God is Faithful

Well it’s finally time for everyone to go to bed, including me but I feel the urge to go ahead and spend a few minutes writing this blog entry. It has been a while since I posted anything and I believe it is time to revive my blogging!

So much has happened since October 4^th, 2009 and my world has changed so drastically that I am still trying to catch up. My wife and I were elected pastors of Frenchport Church in Camden, AR on that date and it has been a great experience. We didn’t come into this church under the best of circumstances. We knew to some degree what we were getting into when we accepted this position but until you walk in it you never realize fully what you have gotten into. There have been a few challenging instances so far but nothing major. I know there will be many more ahead with more difficult decisions and people to deal with but God is faithful.

When you understand the faithfulness of God, you walk in revelation that it is not about you. If God ordains and orchestrates, He plans and prepares the way. We don’t always understand the underlining details and the why and how but we can trust that He has our best interest in mind. You have to walk in confidence that you are in God’s Will. When you are in God’s Will, you have to make a decision to agree with God wherever you find yourself on this roadmap of life. Sometimes we are sailing along in God’s Will and experiencing great seasons of blessing and peace…but what about the other seasons? Surely God’s Will doesn’t include difficulty right? God doesn’t want me to endure anything difficult right?

Wrong. God will send you through the fire because He knows that you have something in you that will help you get through. If God knew the fire would destroy you, He would have never sent you through it. Being a pastor of a church I am elated to be able to minister in this capacity and God has been moving and doing such amazing things in our church I could just go on and on about what great things are happening. I couldn’t say that 3 years ago. I couldn’t say that 4 months ago. Right before God opened the door for us to come to Frenchport Church, I had been going through one of the most difficult seasons of life I have ever been through personally. My business was not doing well, our ministry prospects of 3 years had dried up in Texarkana, I couldn’t find any open churches that we felt led too, money was running out (and in some cases had already run out) and the list of problems was growing larger.

There have been many instances in our lives that we have had to make the decision that we were going to trust God. I know that doesn’t sound deep or super spiritual but I am telling you, we had to make the tough call of, throw in the towel or trust God. We decided time and time again that we are going to trust God regardless of the circumstances. I cannot control other people and make them act the way I want them too. I can’t force situations for my benefit all of the time. I cannot manipulate situations and always pull rabbits out of my hat to fix every circumstance…..but I can decide to trust God. The power of agreement is underestimated in the Body of Christ these days. Where two or more are gathered together in My name……We had 2! We would agree that we trusted God and that we were where we needed to be for the time until He opened the door. Back in August God told me, “Do not change anything until October.” He didn’t tell me what would happen in October but He said, “Don’t move, don’t change jobs, don’t do anything different until then.” Now I don’t want to go through all of the details of the application process with Frenchport Church so here is the short version.

Back in May of 2009, my wife and I felt that God was calling us to be pastors of Frenchport Church. We decided to submit our resume to the committee. There were a few other names in the running and by July, the pastoral search committee decided to go with someone other than us.

We were discouraged, frustrated, and wondering if God had overlooked us. Maybe there was unrepented sin somewhere in our lives, did we miss God, not hear right or was there something that was disqualifying us for service? Was it too many bad decisions that led us to be without a church, without a good source of income, and all of the stress we could handle? Were we really called to ministry? Maybe we missed an open door somewhere else? Perhaps God was punishing us? Now, I know that all of the answers to those questions were a resounding “NO!” but when you are at a low place in life, you ask yourself these things.

Am I not praying enough? Fasting enough? Reading my Bible enough?

You have to understand that none of this is by works alone. You can’t earn or deserve this. God has a plan in mind and even when you veer off of the path or make poor choices, He is powerful and mighty enough to realign you with your destiny. Now there were things we could have and should have done better that could have helped us during the 3 years we were in Texarkana but even through our frailty, God was still faithful.

God is faithful. He is faithful to the unfaithful child. We goof up and miss it but He is that Father that is looking for a son or daughter to return to Him and trust fully.

When God said to hold on until October, my wife and I agreed that it was from God and we didn’t know that would mean that Frenchport Church would want to put us to a vote after we had already been told no by the committee 3 months earlier. We didn’t know that October would be the month where we would be connected with our destiny and on the road to doing what God had called us too! We thought that was over! We were looking elsewhere for churches that needed pastors but God has a way of doing things that will make your head spin if you try to figure it out! All He asked me to do was trust in what He had told me.

When you get a hold to the Word, when you let the truth of God sink in your heart and become not just what you know but who you are, God can work with your faith. You can’t earn or deserve God’s faithfulness. He gives it freely because He knows there is something on the inside of you that refuses to quit no matter how hard it becomes. Something in you that has the potential to walk in God’s perfect will for your life. He knows what is in you because it is Christ in you, the hope of glory! It is Jesus living on the inside of you! Now God is just trying to get you to trust in what He put in you when you got saved! It is already in you! The answer, the peace, the victory, the healing, the restoration, it is already on the inside of you if Jesus makes your heart His home.

I have got to learn to trust and understand that God is faithful.

I know a lot of things I shared today were very personal and I don’t mean offense to anyone past or present from Frenchport Church by telling the stories that I did. I know we are where God has called us to be and He is smiling on what we are doing at Frenchport Church. We are seeing new life, fresh revelation through the Word and a reawakening giant of passion, prayer and praise. It is so good to be where we are in life right now and we hope we will be at Frenchport for the rest of our lives but regardless of where God leads us, we have to trust that He is faithful and He has our best interests in mind.

It is great and easy to trust Him when everything is going great but what about when all you have to hang onto is, “Don’t change until October”? You need to get your Word from God and you need to hang on to it like a bulldog. Hold on and trust in God and His Word. I don’t care if it is October 31^st at 11:59 pm you better be holding on and expecting God to do what He said He would do. We can’t control the when or the how but we can trust. Trust and speak your faith to the mountain, speak your trust in God and declare and decree over your impossible or discouraging situation what He has told you and what He has promised you!

Release the Word! Release the truth of God in your heart and let it flood your mind, will and emotions! Let God’s truth saturate you and bring you peace today and you sit in the comfort of knowing He is faithful. He will never give up on you because He is faithful. Trust Him today. Let go of your solutions and quick fixes and talk to God and spend some time listening to Him today. Get the Word on your situation and get you some peace. Fight for your peace because it is in you. You have what it takes to make it through whatever you are going through right now in life! Let go…..release control and wait on the Lord.

He is faithful, He won’t let you down.

Love,

Pastor Derik

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