What’s Getting Me Through

Sometimes I think about the current situation of this country and world regarding the toll of this virus both physically and mentally, the extreme political divide that is ripping friendships and people apart, and the downright evil that I see taking place at my work, and it all can quickly become overwhelming. But I am finding in my life, that in these times of uncertainty, I am clinging to the promises of God much more than ever before. What I mean by this is, sometimes it takes a struggle or bump in the road if you will, in order to create a deeper longing or need for a Savior; at least this has been true for me. 

So it is in these times of great divide and fear, the promises of God keep me going. What an amazing assurance it is to know this world is not my home, and one day I will be Home in Heaven: rid of all sickness, anger, and fear. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him”. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

I’ve recently noticed a “buzz” or perpetual humming of fear in people when I interact with them at work, of which I am guilty of feeling at times as well. The common denominator in all the situations is our lack of ability to control what is taking place in the world. This inability to control the situation then manifests itself in fear and acts of anger, harm of oneself, or another. I do not want to speak definitively for other people, but I will explain my hypothesis for why I feel this is happening in others, and why I have been guilty of feeling anxious about all that’s happening at times as well; We (myself included), have failed to remember God is in control and He has already WON THE BATTLE. 

If I could work and live day-by-day with a mindset of the Truth that is, “God has already won”, I would not be worried about the future. What a comforting feeling it is to know no matter what takes place, I will be okay. No matter what life hits me with or takes away from me, I WILL BE OKAY. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:26-27). 

And here is my hypothesis as to what might happen if we all lived in that Trust and Assurance of God’s promises: the fear, anger, hurting, and sin would begin to cease, and a trust and love for God and one-another would begin to take over! But here is the kicker, or the crux if you will, God does not say everyone will experience this peace without a bit of sacrifice on our ends. We must, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Do you see the key word in this? Seek FIRST his kingdom… The way I see this is, God knows He is who we must go to first each day in order to give us the right mindset, a mindset of trust and love. 

What I have seen in my own life as I have begun to cling more closely to these promises of God, I have more peace in my life. I have more trust in my life. I have more excitement of eternity one day with Him. My problems begin to diminish, and the humming of fear in my life begins to subside. 

Now you might be thinking, “I don’t know God”, or maybe, “I have done so much wrong, God doesn’t want a relationship with me”. Or possibly even, “I’m just not sure about all of this God stuff”. I’ll say this, it is okay to have those thoughts, and there is nothing you could do or have ever done that is beyond the love and forgiveness that in Jesus Christ. You are not too late, and you are not “too bad”. You are chosen by Him, and He deeply desires a relationship with you. He offers “peace that surpasses all understanding”. My prayer for those who do have a relationship with God is, you cling to His promises in this time and seek Him first each day. And my prayer for those who might be feeling any one of the above listed thoughts of doubt is, seek God. Ask Him the tough questions you have. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Wrestle with Him if you will. He is waiting. Just please do not read this and turn away. Watch and wait to see how He answers you. Watch as He begins to intervene. 

Will all your problems disappear? No. Will this virus immediately leave those you love who may be sick from it? Possibly, but maybe not. Will all the political divide and hate diminish? I wish, but no. But here is His promise to you, “…He will never leave you, nor forsake you”. (Deuteronomy 31:6) The God of the universe wants to go through these problems and trials with you. He cares so much about what you’re going through that He gave His one and only son to die a sinners death on cross that He did not deserve in order to give you freedom from life’s problems and pains, because He loves you tremendously. The best part is, He offers this relationship with you, freely. It requires no “getting my life back together” or trying harder. All it requires is admitting you have messed up and are not perfect. Good news, none of us are! And then it requires a simple acceptance of Him in your life. 

I hope what God has been placing on my heart can encourage you. I hope you wrestle with God as I have. And I look forward to seeing how God intervenes and begins to instill within you peace as He has given me in these times of questioning and anxiety. Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus!

Praise Through the Pain

I haven't bogged in over a year, and as I was encountering what I will be talking about in a little bit, I decided I felt it was something worth sharing to others since it impacted me in such a great way, and is something I feel everyone should begin to do.
     So anyways, I want to begin with a little back story here for a moment so you can understand my situation a little better, not so you can pity me or feel sorry for me in any way, but so it can make my point or takeaway if you will, more meaningful later on. This is all about what God has done in me and can do in you, for His glory.
     When I was in high school, I ran track and cross country. Soon into my sophomore year of cross, I encountered severe knee pain. After missing too many races, my mom decided it was time to get it checked out. We went to a few doctors only to hear it was probably just a lack of cartilage between my knee cap and knee bone. They said keep running and just wear a knee brace. Well anyways fast forward through a couple races with still severe pain, then a few more doctors visits, another diagnosis of it being a TB band problem, and still having pain all the way to now in my junior year in college. My knee pain is back and in full force.
     Now to back track just a little bit to this past spring around the last two weeks of my sophomore year in college. I started having extreme pain in my left shoulder. I just played it off like it was nothing until the summer began and my job with it. My shoulder pain quickly got even worse and it became so bad that I could not lift my arm to grab my spoon at breakfast due to the pain. It was like someone was constantly twisting and contorting my arm and breaking it and I couldn't do a thing about it. This pain lasted all day and all through the night. I lived on pain meds to get me through each day. I finally went to a doctor after one day when my dad noticed my left arm looked to be just hanging limp at my side with no life to it (and to be honest, that is how it was. I couldn't move it). The doctor said to go to physical therapy to see if that would help. Well it made the pain go down to about a 7 on the pain scale instead of a 11.5 out of 10. So that was good for the time being. But as soon as PT (physical therapy) ended, the pain came right back. Well I hate complaining about these things, so I just sucked it up again.
     Okay back to nowadays and the main point of this blog. I still have this severe knee pain which seems to be getting worse, and also this excruciating shoulder pain. My attitude about this whole ordeal the entire time since my sophomore year in high school has been one of anger, frustration and distrust in God. I would always question God for why this was happening and why He hadn't healed me yet.  During my sophomore year in college, I began to feel led into the criminal justice field to go into law enforcement. In the back of my head, I started to question God and ask Him things like, "How can I do this job with my knee and with this terrible pain?" After the shoulder incident, the pain in my shoulder also joined my questions to God. Then I would get frustrated and ask Him again why He doesn't just take this pain away so for one, I could enjoy life and be pain free, and also so I could do the career I felt led to. To sum this up, I was a complainer to God, when I thought I was tough and not a complainer on the outside. God knew my heart and it was one of anger and bitterness in this area.
     I hear every now and then preachers talking about how we should worship God in the midst of hardships, and I would think, "I can do that for sure!" I actually thought I did in most areas of problems. I never once grouped this with my pain in my shoulder and knee, not even once. I was always angry and mad, when I should have been trusting and praising God instead.
     Recently I was in church, and the worship band was playing and I was in really severe pain. My shoulder was just about to rip of my body I thought. I was so distracted from worship and all I could do was stand there in pain, mad at God. Then all of a sudden I felt like the Lord spoke to me the point I believe He was trying to say to me for some time (6 years); "Worship me even through the pain." It caught me off guard because I doubted that prompting right away. But then I thought about Paul and Stephen and others from the bible. Paul praised God and worshiped him while in prison, through shipwrecks, torture, and so much other junk that I had never even experienced. Stephan was stoned to death and praised God through it (Acts 7:59-60). I realized then and there I should... no I needed to praise God even with this pain and uncertainty of the future going on. God has a plan for me and I better be trusting in Him and praising Him even with my problems.
     If this pain continues for the rest of my life, I pray it never sways me from worshiping my God and trusting his plan for me. I will suffer minimally, while praising Him, since He suffered far greater for me, a sinful human. Wow, what a game changer!
     Now whenever my pain gets really bad, I place it in Gods hands, trusting Him with it. I will praise Him through it. I don't know what my future holds in terms of a career or my health, but what I do know is God is still sovereign and He is still in control.This pain may never fail, but neither will God!
     I share all this to encourage you, the reader. I don't know what you are going through, whether big or small. You may have a health problem, financial burden, relationship problems, or something else. Though I can't experience it and feel all that is going on, what I can say is that God is still in control and He is FOR you and LOVES you. He never once has left you! I hope you make the decision to trust Him with whatever the situation may be. And I also hope you can learn to worship and praise Him in the midst of it, as I am still learning to do. I hope this is encouragement to you, and I hope this can challenge you as well. God is good, and He is, and always will be in control!

He is with You!

     So it has been awhile since I last blogged, but after this morning's devotions, I really want to share what is going on and what the Lord has been teaching me. As many of you have probably realized by now, life is hard. I don't mean specifically with work or school, even though both of those are difficult. What I mean is our daily walk and relationship with God. At times if we are being honest, it can become difficult to live out what we believe. Maybe you don't feel that way, but that is how it is for me. I sometimes find myself pleading with God and asking Him why I am facing the current problem and how is He going to help me. I wonder where He is. Okay spoiler alert; I'm giving away the point of this blog. HE IS ALWAYS THERE! He never leaves you! Even when the times are difficult, even when circumstances are not going as you would have liked or hoped them to be. Deuteronomy 31:6 says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the Lord your God IS you; he will NEVER leave you nor forsake you.” What a great truth we can count on! So to bring it back to the moment when I was crying out and asking God where He was in my problems. Well as we can see, He was with me. He is also with you! He never leaves nor forsakes us. Ever!
     This school year so far has been difficult for me with trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and figure out where the Lord wants me to be, and what major to be in. I am also a Peer Advisor, so this means I spend a lot of time with freshman here at the school. Being in this position has left me with little time to do homework and spend time with my other friends. So with all of this going on, I have had many a frustrating nights wondering what to do and if I am making the right decisions. I sometimes find myself in desperation, wondering what God wants from me and for me. It is in those times when I come back to the truth that God never has or ever will leave me. He is right there with me, helping me through those times. Once I come to that realization, I find it easier to relax and go about my day because I know that no matter what, He is in control and is fighting for me. Here is another power thought to reflect on which comes from Romans 8:27. "...the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God." What a power statement! Not only will He never leave us, but His Spirit is interceding for us and fighting for us to bring about His will in our lives! If I put all my worries, fears, or anything else into His hands, I am reassured that ultimately His will is going to be done in my life!
     So I want to leave you with this challenge. As Chuck White would say, "So what?" Well if you are going through tough times, trying to figure out God's will for your life, or wondering where He is in the midst of your problems, cling to the promise that He is always there with you, interceding on your behalf and fighting for you! I don't know about you, but if I am going to try and fight the devil and his deceits and lies that he throws at me, I want God on my side fighting for me. Hopefully something in here has encouraged you today. I pray that you will cling to this truth everyday and every time you are struggling with any sort of problem, because God is bigger, better, and stronger than ANYTHING that this world throws at you. For goodness sake, He created the world. We gotta know He has everything under control including you! :)

Patience is Love

      Every time I think of how I want to do the Lord's work in the best way possible, I always come to the conclusion that by loving others I am able to serve the Lord since He created us and loves us so much. Then the next thought I always have is, how can I love others in the right way? I will be honest with you and say I have taken this as trying my hardest to share the gospel with everyone I feel led to. Don't get me wrong, this is what the ultimate goal should be since we are called to spread the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to everyone and to the ends of the earth, but I think we sometimes approach this too quickly in some people's lives. His timing is perfect and we need to seek that out before jumping right in. Maybe some of the times, right then and there is His timing, but maybe not.
      I know this has been true to me. It may be because I am guy, but whenever I see a problem, I want to immediately fix it. This is kind of how I have been viewing my "duty" if you will, to love others. I see that they are not saved, and boom, I am laying it on them. I have since realized that it's not about hitting them with it right then, but it is all about God's timing. One of the greatest things we can do in order to love someone is to show them patience in their circumstances. So yeah maybe your friend is heading down the wrong course in his life and rejects God; so now you have the opportunity to show him God's love and pray for him, be there for him, talk with him when HE wants to, and put up with his circumstances.
      I think of my own life and how I have rejected God so many times, and yet He still loves me, and He shows me this through putting up with me and forgiving me when I wrong Him. I don't deserve His forgiveness, but yet He freely gives it. So we need to be forgiving to one another and be patient with one another as well. By being patient with those we care for and not seeking to immediately lay on the full force of God on them, we are loving them just as God is loving us. I think you will begin to see that this can be a better way to get through to them. They can see you are simply loving them for where they are, and who knows, they may ask YOU what is different about you and now THEY are the ones seeking out, and not you laying it on them in a time when they are not wanting it.
      So when someone who is close to you is struggling, or even a complete stranger, try loving them in this way. I think it is going to change my life, and I hope it changes yours. "Love God, Love Others"

Put to the Test

     I think too many times, we as Christians think that with our relationship with God, only good and prosperity will come. I admit to thinking this sometimes too. But that isn't always the case. Job is the prime example of this. He trusted and believed in the Lord with all His heart and yet God allowed Satan to enter his life and destroy much of his possessions and family and even himself. Through it all, Job still knew God was in control of his life and he trusted even though he questioned why at times. And I believe questioning why something is happening is not a wrong thought to have when troubles enter our lives. Our initial thought may be that we have sinned or done something wrong in the eyes of the Lord. This may be true, but sometimes God just has a plan, and this is part of it. He sometimes puts us through trials and tribulations to see if we will still trust and follow Him even in the most difficult times of our lives. It says in the bible that we are to be married to Christ (Hosea 2:19-20). I am married to Christ, and this means I will follow Him through sickness and in health; rich or poor; and until death do me part from Him. Then, we are able to meet up with Him again in all His glory in Heaven!
     You may be going through a tough time and not know why this is happening and not trust that God still loves you and is there with you. You may think you have done wrong. You may just feel distant from God right now, which is hard for you. In all of these situations, God IS with you, and still cares. Our faith is not based on FEELING His presence and peace all the time, but rather TRUSTING and KNOWING He is their based on Faith. So please take heart because our creator has a perfect plan, and will not put us through any trials and troubles that we can't handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). Try and take this time to build a stronger faith and trust in the perfect plan of God our father. If He brought you to it; He will bring you through it! Amen

Joy of the Lord

We all have said “that” prayer where we ask God for strength to make it through a tough situation in our lives or to get through a temptation we may be struggling with, but have ever stopped to realize what exactly we are asking for as we tell our Creator to give us strength?

            Well the bible says in Nehemiah 8:10 that the Joy of the Lord is our strength. This occurred to me in the strangest way. I was in the shower, singing as I normally do, when I started to sing the words from the hymnal, “The Joy of the Lord is my strength…” I stopped and thought to myself about how could the Lord’s Joy give me strength in my life and what exactly does this mean. Joy is defined in the dictionary as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” But the Joy God speaks of in the bible is not like this. The Joy He speaks of comes from Him, and it is a Joy that we have because He lives in us. In life, if I am a Christian, I don’t want my success or good fortune to determine if I have Joy or not. The real Joy I want to experience is the Joy I have because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So how can this joy be our strength? Well for me when I used to pray the prayer asking for strength to make through something or get over a struggle, I assumed this meant that at the time I was tempted or when the problem occurred, then I would magically be able to overcome the problem because a random boost of strength would come upon me, like a bolt from heaven, or something along those lines. I found this never happened. Then I realized that this isn’t the type of strength I was supposed to have in those circumstances. The strength I needed was from the Joy I have found in Jesus Christ! I didn’t need a temporary joy from a bad habit or a good circumstance to arrive on a bad day in order for me to feel “Joyful.” What I needed was the permanent Joy that comes only from a personal relationship with God my father. So in those times of struggle, I now say to myself that I have a true Joy from God and I no longer need a false joy to make my day. This is my strength; Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven and of earth! A being that neither death nor a grave could hold, so because He is in you, nor will your problems and struggles hold you! Amen.

So I encourage you, those who may be struggling with an addiction or may be going through a tough time in life; no circumstance that may arrive in your life is ever too big for God to handle. Next time you are encountering a problem, try to remember that because He is in you, you can have the Joy of the Lord, which is a strength like no other.