You Are Equipped to Handle the Pressure

 

Hebrews 13:5; Don't love money; be satisfied with what you have.  For God has said, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you."

A young Christian believer told me about that she had counseled a fellow college student that was having issues with his family at home. With the pressures of going to school, working and trying to provide for his young son, he started to feel overwhelmed. The load of responsibilities were weighing on him, and he was tempted to do things that would not be good for him or his son. I was surprised at how blunt the young believer addressed the situation with him. 

She told him,  “You’re a man of God, and He has equipped you to handle much more pressure than this. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and let him lead you every day, so that we won't do ruin your life by making poor choices. You’ve got to gut-up, be strong and pray so that the Lord can help you figure things out!”

I thought to myself, Wow, I don’t think I was that bold and gutsy when I was her age.  But I was even more impressed with the boldness and confidence of the Word of God that she exuded in her conversation. This is the kind of brazen confidence we have to instill not only in our young Christian folks but also the veteran believers out here today, can be a lot more persuasive with winning more lost souls for God’s Kingdom.

Galatians 6:1-3; Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.  And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.  2; Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  3; If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself.  You are not that important.

God wants His children to know how power-packed they already are and that He has equipped us with the tenacity, strength and courage to go out in the world with confidence ready to face whatever challenges or obstacles that we may come up against.

How comforting it is to know that when you call out, God will comfort and protect us.  He is our defender, comforter and shield from the evils of this world, and He’s not like human beings that will fail us every time – God can’t fail us. He watches over us through people in our lives, or any means necessary. And we don’t ever have to worry that help will not come, for He is always with us. Just like we can never take our eyes off of Him, He doesn’t take His eyes off of us. 

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.

“You Are Equipped to Handle the Pressure”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

God Guarantees Victory

 2 Corinthians 1:3-5(NLT)

“3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.”

Everyone has troubles – and I’m sure you can name a few off the top of your head. We all need help, advice or comfort at some point. God is merciful in our times of trouble, and because of His amazing grace, we can comfort and uplift others.

 

God has given us the authority through His love to be able to pour out love and kindness to other people. It is especially meaningful to be a conduit of His love towards those that are enduring a troubling season in their lives. Take the Apostle Paul’s example for instance. He understood that his mission was to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to instruct the church in righteousness, but Paul had a past. Before his Road to Damascus experience, he actually persecuted Christians. He faced what many of us face today, in that people who knew his past tried to use it to hold him back.

The church at Corinth had a lot of problems. They hadn’t renewed their minds to God’s Word in important areas of the faith. Division among them crept in. Following his call by the Lord Jesus Christ to guide the church in righteousness and Godliness, Paul wrote the Corinthians an epistle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It was sent to sternly correct them. Some changed their ways after receiving this correction, but others strongly turned against him. Some even said that he was not a real Apostle of Jesus Christ.

There can be no question that Paul suffered persecution and endured things many of us living today couldn’t endure. As he wrote the Second Epistle of Corinthians under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul knew and had experienced the comfort of God through tribulation personally, and this is one of the reasons he was able to offer this same comfort to other believers. Paul knew God’s power, and this gave him the confidence to minister, serve, and help others. We are not sufficient in and of ourselves. Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 3:5 that our sufficiency comes from God. Our Heavenly Father empowers us through His tremendous love, and this very same love gives us the strength to encourage, comfort, and help others.

It’s no question that all of us will go through seasons in our lives when we endure pain and suffering. Like Paul, we all make poor judgements and bad choices. Many of us start out with a healthy appetite for living God’s way, but we will sometimes allow relationships with a significant person to throw us off the path. By the third or fourth month of dating, self-control goes straight out of the window. This is the condition many Christians find themselves in. They succumb to the pressures of life and the flesh; they give themselves over to sinful behavior. I’ve heard many of my single Christian friends say how much they regret actions like these, because their sinful actions caused so many problems, and my friends wished they had been more patient while dating. 

Our God will make sure that we never lose out when we patiently endure, no matter how challenging things may seem. He will reward us for living His way and by following the example of Jesus Christ. Paul knew this. He had experienced the power, grace, and mercy of God continually. Paul had a problem that was so troublesome to him that he called this problem a throne in his flesh. He prayed to God about it, and God told him in 2Corinthians 12:8 (NLT), “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

God knows we’re going to make mistakes, but He never stops loving us; therefore, we must not allow our mistakes to keep us from loving and helping others. We’ve got work to do, and we shouldn’t let anything keep us from being a blessing to the Lord’s people. God told Paul to lean on His grace, and this is precisely what we must do. God’s power works best in weakness. We must remember this no matter what we’re going through, no matter how much we are tested. Things can become bad very quickly, but tribulation should press us to draw closer to God because we have no other help but Him. We must lean on Him and remember that it’s in the struggle that we’ll see the overwhelming strength and power of God’s love.■

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.

“God Guarantees Victory”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Our Protective Shade

 

Psalm 121:1-5(NLT)
“1 I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! 3 He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. 4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. 5 The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.”

It was movie night for my daughter’s senior class, and a group of her friends were getting together to hang out. I typically didn’t mind when she went out on the weekends because she’s a good kid, and she’s pretty good at keeping her curfew. My only request was that she called me when she arrived at her destination. It was my way of knowing she was ok, but this particular evening, I didn’t keep my end of the deal. I woke up at 2:00am and realized I had fallen asleep. Immediately I looked at my phone, and when I saw the time, checking on my daughter was the first thing on my mind. To my relief, she had gotten home already and said to me, “Mom, I texted you several times but when I didn’t hear from you, I figured you were asleep. I got home a few hours ago.”

Despite my best intentions, I fell asleep and these things happen. As parents, we sometimes miss the mark. But this will never, ever happen with our Heavenly Father, and Psalm 121 beautifully illustrates this truth. God never falls asleep on us. He’s our constant Protector, and He will forever watch over us.

1Peter 5:6-7(NLT) says, “6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” We’re covered under God’s mighty power, and although we know this as parents, many of us will still put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves. We love our children and want to do what’s best for them. God has this same desire. We’re all His kids, and He wants the best for all of us, all the time. He desires us to succeed on every level, and He wants it more for us than we want it for ourselves and for the people we love. He is such a loving and awesome God that He tells us not to worry and to relinquish the anxiety that comes with all that pressure. He’s got us! He’ll keep our families under His protection and care.

Our responsibility is to have faith in God. We try to handle everything on our own, but we don’t know the future. We can’t see what’s coming, nor can we control anything. God is the One who holds our tomorrows and knows our futures. He tells us to give all our worries, fears, and anxiety to Him, because that is how we demonstrate our love for God. Our faith conveys our understanding of His mighty power, and it shows we’re convinced that He is able and willing to take care of us all. In Philippians 4:6-7(NLT), through the Apostle Paul, God tells us, “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

The peace of God is real sisters, and God tells us in Colossians 3:15 to let it rule our hearts and to be thankful. This is a choice. We can choose to be full of worry, or we can choose to let God’s peace rule over us instead of fear. We can have peace in the middle of the storms of life because our God has all power in His hands, and He loves us. Philippians 4:7 tells us that the peace of God passes all understanding. No matter how things look or what is going on in our lives, our Heavenly Father never sleeps. He has promised to stand beside us as our protective shade. So, we can rest in His protection and care for our families as we all continue to live by faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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.

"Our Protective Shade" written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

Close the Door to the Wrong Paths

1 Peter 5:6-11(NLT)
6So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

8Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

10In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11All power to him forever! Amen.

Jesus Christ declared in John 10:10 that the devil’s purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy, but our Savior tells us that he came to the earth to give us a more than abundant life. As born-again believers, we must be overjoyed regarding what God has done for us through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Likewise, we cannot not be ignorant regarding what our Master Jesus has told us about God’s archenemy, the devil. We should be under no illusions when it pertains to the tricks of the enemy, because he concocts plots against God’s children. If we are not walking in the Spirit and have not read about satan’s tricks in God’s Word, we risk giving the devil an open door to walk into our lives and wreak havoc.

1John 1:5(NLT) declares, “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Our Heavenly Father is glorious beyond glory. He deserves all praise and honor, and He is good all the time. There is no darkness in God, and His love illuminates our paths and causes us to be lifted high where we can live through His light. When we look at our own lives and what we go through on a daily basis, we might not feel that we can attain this life of love and light that God has made available to us. Although we want to be joyful and content, we can’t reconcile it with the difficult times we face.

Strategy One – Have faith in God

Jesus Christ told us in God’s Word that no one is exempt from feeling pain, heartache or disappointment. Challenges are a part of life on earth, but he also told us in John 16:33 that he has overcome the world, and he made a way for us to do the same. From the very beginning, God revealed through Adam and Eve that doubt is one of the enemy’s main tricks, and he plants lies in our minds to get us to doubt God’s willingness to bless us. God is love, and everything He does is done through His overwhelming love for us all. Love and goodness are His nature, and if we believe anything contrary to this, we are not believing in who God is, and this is an offense to Him. Jesus Christ told us in Mark 11:22 to have faith in God. This is our greatest defense against the tricks of the enemy.

Doubt is the wrong path. It is the opposite of faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please our Heavenly Father, because anyone that comes to Him must believe that He exists, and they must also believe that He is a Rewarder to those that diligently seek Him. God has given us the best through Jesus Christ. He didn’t spare His only begotten Son but gave him up to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:32(NLT) declares, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Heavenly Father is happy to bless us, and His goal is for us to become like His Son, Jesus Christ, and to stand strong in faith through any obstacles and adversity.

Strategy Two – Don’t be Anxious

Philippians 4:6-7(NLT) says, “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” God tells us not to be filled with anxiety because it is the wrong path, and it will not lead to God’s solutions. When we are worried and anxious, we are not trusting Him as we should. Worrying about the issues of life plays right into the devil’s hands. It’s fuel that allows him to continue to mess with our minds so that we won’t focus on the goodness of God.

Focusing on the goodness of God is a choice, and it is the best one. It’s puts a shield of God’s peace around our hearts and minds. No problem is too big for God, and our number one go-to when we face any trouble is to demonstrate we believe His Word. We do this by immediately going to Him in prayer. We are to pray about everything, and then we must allow our hearts to swell with gratitude as we remember how He has blessed us in the past. Through our faith, we must anticipate the victory He’s going to give us and rest in the peace that only He can give.

Strategy Three – Change the way you think

Our minds are the battleground for our souls. If we relinquish control of our thoughts to the devil, we are losing the battle over our souls, and that is the devil’s whole game plan, to steal and destroy our souls. Wrong and negative thoughts will cause us to head down the path of darkness, and this is indeed the wrong path. Jesus Christ came to set us free from darkness. Galatians 5:1(NKJV) commands, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Again, this is a choice. We can stand strong in the victory of Christ by changing the way we think, or we can be defeated through a mindset of worry and doubt. God is always rooting for us to live strong through the power and authority of Christ!

Victory is rooted in the mindset of Christ. God tells us in Ephesians 4:23 to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. And to be renewed in our minds is to line up our thoughts so they are in harmony with the mind of Christ. Our Master Jesus never worried. He trusted God in all things. If he had not done this, if he had not placed total and complete trust in God to back his every move, he could never have accomplished God’s plan of redemption for the entire world.

Through Jesus Christ, we are not weaklings. Romans 8:37 declares we are more than conquerors through him. You and I don’t belong to ourselves; we belong to God. Everything in the world belongs to Him, and He is being generous in sharing all these wonderful blessings with us. God created us because He wanted a family. We are His children and He is committed to care for us because that is what He wanted all along. 1John 4:4(NKJV) says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Through His Word, the example of Jesus Christ, and the gift of Holy Spirit that lives within every true believer, God has given us strategies to overcome the tricks and plots of satan. Heavenly Father tells us in James 4:7 that we must submit our whole lives to Him through Jesus Christ, and when we do this, we will resist the devil and he will flee.■

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.

“Close the Door to the Wrong Paths”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.