so that just one person may come to know our Jesus through our pain and suffering.

So I guess my question is, do you truly believe that God loves you no matter what? Are you willing to suffer or go through trials with Him so that He can be glorified or so that just one person may come to know Jesus as his/her Savior? Trust Him and believe Him today, that He loves you unconditionally.

John 3:16-For God so loved (your name) that He gave His one and only Son, that if (your name) believed in Him, (your name)should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Lord, help my unbelief. In your sweet name I pray...