The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” Psalms 34:17-20
Today, you may be going through one of the hardest trials in your life.It seems like no matter what you put your hand too in this season, it is not yielding any harvest and it all avenues that were reliable before have all but dried up like a stream in the desert. We all find ourselves in these times, when we have prayed and fasted and have sought the face of The Lord God – begged and pleaded for mercy, for a reprieve for help now; and heaven is silent as your woes keeps multiplying.
I know that you may be facing times of great distress in your family, your finances, your health and ultimately your faith in the Lord. But I wanted to come to you today, as one that is suffering just as you are at this moment to tell you;
” DON’T GIVE UP, DON’T GIVE IN TO DESPAIR! “
Do not allow this trial, or as we may define it in our minds as a disaster, to come in between you and Your Heavenly Father. Do not allow circumstances or that mountain obstacle to stop you from putting your whole trust in The Lord Jesus. Yes, I understand, truly I do! All of your financial resources have dried up, there is no more borrowing, you may have lost your job or it is not paying enough. You might be facing losing everything and you see homelessness right before your eyes. You might not can pay for your medicine, or your child has gone stray, your wife or husband unfaithful. You may be in emotional and mental turmoil. However, this is not the time to be overcome with despair or doubt or depression. This is not the time to throw in the towel.
You may be asking, “what did I do wrong”, and truthfully you may not have done anything “wrong” but this is a test. Remember Job, he was faithful, and had much and lost all he had, because The Lord allowed Job to be tested. Satan comes to kill steal and destroy, and he does this because he believes, that if he can destroy all The Father has given us, we would stop our prayers. We would stop serving Him, we would stop believing and trusting in God. Satan was allowed to test Job, because The Lord held Him up as a standard of righteousness (Job 1:6-22). And I would say He would do the same to us. For we are made righteous in Jesus Christ by His shed blood.
Faith is not for the good times, it is for the times in which there is no help, and all the ones we depended on, our family, friends, jobs cannot provide for us. It is in that time, when our “Now Faith.”, Hebrews 11 is needed to trust and hope in The Lord Our God, to deliver, to heal, to save, to supply our needs, to restore us. It is that “Now faith”, that makes us righteous, and gives us that good report with our Lord Jesus.
It is easy to say we have faith when things are plenteous, and everything is going right and there is sunshine; but what about when we are facing a drought, famine and disease in our lives? These are the times, when we will see where our trust and hope lies, who we truly believe in and how strong our relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ truly is. This race that we are running is a marathon, there will be many obstacles and conditions we must face. But remember that in every marathon, it is endurance that wins, not the swiftness of your feet. Also, and this is the good part, there are rest stations along the way, to give the runners, water, and protein, and to relief themselves so they can continue. These rest station come when we as the Prophet Isaiah said;
“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”(Isa 40:29-31)
I believe that you and I are coming up to one of those rest station at this moment, why should we faint now? In Matthew 8:23-27, the disciples and Jesus was in the boat when the storm came. Jesus was sleeping below, but the storm had grown to the point where the wind and the waves were overcoming the ship. The disciples became afraid and awoke the Lord saying to Jesus; ” Lord save us! We are going to drown!”. The Lord Jesus responded with this; ” Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” ‘He then rebuked the wind and waves and all was calm.’ When Jesus is in the boat with us, traveling through the ship of life with us, and we enter a storm, can He not rebuke the storm? Can He not bring us to our destination with out harm? Can He not deliver us? Yes, He Can!
So even though our bones maybe dried up, and our strength is gone, and there is no water in the desert let us remember what the works of the Lord both to His servants of Old and for His servants (You and I) today.
Like the prophet Ezekiel, speak to the dry bones, and they shall live.As The Lord God spoke to Isaiah and to those of Israel, ” Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” As The Lord delivered the Jews, from the hand of Haman, the destroyer, so shall He deliver you! Trust in The Lord your God, for He will not forsake you. Let us seek the face of Our God, and not keep fighting by using our own knowledge and understanding, for we as humans have very limited sight and can only see it seems; the path of destruction. Our God has more for in store for us. Let us keep on running, a rest stop is just up ahead!
Your Sister and Fellow Servant in Jesus Christ,
Redeemed One
GraceRedeemedMe 