2024 has been a year of “hard things” but I want to encourage you to remain steadfast in your faith, Beloved Remnant, we serve a God Who IS faithful! Who IS graceful! Who IS filled with mercy! I wish I could see you face-to-face right now so that you can REALLY see the truth of this in my face. I testify to you that although I have failed God MANY times, He has NEVER failed me! And He won’t fail you!
Now that doesn’t mean that He always answers in the way we expect Him too. God’s ways are HIGHER than OUR ways, His thoughts are HIGHER than OUR thoughts, so this is where even with trembling knees, we stand steadfast in our faith and in our promises that He has given us.
I often wonder how the people of the Bible did it? And then I remember that TRULY they were NO different than us! They were people JUST like you and me! They had their doubts, their struggles, God (as He does with us) asked them to “endure hard things.” The thing we share in common with many of them is FAITH.
Let Holy Spirit fill you with HIS strength, because it’s true, we don’t have any of our own, we are reliant upon Him. But here is the thing, that is NOT a bad thing! John 15:1-8 tells us:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
We were not created to be separate from the Father, we have three parts to our make-up – a body that has a soul that in the very center exists our spirit. We were created to be in fellowship with our Creator, but because we live in a sinful, fallen world and prior to accepting God’s gift of salvation, we were spiritually blind and didn’t recognize that the deep aching desire and need within us was a need that can ONLY be satisfied by the restoration of a RIGHT relationship with the Father – which Jesus provided by His death and resurrection on the cross! We go through life trying to placate that need with other substitutes – I don’t know what it was/or is with you, could have been money, sex, drugs, alcohol, work – or something else. But TRUE peace can only come from the Prince of Peace (Jesus) and OH when you DO decide to “taste and see that the LORD is good!” There is NO greater joy! NO greater love! NO greater peace! No greater fulfillment than recognizing that “missing puzzle piece in the center of you could ONLY be filled with having a personal relationship with the One Who created you to do so in the first place!
Romans 8: tells us the following:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Which are YOU choosing to do? I don’t see how anyone can not notice that the world is growing darker and darker by the moment. God’s grace and mercy continues to extend the offer for salvation because it is not His desire to see ANY perish, but at some point, Jesus WILL return, so NOW is the time to accept His gift of salvation! NOW. We tend to think that we are “promised” tomorrow – we are not! I cannot tell you how many people I know have lost someone they love this year! There have been SO many deaths! But for those who accepted God’s gift of salvation through His Son, our Savior, Jesus the Christ they have NOT died at all but been birthed into the glory of their everlasting lives! Paul wrote about this in Philippians 1:21 and I have come to a point where I understand and agree.
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
I honestly don’t know how people are holding fast to their sanity in this day and age WITHOUT being in a personal relationship with God. I CAN tell you (from having worked in a psychiatric in-patient hospital) that ever since the time of COVID those beds are filling up FAST. The Bible says the following in Matthew 7:24-27:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The LORD is my Rock and my Deliverer, and it is ONLY because and through HIS strength that I have made it through the most difficult 2 years of my life. So that when “hard things” have come into my life, my eyes turn to my Savior, the One Who has told me in Joshua 1:9:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
And in Philippians 4:6-7:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Whatever you are going through, and you may be going through “hard things”, God wants you to know that He sees you! That you can TRUST Him! His Word (the Bible) is the truth to that! He never intended you to go through life without Him,
HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE AND NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER ACCEPT BY HIM
Maybe it’s time for you to test God on that? If you haven’t accepted His gift of salvation by accepting Jesus as your Savior, made Him Lord OVER your life, maybe it is time for you to try it and see for yourself? You don’t have to take MY words on it, what do you have to lose if I’m wrong? (I’m not). If you feel like you just want to throw your hands up in the air in frustration over whatever it is you are going through in life, then Holy Spirit brought you to this blogpost for a reason. Hey – you’ve probably tried EVERYTHING else, why not give God a try??? This is just YOU and ME seeing these words right now. If that is you, pray this prayer with me:
“Father God, I need You to make Yourself REAL to me if the words to this post are true. If You desire me to have a relationship with You I need You to SHOW ME that You ARE indeed REAL. I’m testing you on this. So, of my own accord and desire I agree to pray this prayer. Jesus, I need You to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. I want to accept Your gift for salvation and I thank You for it. Please help me… Please forgive me for my sins and wash me with Your precious blood. Holy Spirit please come and live inside my heart. Show me YOU. I thank You Father for hearing this prayer. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, AMEN”
Now if you prayed that prayer, watch and see what the Father does! Hey – I KNOW this personally because 36 years ago, I prayed that SAME prayer, and I had NO idea all that would occur following it! God loves you SO much! And He IS about to reveal Himself to you in a MIGHTY way! If you don’t have a Bible than message me at the link below and I will personally send one to you! It’s important for you to get the Word of God inside of you so that Holy Spirit can help you to grow in Him! Click on the link below and message me!
God is the ONLY One Who can successfully help us do “hard things” and get us through “hard times.” How do I know this? Because He’s doing/has done it with/for me! Anything/one else you rely on is really like putting a band aid to a wound that needs cleaning out and stitches. Listen, the Bible tells us in Matthew 5:45:
For He makes His sun rise on evil and good and sends rain on just and unjust.
Jesus also prayed the following to the Father for us in John 17:15-23:
“I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”
Even being part of God’s Called Remnants (a follower of Christ), you will still encounter “hard things” BECAUSE we still live in a fallen world. But BECAUSE of Christ, you already have overcome them! Even if in the earthly realm it doesn’t yet seem that way because OUR victory is found in Christ Jesus! And even though it doesn’t “feel good” when we go through “hard things” we are told that we are NOT to be led by our feelings because Jesus has ALREADY defeated death and the grave and anything else that comes in-between so we can REJOICE through it all because OUR Savior reins! So, we can joyfully say as in 1 Corinthians 15:55:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
And can conclude by raising our arms in praise and say as in 1 Corinthians 15:56:
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Praise His holy and precious name! Now with Holy Spirit leading you and Christ Jesus giving you the victory in ALL you say and do – GO DO THEM!!! And to God be the glory! \0/ \0/ \0/
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