There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.
The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.
We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.***
It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real. --Selected
**The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked either way. --G.E.M.
***
Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.
My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!
Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!
An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily
***
In the Bible we are told, "fret not" and "be anxious about nothing" among other passages that explain the devastating force that accompanies worry. Worry robs you of rest, focus and productivity. Worry renders you dysfunctional in your duties as a believer. Worry snatches victory from your grasp and replaces it with emptiness and uncertainty.Will the vicissitudes of life roll in incessantly? Most certainly, but understand that in Christ you are victorious despite the circumstances of the moment. Your victory is not dependent of the absence of struggle, difficulty, uncertainty, and pain, it is assured despite it.
There is power in learning to trust God to the point that you find yourself smiling in the midst of heartache. There is power in believing God for the supernatural despite the empirical and pragmatic evidence that is sitting before you. There is power in being able to stand firmly in your faith and say, "God I trust you. I trust you with my life; I trust you with my hurt, I trust you with my failures, I trust you with my future."
Don't allow the weight of worry to crush you. If the weight is so heavy that your knees buckle, then you are in the perfect position to pray. David, in one of his darkest moments, after acknowledging his plight, says, "but I give myself to prayer." What ever you may be facing is not a problem for God, so give yourself to prayer. More bills than money? Give yourself to prayer. Feeling lost and alone? Give yourself to prayer. Can't seem to break free of what has entangled you? Give yourself to prayer. Faith and breakthrough are inextricably bound together by the creator.Christ's magnanimous gift provided at Calvary assures your victory in every circumstance. The evil machinations of the enemy are no match for the cross. The cross brought expiation and redemption. The cross brought power and reconciliation. Stand firm my friends and know that God is about to bust a move in your life. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace
No comments:
Post a Comment