I can remember fondly as a kid the time my parents told my sister and me that our dad had won a trip as a top-selling life insurance agent, and WE WERE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!! Excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. All I could think about was wearing those famous mouse ears and riding “It’s a Small World.” It seemed that everywhere I went, I kept seeing things related to the park. This news captured my attention and generated an anticipation. I could barely contain myself.
Did you know that God wants us as His children to come to Him in a very similar way?
Matthew 18:3 (NKJV) says, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
How do we, as grown adults, approach God like a little child? Well, very similar to how I did when I got the news from my parents about going to on the trip – I took them at their word. I simply believed them. They didn’t need to show me some certificate to prove my dad won the trip. They didn’t have to show me the plane tickets or receipts for the hotel they had reserved. I trusted them, and their word was good enough for me.
Do we trust God the same way? Is His Word good enough for us?
We can gauge that based on how much joy and expectation we have.
Look at this passage: Romans 15:13 (NKJV), “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
This passage tells us that joy and peace are the results of our believing. The question is, believing what? Believing God and His Word. Believing it so strongly that you don’t require any physical evidence.
Our believing and trusting in God and taking Him at His Word should produce a joy within us that can’t be extinguished by natural circumstances. John 16:33 tells us that trials and tribulations will come to us all at times; however, God instructs us in that verse that we should “be of good cheer” because He has already “overcome the world.”
Many people claim to trust God and be in faith, yet their faces tells a different story. Proverbs 15:13 tells us that “a joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.” So, what we believe in our heart, we ultimately end up wearing on our face.
I like the way Brother Keith Moore says it: “Doubt despairs, complains, and is sad. Faith rejoices, gives thanks, and is glad!”
Faith Rejoices!
Faith rejoices. It’s thankful and glad. It’s impossible to be in faith and be down, disgusted, and depressed.
If we find ourselves in that state of mind, we need to recognize it as an attack by the enemy. The devil understands that faith is your key to victory based on 1 John 5:4 (NKJV), “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
So Satan comes with thoughts and feelings to try to get you to believe his lies over the Truth of God’s Word. He wants you to put more stock in how you feel about the situation than in what God has said about the situation. We’re called to walk by faith and not by how we feel (2 Corinthians 5:7).
When these lying thoughts and feelings come to us from the enemy, we must be like the Psalmist David, who said, “Soul, why are you feeling down and depressed? Why am I feeling so disturbed and distraught? Get yourself together and put your hope in God. I choose to praise Him despite how I feel and despite what everything looks like.” (Paraphrased from Psalm 42:11)
We have to recognize that our soul (our mind, will, emotions, memory, and imagination) can deceive us. Just because we feel a certain way or think a certain way doesn’t mean that’s the way it is or even has to be. We must take authority over our emotions and thought life, casting down anything that doesn’t line up with the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). How do we do that? By following King David’s example in Psalm 42:11, he used his words to talk to himself and make himself trust and praise God. There’s power in your words. Death and life are in the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Choose to speak life to yourself. Tell yourself that it doesn’t matter what it looks like; we’re going with God. Say, it doesn’t matter how I feel; I trust God. We must get to the place where we declare: “I don’t care what I see. I don’t care what I feel. I don’t care what they say. If God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!”
We must give God’s Word final authority.
Believing God and taking Him at His Word should produce joy and an expectation that His Word will be fulfilled at any moment!
When my parents told me we were going to Disney World, it was all I could think about. I could see myself walking around the streets, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I would be riding the rides. Things around me took on less meaning and seemed so trivial because I was so joyful about what they promised me, and I didn’t wait for any physical evidence before I got excited.
We need to approach our Heavenly Father the same way. If He has promised something in His Word, He is faithful to bring it to pass.
Jeremiah 1:12 says, He is faithful to watch over His Word and perform it and bring it to pass in our lives. But the promises and principles of God don’t happen automatically in our lives – we must be in faith for them. We must make His Word the final authority and believe it more strongly than we do our natural circumstances.
Things in this world will come up and try to be a distraction, attempting to get you to put more trust in what you see instead of what God has said.
When that happens, obey Proverbs 4:20-23 (NLV): “My son, listen to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. Do not let them leave your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Keep your heart pure for out of it are the important things of life.”
Choose to put the Word of God back in front of your attention and keep it in the center of your heart.
Then act on Philippians 4:4 (NIV), “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Rejoice means to bring back or regain a sense of joy, delight, or gladness, especially by focusing on what’s true rather than what’s temporary. It means to “Joy Again.” Meaning, grab yourself by the ear and make yourself rejoice in what God has said until you no longer care about what you see.
It’s a choice, and when we choose to make His Word our reality by getting in His Word, staying in His Word, and meditating on His Word until it produces a joy on the inside of us, and an expectation that can’t be quenched.
That’s the way we are to live as Believers in Christ. I mean, it’s in the name – Believers: we are to BELIEVE!
When we do, the joy of the Lord will rise within you, and the troubles of this world will blur and grow insignificant. You’ll live in such anticipation that before you know it, what you’re believing God for will manifest, and you’ll find yourself walking around Main Street with mouse ears on, about to ride “It’s a Small World” after all.
Feature Image: Magical park GENAI Text to Image; Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.; Scripture quotations marked NLV are taken from the New Life Version, copyright © 1969 and 2003. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc., Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved.; Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
