It’s not always easy to keep our faith when things go badly. All of us remember a time when our faith faltered. Danie talks honestly about how his faith slipped away one day:

This morning, three friends and I went playing golf at the Rossmund Golf Club outside Swakopmund, where we are on holiday.

When we arrived at the green at hole 17, I had a missed call from my gardener in Windhoek. Matous doesn’t understand Afrikaans or English very well, and hardly speaks either. He speaks Oshiwambo.

When I saw it was Matous, my heart missed a beat, because it couldn’t only mean there was trouble. I called Matous and asked what was wrong. He tried to say something, but I couldn’t really hear or understand what he was trying to say. I only heard: “The thief, he break”. I asked: “Where did the thief break?”. I heard something about “roof” and asked whether the thieves had broken in through the roof. No, he said, the thief broke.

I realised that Matous and I were not going to understand one another, so I asked him to stay at the house and that I would send someone. I phoned my sister who also stays in Windhoek and asked her to go and have a look, because thieves had broken into my house. I phoned the security company too, and then my neighbour as well, asking him to please go and have a look too, because I was in Swakop and would return to Windhoek as soon as possible.

I said goodbye to my golf partners, saying I had to go back to Windhoek because of a break-in at my house.

By then, a 1 000 things were running through my mind, the most important of which was: “Where was God, He who protects my house day and night as I pray Him to every morning and every night? Why did God allow them to break in, after I asked Him to please keep His protective hand over our house?”.

After half an hour or so, my sister phoned with the good news that there hadn’t been a break-in, but that the geyser, which was installed outside the house, was overflowing.

What Matous had apparently been saying was “the geys break” (the geyser had broken), which I understood as “the thief break”.

Obviously, I was very relieved, but also very ashamed that I had ever doubted God’s grace and faithfulness and that He would never leave us.

God makes many promises to us in His Word. We have to hold onto this, in times of need too. Because God fulfils these promises one by one. Even the author of Hebrews says so: ²³Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.

Read God’s Word. Get to know His promises and believe with all that’s in you, especially when things go badly, that God will fulfil His promises in your life too.

Scripture
Hebrews 10:19-25

Reflection
How often does your faith fail?
Do you know God’s promises?
Do you believe He will make them come true in your life too?

Prayer
Father God, thank you for every single promise in Your Word. Thank you for fulfilling them. Thank you that I can know they are meant for me too. Help me to hold onto them, especially in difficult times! I ask that in Jesus’ Name. Amen.