Christ Will Rescue You: May 2020

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Praise Him Through the Pain

Psalm 137:1-4(NLT)

“Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. 2 We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. 3 For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” 4 But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?”

God’s people knew that praise was very important to Him, and they loved to praise Him through song. Even so, the Bible records in the Old Testament that they were a vacillating people and did not always remain faithful to Heavenly Father. They did the unthinkable, and worshipped idol gods, and this was something our Heavenly Father forbids. Because of their disobedience, terrible things happened. They were exiled in Babylon, and their hearts were broken because of how far they had fallen from the lives they once had when they worshipped God. The passage in Psalm 137:1-4 tells us that they sat by the rivers of Babylon and cried. They put away their instruments and couldn’t imagine even singing anymore because their souls were so full of sadness.

This passage allows us to look through the keyhole and examine the cost that the Children of Israel paid for choosing to disobey God. When they were living the good life, able to do just about anything they wanted and could enjoy the fruit of their land, they were contented and comfortable. They took God’s blessings for granted and got to a point where they no longer thanked Him for His goodness, grace, and mercy. Then tragedy struck, and many of them were forced to live in bondage in a foreign land while their home, Jerusalem, was ruined.

What do you do when you find yourself in a place in life that you never expected? Many of us today are facing the darkest times that quite possibly we’ve ever seen. Many have lost their loved ones, while others have lost their jobs and have no way to support their families. The stress of the unknown is mounting in leaps and bounds, and child and domestic abuse is increasing as well. Many are saying the same thing the Children of Israel said, “How can we praise God while we are suffering?”

Life has a way of delivering the unexpected. You can end up in places you never in a million years thought you’d be. You pray relentlessly for God to take away the hurt and pain, but the pain lingers, and it feels overwhelming. In Philippians 4:6(NLT), God tells us exactly how to handle our emotions in troubling times. He said, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

Your troubling situation does not define you. We are going through, but God guarantees that if we remain obedient and cling to Him, we will come out on the other side. Jesus Christ won the victory for us on the Cross of Calvary. He redeemed us from the curse of sin, and because of his stripes and the brutality he endured, we are healed of all sickness and disease. Not only does God instruct us to pray, He tells us also to praise. Many of us commit to the first part, but neglect the second part. Heavenly Father commands that we to come to Him with the reality of the cross and what Christ has done for us on our minds and hearts. We are to remember continually that He gave His only begotten Son to die so that we can have a more than abundant life.

God tells us to thank Him as we pray. To thank Him is to praise Him already because we’re confident He’s going to honor His promises and bless us. We are to rejoice in thanksgiving while we pray because of who we are praying to. He is the One True God, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator of all that we see. He wants to celebrate His strength and power with us. It should never be said of anyone that loves God that we celebrate and praise humans more than we praise Him. Only He is worthy of our praise.

We are greater than the pain we go through. Romans 8:37 tells us we’re more than conquerors in every situation through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Burdens sometimes get heavy, and it isn’t easy facing some of the troubles we endure, but God is our Deliverer. He is a very present help, and He will honor His Word. So even though our feelings might try to rob the song in our hearts, we must resist this and give God the praise and honor He is due. Our victory is in the praise, and if we continue to hold on to God’s hand, we will witness His amazing power and grace in our situations. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Never Give Up

Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

“But those who trust in the lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

Christians are not exempt from trials and tribulations. As a matter of fact, because we are Children of God, we are likely to have even more difficult hurdles to jump through. Jesus Christ told us in John 10:10 that the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. The thief that Jesus is talking about is the devil, God’s number one enemy. God has told us about the devil so that we would not be ignorant of his devices. To prevent the growth of our faith and our relationship with God is the devil’s main objective, but God’s Word declares in 1John 4:4 that the Spirit of God that is in us is greater than the evil spirit that runs the world.

We must see through the enemy’s tricks and plots, because we need to be as spiritually strong in these dark times as we possibly can. The question you may be asking yourself is when will the pain and hopelessness go away? You just want to be happy and feel good again, and you think it’s hard to feel good when you’re not sure of your future.

Uncertainty causes all kinds of mental and emotional pressure. This is why Isaiah 40:31 brings us such incredible comfort and clarity for these turbulent times. Our trust must be in God, and we cannot have more faith in the bad stuff than we do in Him. Our trust in God is the antidote to our pain. He will cause us to find new strength, it’s a source of strength we never thought about before. He can do this because He knows us through and through, and His resources and blessings never run dry.

James 4:7(ESV) tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Submitting ourselves to God means that we humble ourselves under His mighty hand. It means that we understand He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and most importantly, it means that we know that He gave the most precious treasure He had, His Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins. This is how much God loves us. So, we have to ask ourselves a question. What do you do when someone loves you more than words can say? Well, the answer is very simple. When someone loves you more than anyone else is capable of loving you, more than likely, you love them back.

You and I can’t make God more than what He already is, but what we can do is love Him the way He says we ought to. The way that you and I show our love for God is to let Him change us from the inside out. We do this by surrendering to Him totally and giving Him total control over our lives. We can bring Him our pain, worries, and sadness, and He knows exactly what to do with them.

1Thessalonians 5:5 tells us that when we accept the love of Christ into our hearts, we become children of his light, and we are no longer of the darkness. God’s love brings us out in the open, where we stop allowing our feelings to make decisions for us, and instead find our strength in God. Only through Him can we soar high on wings like eagles. Only through Him can we run and not grow weary. He is your strength, and if ever you feel like you can’t go on, never give up. Turn to God. Trust Him, because He loves you, and His love will carry you through. ■

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

A Life that Brings God Honor

Jeremiah 13:1-11(NLT)
“This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth as the Lord directed me, and I put it on. 3 Then the Lord gave me another message: 4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.

6 A long time afterward the Lord said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.

8 Then I received this message from the Lord: 9 “This is what the Lord says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! 11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the Lord. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me.”

“Haven’t you learned anything!” This is what my grandmother would say to me if I made the same mistake repeatedly, especially if she had told me several times not to do something. I cringed when I saw that look of disapproval on her face. I never wanted to disappoint her. God’s people in the passage of Jeremiah 13:1-11 took a very different approach. They didn’t think twice about the harm they’d do to their relationship with God by repeatedly disappointing Him. They were consumed with their own agendas. They did very wicked things that were against His Will, and they refused to listen to Heavenly Father. Romans 8:7 tells us that this is a mindset that is an enemy against Him, and it is the worse place to be in life.

As we mature into adults, life becomes a bit more complicated than when we were children. Everything was much simpler when we relied on our parents and caretakers, but as we grow and develop, our expectations change, and we want more. Wanting more is a sure sign that more will be required of us. We’ll have greater responsibility, and we will be held to a higher level of accountability. For many of us, this is where fear kicks in as well, because we feel as though we don’t have what it takes to measure up to life’s’ demands. This fear can also cross over into relationships with the significant people in our lives.

We all have an idea of how we want things to turn out. The kind of house we want to live in, the kind of person we want to marry, the job, the car…we see ourselves having all these things. They are included in our dreams and aspirations but acquiring them isn’t nearly as easy as we imagine, and sometimes the things we want do not line up with God’s will and plan.

God always wants what’s best for us. He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust in Him with all our hearts and don’t lean on our own understanding. He knows the path we should take in life and He will direct us on this path if we will acknowledge Him in everything we do. This is where some of us fall off the wagon. We don’t acknowledge God’s power, guidance, and provision. Like the people in Jeremiah 13:1-11, some of us stubbornly follow our own desires and worship other people, relationships, and things rather than the Creator who made them.

When we take this kind of attitude and behavior, nothing works out the way we want it to, and it is because we will not listen to God. We must change this. God reminded His people living in Old Testament times of the covenant He had made with their ancestors. This covenant was that as long as they worshipped Him and kept His commandments, they would be a blessed people. But they continued to do as their ancestors did and worshipped idol gods. They would not turn from their wicked ways. The world we live in today may not look like it did two thousand years ago, but God’s Word and Will has not changed. He demands obedience.

Because of what our Lord and Savior accomplished through his sacrifice and resurrection, today you and I live under a new and better covenant. His blood was shed for the remission of our sins, and through Jesus Christ, we have been made clean and given the gift of righteousness. There’s nothing more we have to do but choose to live for God. He desires an intimate relationship with each of us.

The loincloth used in the record of God’s instruction to Jeremiah was indicative of what happens when our lives are not used for God’s glory. Our dreams and aspirations turn to mush. They rot and our lives fall apart, but through Christ we can change this. We must choose to let the Lord lead us, even when things don’t look and feel the way we want them too. We must be confident in His love for us and follow the example of Christ so that our lives will be for God’s glory and bring honor to His name. ■