There was a time in my life when I struggled with doubt and anxiety. I questioned if God really heard my prayers and wondered if He was happy with the kind of life I was living. I had doubts because the situations that plagued me were emotionally draining, and they didn’t seem to be getting any better. I struggled spiritually because I couldn’t make sense of anything that was happening in my life and was convinced that the scriptures in the Bible would not relate to my circumstances. Then, one day I received a phone call from a woman of God. She challenged me to be completely honest and open with God and with myself, and then trust Him with the problems I faced. She encouraged me to be committed to let go and let God for the next month, and to, “Be still, take a pause, and watch what God does.” I accepted her challenge.
Boy, this was more challenging that I thought it would be. I became more observant of my thoughts and habits, and I began to see that some of them had been holding me back for a very long time. It was a fight to stop worrying, and I had to continuously tell myself, “Give it God. He’s got it.” I started to read in the Bible about those that had endured great difficulty and leaned on God to get them through it. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we’re surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses who walked this earth with their hand in the hand of our Heavenly Father. They grew in their faith and learn to trust Him utterly and completely. God tells us to look up to those folks, Abraham and Sarah, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, because their records of believing prove that God cannot fail. Their examples show us that God keeps His promises and His Word is true.
Hebrews 12:1(NLT) encourages us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” In most cases, a person won’t strip off a weight if we don’t know what it is or realize that it’s weighing them down. God tells us in His Word that sin and the oppression from not knowing Him or what He requires of us weighs us down. Bad attitudes and feelings of jealousy, envy, bitterness, resentment, arrogance, and selfishness weigh us down. When we entertain thoughts of sexual immorality and practice it, this is a heavy weight. Many of us have never confronted the reality that we’re participants in these things, and they are weighing our souls down. They cause us to draw into our lives the very situations, people, and circumstances that we don’t want.
Even though we may not have ever confronted the weight, we feel something blocking our journey forward and upward. We sense very deeply that something is wrong, and its draining us emotionally. Many of us think it’s someone or something in our external environment that is causing this, but no person or situation on the outside has the power to rule what is going on inside you. God didn’t give human beings the ability to look inside another’s heart and mind. We live from the inside out. God has given us the gift of free-will, and He holds us responsible for what is in our hearts and minds. The internal workings of your soul are your responsibility and only you can change how you act and what you think, speak, and do.
It’s internal, that’s what spearheads the issues of life. God instructs us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT) to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” We must come clean to God and lay bare before Him. He already knows what’s in our hearts, but we need to acknowledge it as well. We must humble ourselves before Him and recognize that He has the power to transform us into the people He desires us to be.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us that God has set a race before each of us, and His Will is that we run it with endurance. This means that we must have spiritual strength and stamina. If we refuse to strip off the weight, we will continue to move at a snail’s pace toward our destinies. But if we are obedient to God’s Word, and if we seek God’s help, He will open our eyes to see the things we need to release so that we can have the kind of life He wants to give us.
In Colossians 3:10(NLT), Heavenly Father commands us to “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” If we don’t recognize the things we have to put off, we might not recognize the things we need to put on. We must read God’s Word and learn about Jesus Christ because his is the example that God commands us to follow. If you’re anything like me, I was so accustomed to handling problems on my own terms and under my own conditions that I blocked out God’s help. Because of this, my limited resources were constantly exhausted, but God’s resources are unlimited, and He offers them to us freely.
In the Old Testament, God’s people refused to change their thoughts and attitudes and would not be humble in the sight of God. They refused to seek only our Heavenly Father for provision and help. Instead, they went off the rails, worshiping idols, and bad things happened because they turned their backs on our Heavenly Father. God reminded them in Isaiah 41:27(NLT) that He was the One who told them, “Look! Help is on the way!” and He delivered on His promise. It doesn’t matter what situation we face in life; God is willing to come to our aid. Things can get very uncomfortable for us when we take our eyes off Jesus Christ, but when we anchor our confidence in God, we can be assured that His help is on the way.
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.
“Help Is on the Way”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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