TRUSTING GOD'S PROMISES
by Robert Haas
I was born into an Adventist family. My relatives worked for the Adventist Church. I was enrolled in the Adventist educational system from kindergarten through high school. Although raised in this environment, I didn’t experience a life-changing conversion or develop a personal relationship with God. As a young adult, I abandoned the principles I was taught and became the “prodigal son,” wandering aimlessly through life in pursuit of worldly happiness.
In my mid-twenties, with a wife and young children, I realized I needed to develop a relationship with God and started attending church. However, I never gave up my worldly pleasures such as smoking or drinking. This lifestyle eventually tore my family apart.
During the next four years, I hit rock bottom. I filed for bankruptcy and lost my job along with everything I owned. Worst of all, I lost hope. In despair, I started reading the Bible again in the fall of 2005, searching for answers as to why my life was such a mess. That’s when I read Proverbs 3:6 [TLB], “In everything you do, put God first, and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” This lesson was learned the hard way.
In the spring of 2006, I purchased a truck and leased it back to the company for which I previously worked. That’s when I met Brenda by telephone, as she was employed at that company. Soon, I discovered she was in the midst of a divorce and experiencing the same hopelessness I had recently gone through. She told me that my sense of humor and confidence made it easy for her to talk, and I became her confidant.
As we visited, I learned that Brenda knew about God but had no relationship with Him. Like me, she was searching for happiness in the form of alcohol and drugs.
Even though our friendship was based on many enjoyable and enlightening telephone conversations, we had never met. One day, I told her about my web site, and she visited it. Noticing a page of scripture, she inquired about my denominational affiliation. She had never heard of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and started asking questions about our doctrines and why we believed them. Raised with very little knowledge of the Bible or God, Brenda wanted to begin studying together.
We finally met in person, developed a relationship centered around God, married in 2008, and began attending church regularly. As we grew spiritually in our pursuit of personally knowing God, we started questioning why we were holding on to worldly habits. Brenda was still drinking, and I hadn’t given up smoking. We quit and then read, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other….” (Luke 16:13 NKJV).
This thought started us questioning things we were watching, listening to, reading, doing, or eating. If we found they were distracting us from God, we eliminated them from our home and our lives.
Soon, I felt convinced to stop driving my truck on the Sabbath. Almost immediately, I was tested when invited to carry equipment on a two-month tour for the rock band U2. When I told the group’s agent I was sorry I couldn’t help because I had chosen to no longer work on the Sabbath, he asked me if I was a Seventh-day Adventist. He had an Adventist neighbor, so he understood and even thanked me for standing up for what I believe.
At the same time, Brenda and I made a commitment to start returning tithe and helping those less fortunate. That was another turning point when our lives changed dramatically. It seemed the more we gave, the more we received. Promises of God in Malachi 3:10 [KJV] became more evident in our lives as we read, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Today, we continue striving to attain the lifestyle God intends us to have. We pray together and learn together. We no longer worry about our finances or our future. We pray about decisions we make in our lives, both big and small. We know the incredible power of prayer and faith and that the Lord provides for those who believe and have faith. That’s why we claim the promise of Matthew 6:25, 31-34 [NIV84], “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? …So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Brenda and I still experience occasional stress and worry in our lives, but we know that God’s promises will always be fulfilled as we ask for His guidance and His Holy Spirit to fill our hearts, leaving no room for the enemy.
The Lord does not abide with sin, so as we continue to do away with the things in our life that do not glorify Him, we will continue to receive His promised blessings. As others witness the change in our hearts and in our lives, they will know it is the Glory of God and the fulfillment of His promises that have allowed it to happen.