Are you grateful? – Day 13

God’s Word and promises remain true. Here is how Evert Potgieter, a reader from Mossel Bay, experienced God’s faithfulness some years ago:

Evert: “I have been a financial advisor for more than 20 years. As I work on commission and do not receive a set salary at the end of the month, my faith has been tested on various occasions. Although I am a child of God, and fully aware of my dependence on him, it is still sometimes hard to trust him during difficult times. However, he has never failed me.

In 2014, I went through a period of unprecedented financial difficulties in my practice which caused me to wonder if my prayers even reached God. Discouraged, I started opening my e-mails on the morning of May 8. April 2014 was turning out to be the worst month in my career of many years and the month ahead did not look promising either.

That morning during my quiet time with God, I read a devotion entitled, ‘Thank you in anticipation’. The devotion was about how we need to thank God for our breakthroughs while still waiting. The message was very relevant to my mood. I read the Scripture in 2 Chronicles 20 and also experienced how God was telling me, as he told Jehoshaphat and the Israelites, to stop fighting on my own, while allowing him to fight on my behalf. I recommitted everything in my life to God, thanking him in advance.

At the close of business that day, my income was equivalent to two months’ work! It was a miracle, demonstrating God’s faithfulness to me once again! All glory goes to him!”

Evert is right. God is faithful and when we put him first, trusting him in everything, he never disappoints us. In Numbers 23:19 we read: “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.” And in Deuteronomy 7:9 we read: “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God …”

Do you need a breakthrough in the workplace, with your finances, in your marriage or with your health? Listen again to the promise in Isaiah 43:19: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

God is for us. He can change any situation, like Evert’s, from a wasteland to one filled with rivers. Let us, therefore, thank him for his faithfulness while ceasing to fight in our own strength and allowing him to fight on our behalf. God bless.