Eric & Verna Vandy
EXPECT TO LIVE A LIFE OF BLESSING During our application for a loan to build we received a letter and a phone call from Liberty Trust advising that my interest free loan was now available. Imagine our surprise and excitement at God’s amazing timing. Years earlier in the midst of a broken marriage, I heard about Liberty Trust and glimpsed the potential and blessing of personally becoming mortgage free while part of a greater plan to enable others to reach a similar goal. I got to thinking, why is it that God’s goodness and His faithfulness surprise us? We KNOW that He is good and we KNOW that He is faithful, but when that is applied personally to me, I AM surprised. I know that my God is the Lord of lord’s and the King of kings, that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, that He has given me all power and authority because of Jesus in me, and that I am His righteousness. Yet, I am still surprised by His goodness.
I am convinced that it is unbelief that restricts me. As the father of the epileptic child in Mark 9:24 exclaimed ‘I believe Lord, help thou my unbelief’. Unbelief stems from insecurity and inferiority. Our God is big so we must believe big. Scripture says ‘we have not because we ask not’. God actually wants us to ask. He delights to bless us. When our normal expectation is for blessing, we know that we are moving more into His Father Heart and dwelling less on who we are and our own inabilities. We need to leave our intellect behind and receive from the centre of our being, that God really wants to prosper us. Deuteronomy 28 says we are the head and not the tail.
We have always understood salvation and redemption being by faith, but accepting the reality of grace and goodness being ours just because we are in Christ Jesus seems more difficult. It is nothing to do with what we deserve or who we are, but it is all about who Jesus is.
I guess when we take His word literally and personally we will have started on the journey of no condemnation and of victorious living. He will never stop surprising us, but it will become our daily expectation. What a way to start each day.
Bless you Liberty Trust and Ark Resources for your work and your ministry.
14 Feb 2012