Struggling

Question: how is your walk going with the Lord?  For some people they never seem to struggle, or if they do it is very seldom.  In my case I have struggled many times, sometimes for many years, but praise the Lord He has kept me, and I am still praising Him daily.  I think the problem for me and for many people is that many of us have been taught that we are here for God to serve us instead of us serving Him!!  In other words, we ask and expect Him to provide for all our wishes and wants instead of us seeking Him and asking Him what He wants from us.  Many of us seek His hands, but how many are seeking His heart?  

There are times when we need to seek His hands and I am not against that.  The Word of God says in the book of Hebrews to come to the throne boldly and make our request known, but how many times do we tell Him how much we appreciate Him and thank Him and praise Him for who He is and for what He is and for what He has done and what He is going to do.  I know I have mentioned these things in other Tidbits but I think they are important things that we need to remember.   

Now think of this with me, I wonder why there is so much emphasis on the love and mercy and grace of God, but very little about the chastisement or correction or the wrath of God!!  I think that watered-down sermons are devastating the church.  There is so much talk about God’s love and grace and mercy and hardly ever anything about the wrath or tribulation or trials of God.  And what about Paul, when he said that anyone who lives a godly life will be persecuted, he didn’t say maybe but that they will be, how often do you hear about that?  The problem with not being taught the whole gospel in balance, is that when people only hear the good things about God and not the things that some people would consider the negative things about God is this, if people mainly hear about God’s love, mercy and grace, when something happens that negatively affects them they become devastated and they don’t know how to handle these issues and some may get angry and bitter and even walk away from the faith altogether, then whose responsibility will it be?  

Have you ever heard someone say or hear this in a song, that God doesn’t care about what you’ve done, He just loves you and wants to show you His love?  That can’t be farther from the truth!  God cares about everything we do, and He never sweeps our sins under the rug, so to speak.  He is a loving, merciful and caring God, but He is also just, and in being just, He cannot tolerate sin.  Sin must be judged.  God’s Word says the wages of sin is death and we were all born into this sin situation which made us enemies of God.  God hates sin because He knows that in the end it will eventually destroy us, so He has to deal with us and the sins that we hold onto, and we should praise Him when He does because He cares and is trying to protect us from its ugly devastation in our lives.   

Now that we are on the subject of God’s love and grace and mercy, which dominates the air waves and our pulpits this fits right in, the prosperity religious congregations where we hear mainly about how God wants to bless us and how we should have money and expensive houses and have the best things to eat and the best vehicles, while these pastors are wearing diamond rings around and expensive jewelry and clothing, after all we are the children of the King, right?  This is what I see the Word of God saying, that we should be rich in spiritual things, not material things.  Yes, if God has blessed you with money and material blessings maybe it is to have you bless others and not keep all of it for yourselves but to pay it forward helping others who are in need.  

I am not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone but read what Jesus said in Matthew 19:24, “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Jesus said this in Matthew 6:31-34, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Question:  If you were honest, how many of you could say that you seek God’s kingdom first every day in prayer, Bible reading and studying and in worshiping Him while doing your best to honor Him in all things?  If we are all supposed to be wealthy, why did Jesus say that He had no place to lay His head, come on Jesus was a King wasn’t He?  He was the very image of God, He said if you’ve seen me you have seen the Father.  If He wanted to; Jesus could have had a mansion that would have put all other houses or buildings to shame, plus clothes and anything else that He wanted, and all of these things could have been the best that had ever been seen, but He said He didn’t have a place to lay His head, what’s with that!!  Wasn’t Jesus our example, the one that we should follow or are we to conform to the world and its standards?  

Don’t think I am just talking to you, I am guilty of some of these things also.  I am ashamed even to write these things, but someone has to sound the alarm.  And I have had to repent, which I have.  Praise the Lord that we can repent and change our minds and go in the opposite direction towards God and the things that would please him and ask the Lord to forgive us and He does, check out 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  

This is the second part of that verse that I quoted earlier, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!!  Yes, God did provide eternal life through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.  If you are struggling today, feeling like you are going through a desert place, hang in there, keep praising the Lord and being faithful to Him and if you are harboring any sins, repent and turn from them and confess them and turn to God and if it is just life in the fast lane, as I say at times, just hang in there and he will get you through.  I have heard it said that weeping comes for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  

If you would like, read Job’s story it may also help you out at your time of devastation.  I hope this has been an encouragement and a help to you.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may all of you have a super, super day!!