“My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be. Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind.” James 1:2-7 This past week, “struggle” has taken ahold of me. There seems to be so much pain and suffering happening all around. From conversations with friends, to reading online posts, to watching the news, “struggle” seems to be the capturing headline in many of our lives. So many of us are struggling outwardly. We become broken, so we turn to the world to fix our deepest levels of pain and to fill the voids. As humans, it’s a natural instinct to revert back to what we know. Regression is a defense mechanism that we often use to avoid certain impulses. What we fail to realize is that we’re reverting back to the very things that hurt us to begin with. We need to realize that the worldly way of doing things is a flawed system. We need to realize that our selfish desires, and our ways of “fixing things” don’t work, and they never will. Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.” Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 18:30, “This God- His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” So why, if scripture tells us over and over about the immensity of our God’s power and love and perfection, do we continue to run back to a world that we know will never fully satisfy our heart and soul? I believe there is a two-part answer to this, first being that we lack one very important concept: FAITH. Maybe we believe that we deserve the pain cast on us. Maybe we don’t believe the extent of God’s power. Maybe we believe that a drunk or high is a quicker fix than taking our problems to the cross. Regardless of what is running through your mind, there’s disconnect from faith when we take our lives out of Jesus’ hands and take it upon ourselves to “fix us”. The second part of this answer goes to the worst evil in this world… Satan is sitting, and waiting. He’s our worst enemy, and he is going to wait until our most vulnerable moments (when we’re struggling) to throw every ounce of negativity, self-doubt, and appealing worldly desires in our faces to drive a wedge in the middle of our relationships with God. He tells us that we deserve our struggles. He tells us that we’ve messed up too much for God’s forgiveness. He tells us that our God is no match for the 80 proof bottle of liquor in our cabinet. Friends, we HAVE GOT to stop believing the lies that he fills our minds with. Jesus is the ONLY way to recover from our transgressions, from our suffering, from our brokenness, heartbreak and bondage. He is the only way we are going to be satisfied in our lives. He is the only way to heaven. Jesus loves us more than we could ever begin to think or imagine, so why would we take our problems anywhere else? Jesus has our best interests at heart, now we must have faith in Him! Start tonight. Don’t wait. Don’t give Satan another second of opportunity to get into your mind and wreck your world. Know that I love you all so so much! Just like the title of this page, I want you all to come as you are. At no point do I want anyone to feel unworthy of God’s amazing love. We are all sinners, and we will all continuously fall short, but rejoice in the fact that we have a wonderful, merciful God that loves us no matter what. Prayers for faith, wisdom, patience, and healing going up for you all tonight! “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” Psalm 118:8
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 02:52:47 +0000
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