In my last blog, I compared our walk by faith to a road trip. In Psalms 37:23, David said that the steps of a good man were ordered of God. Each day that goes by is like the mile markers on the interstate. When most of us take a trip, we pretty much know how many miles it is, how long it will take and how much gas we will use. With everything that we think we'll need, we begin our journey.
However, our walk by faith is never smooth sailing. God never promised us smooth sailing. Look closely at what Jesus said in John 16:33. He starts off by saying, "These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace." Now, that's a great verse to shout about, isn't it? Yeah, Jesus, You're gonna just smooth things out for us, aren't You? U-h-h-h-h, nope.
The next part of that verse brings us back to reality. You know.....life the way it really is. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." This is more like it, isn't it? All of us have had more trouble than we really want. Sometimes it seems like we go from one bad thing to another. And, all too often, we constantly expect something bad more than we expect something good to happen. C'mon, say Amen.
Is it so hard to believe the rest of the verse? Jesus said for us to cheer up when those tribulations sideswipe and t-bone us. Now He does make a statement that we merely read and seldom heed. He told us to cheer up because He overthrew satan's power that brought the tribulation. Instead of mulling over all the tribulation we face, we should be thinking about God's power blowing every demon force in hell to smithereens.
Let's remember Paul's life and writings for a moment. If anyone ever went through enough tribulations to make you want to quit it was the Apostle Paul. Paul was beaten, jailed, cursed, stoned and left for dead and kept on going. Lots of people got saved, healed and delivered and a lots of others got together and run him out of town. So you think that God's mean to you, huh? Old Paul asked the Lord three times to remove his 'thorn in the flesh' but what did God say? God told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that His grace was sufficient for Paul because God's strength was manifested in Paul's weakness.
Did you catch that? And did you catch a glimpse of what is on God's mind when He allows us to go through tribulation? God ALWAYS put Paul in a situation that Paul had no way of getting through unless the awesome power of God came on the scene.
Paul was able to pass down to us his secret recipe for success but I bet most of you never caught it. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:13. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as common to man:" Stop right there. You are not UNcommon and you are not going through anything UNcommon. Quit thinking that God made up some special kind of hell just for you to go through. What you are going through right now is normal and you are normal. Get over whatever you have to get over. Quit wallowing around in the pig pen of self pity and act like a blood-bought, Holy Ghost filled child of the living God for once. It'll do you good.
The next thing that verse says is, "But God is faithful." Don't start with your, "Yeah, He's always faithful to let something come along and knock me down just when I got to climbing up higher. I knew something would come along like that." You know why I don't want to hear that? Because that's exactly what I USED to say. For years I celebrated my own little pity party. Thank God I finally quit and put away the balloons. They were flat anyway.
Let's read the rest of that verse before I comment. "Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it." God has the devil on a short chain. The devil is NOT free to do with you as he sees fit. Mr. Ugly has to have God's permission to throw some bad stuff on us. If God says 'No' then he can't.
God carefully measures every one of us before He lets the devil go after us. Just like He did with Job, God WILL NOT allow the devil to have free reign in our lives. He always has a stopping point to the torment. He draws a line and the devil can't cross it. Besides, it's only with God's permission that the schmuck can work against us anyhow.
Here's something you might not have ever seen before. "But will WITH THE TEMPTATION make a way of escape." Did you catch that? Before God gives His permission for the devil to come after us, He has already planned a blessing greater than the trial. Did you hear me?
After Job seemingly lost everything except his nagging wife and three gossiping friends, God blessed Job with TWICE as much as he lost. That was God's plan. Jeremiah said that God is planning things for our good. Yes, Job went through torment but it didn't kill him. He lived all the way through it. AND he wound up with twice as much as he had before.According to Paul, God had the blessing ready for Job before the devil ever threw the first punch.
Yeah, but what about the trouble after trouble after trouble that Paul had all of his life. Is that all you see? You must not have read your Bible. Paul reached the lost. He started churches that thrived on the power of God. He operated in the realm of healing and special miracles. How long did the beatings last? An hour? How long was the power of God poured out? Weeks, months and years. And the power of God is still moving in our lives today because of what Paul did and wrote. I would say that it was a little bit of turmoil that turned into millions upon millions of blessings.
1 Thessalonians 5:18--KJV--In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This was Paul's secret plan of attack in the Philippian jail. They prayed and sang praises to God at midnight after they had been beaten for the cause of Christ. The praises to God IN everything was the right thing to do. It brought them joy and it brought them freedom. And, the jailer got saved and his family. No doubt some of the prisoners converted, too. The pain and embarrassment that the went through melted away at the revival and ultimate victory that God gave them.
When the devil comes after you pay as much attention to him as you would to a yapping little dog that was tied up to his owners porch. If you stand there paralyzed in fear, you will always be stopped by the incessant barking. But, if you will walk on toward the next mile marker and praise God with all of your heart, that dog will stop because he sees he can't keep you scared.
One more verse, Psalm 8:2--NIV--Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
Now stop crying and start praising God for a new life of power, victory and joy that He's been wanting to pour out on you.
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