Holy, Humble & Hopefully

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Every good Christian knows where to turn when they’re in trouble. We go to God for help and if you're like me, you want God to fix the problem right away. When my car payment is going to hit my account before my paycheck, I want God to fix it. When people mistreat me, I want God to fix them. When I'm sick I want God to fix me. No one likes to deal with stressful situations and waiting on God to do His thing often seems like it’s taking way too long. I’m sure you’ve discovered by now that God's timeline is not the same as ours but why? We work hard, we go to church and we help people in need so what’s the hold up with God helping us? The answer can be found in the three H's. God desire is for is us to be holy, humble, and hopeful. 

God wants us to live holy because God is holy (1Peter1:15,16). That doesn't mean you’ll be perfect but it does mean you should strive to live as Christ-like as you can. Studying the Bible builds our relationship with God which in time makes worldly lifestyles less appealing. As we grow towards God we pull away from our old habits like cursing and hanging out in places Christians shouldn’t. It goes without saying that hanging with the wrong crowd makes it hard to live righteously but we have to be especially aware of boy/girlfriends and family members who aren’t on the same path you’re on. They often have more of a negative influence on your relationship with God than you realize. It’s also human nature to take a few steps back from God when everything is going well which is why some problems don’t get solved right away. God has to draw us back to Him. 


Humility isn’t often a person’s strong suit. We pride ourselves on our possessions, education, where we live, where we work, and the list goes on and on. Our lack of humility leads us to believe we can solve our own problems. We have a tendency to think we’re the ones in control except we aren’t. “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail,” (‭‭Prov ‭19‬:‭21‬). How many times have you made a situation worse after doing things your way instead of waiting on God? Whenever I fail at something or it doesn’t turn out as planned, I know God is closing that door for a reason and I ask God to show me which direction I should go. When troubles arise going to God should be our first thought and not an afterthought for "...with humility comes wisdom (Prov 11:2, NIV).


The last of the three H's is hope. Before you can have faith you have to have hope. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” (‭‭Heb 11‬:‭1‬). What I’m about to say sounds counter intuitive but we should be happy when God doesn't solve our problems right away. God tells us to "...rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” (Rom 5:2-4, ESV). That's why God sometimes chooses not to move your mountain but make you climb over instead…it takes longer which makes us stronger. 


Think about it. 


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