How many times have you told someone that you trusted the Lord for something?
And how many times have you faltered in your faith because, what you have trusted the Lord for didn’t happen and you had been waiting for a very long time? I just want to encourage you to not give up, and not to believe the lies the evil one is flooding your mind with.
I had prayed for healing for many years and it seemed like it would never take place. I had asthma for over fifty years and I prayed to be healed, I would say at least twenty years. Then one day about seven years ago I was praying in the morning in my bedroom about a few different things such as a back problem, the asthma and other things when all of a sudden I heard these words in my mind. "Jerry, if you were to be healed of one of these things, what would you want to be healed of?" This wasn’t the first time I ever heard from the Lord but I was still shocked. I sat there thinking about the different things I prayed for and I picked the asthma and I was miraculously healed. Praise the Lord.
Now what if I gave up trusting the Lord for my healing the day before I was healed, it never would have happened.
Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t have enough faith to receive anything from God so you might as well throw in the towel. Before you do, think about this, if you give up on the Lord where are you going to go or to whom will you go?
Jesus asked his 12 disciples this question because there were other disciples that were deserting Him, "Will ye also go away?" Then Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." Check it out in John 6: verses 53 – 69.
It is a very sad thing when a person gives up on their faith and their trust in the Lord. The Lord never gave up on you, or anyone else, so please don’t give up on Him. Remember this, God gives us the desires of our hearts, at times. So even if your faith isn’t strong enough at the time, God may still answer your prayer, if you don’t give up.
Let me give you another example that happened to me where I could have given up on the Lord and not trusted Him. Years ago as a Christian I went through 12 to 14 years of heavy depression because I believed the Devil’s lies. I thought that the Lord couldn’t love me or forgive me for my past sins. I didn’t know what love was because I hadn’t experienced much of it. Oh I heard people say that they loved me and I was their best friend, but their actions told another story. And to be honest things haven’t seemed to change much. I was so depressed I thought I would end up dying that way, but I never gave up on praying and seeking God for deliverance, and it happened. Praise God. I never went to a doctor and I didn’t share it with many people, I just kept seeking God. After I was delivered I heard the Lord speak to me when I woke up one morning and He said, "Get your house in order," and I have been working on doing that since then. Praise God, He never let me give up during that long period of time.
There were many people in the Bible that thought they trusted the Lord but failed Him at times when they found out that talk was easier than actions. I am sure if you thought about it you could think of a few. One who comes to mind in Genesis 12:10–13 is Abram who was later called Abraham. He left his country at God’s request and as he went he found himself in Egypt because of the great famine in the land. The Lord told Abram that He would bless him and make him a great nation and He would make his name great. Now Abram knew what God had said and he believed God. The problem he had was he started leaning on his own understanding and not trusting God. He decided that he would fix a situation he found himself in. Going into Egypt seemed to cause him a problem so because he didn’t trust God to keep him safe he took things into his own hands.
How many times have we fallen into that same trap? When something doesn’t happen when, or the way, we want it to we do the same thing we take things into our own hands proving that we don’t trust God, but of course we wouldn’t say so.
In Abram’s situation he devised a scheme and told Sarai, his wife, that she was to say that she was his sister when they entered Egypt. Abram knew she was fair to look at and he thought the Egyptians would kill him and save her. Sometimes our situations seem to have no answer so we try to come up with one ourselves, like Abram did.
Sometimes we make God seem very small in our eyes. This isn’t anything new to God and He still loves us. I am not condoning what Abram did, it was sin, and God hates sin and corrects us for it, but He doesn’t want us to give up trusting Him when this happens. Because of God’s love, grace and mercy he didn’t give up on Abram and He won’t give up on you. And like I said trusting God can be easier said than done but if we totally give up and throw in the towel, so to speak, the consequences will be devastating.
So hang in there, hold onto the faith you have, and keep on trusting and God will bless you and He will come through for you. And don’t forget to thank and praise Him and have a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment