God Won’t Ever Leave You

 

2Corinthians 7:9-10(NLT) 
“9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” 

In 2Corinthians 7:9, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, rebuking them for not following the example of Christ in some areas of their Christian walk. They had gotten it wrong, and under the authority of Jesus Christ, Paul corrected them through his epistle(letters). After hearing they had made these errors, they were saddened, but making them sad was not Paul’s aim. He told them this, and he also said that he was glad their deep sorrow led to repentance. This deep and Godly sorrow they felt meant that their hearts were truly sorry for the sin they had committed against God’s Will and Word. They were inwardly convicted by the indwelling Holy Spirit and Paul was glad about this. He understood that change begins on the inside, in the mind and heart. When it is the kind of change that is caused by true repentance, it pleases God, and the impact on a person’s life is tremendous! 

Life is packed to the brim with experiences that range from euphoric highs to devastating lows. When things are good, we feel good, but when things are bad, sometimes we lose it. We don’t question Heavenly Father so much when life is going well, and sometimes we fail to be as thankful to Him for the good times as we should. But when things bottom out, and nothing goes the way it should, it baffles us. We want answers. Many of us go to God with “Why are You doing this to me?!!!” or “How could you let this happen?!!!” 

1John 1:5(NLT) declares, “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Our Heavenly Father doesn’t punish or treat us unkindly. He is good all the time and all the time He is good! Yet, sometimes we question Him as if He has been the culprit of our sadness and troubles. He is not. This territory of trouble, darkness, disappointment, devastation, and death belong to the devil. Tricks, traps, and plots are weapons in his arsenal of chaos and confusion, and if we fail to see this, the devil will outsmart us.   

God warns us in 1Peter 5:8(NLT), “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Earth is the battlefield of life, and we must know our opponent. God has given us the spiritual weapons of His Kingdom, and they are fail-proof. Our Heavenly Father would not have us to be ignorant of what we’re dealing with down here. We must know that satan is dastardly evil beyond anything we can imagine, but Jesus Christ assures us in 1John 4:4(NLT) that “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” 

The spirit who lives in the world is the devil. Jesus Christ calls him a murderer and the father of lies. God has given us the spiritual weaponry to outsmart the devil, and we must be confident that because of Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors, as Romans 8:37 tells us. God has well-equipped us to walk in the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the cross. Because of Christ, we are overcomers every moment of every day. 

As overcomers in Christ, we must never overlook the reality that it’s our responsibility to know WHO we’re praying to. We must pray to Heavenly Father for help, and it is incredibly important that we ask Him to open our eyes. He is not a God that hurts us, but a God that loves us. He is the One True Living God, and He has all power in His hands. Faith is required for our prayers, but you can’t have faith in God if you don’t know Him. Your brain will not allow you to trust in His goodness if you believe that He is trying to punish or destroy you. You’ll come up short every time if you are not convinced that God is a Rewarder to those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). 

Our Heavenly Father must never come second to anything or anyone. God allows us to make our own choices because He’s a loving father. He wants us to be full of joy, love, and peace. He wants us to have a successful life, and He’s given us the roadmap to a wonderful life in His Word, but the thing is, we don’t often use God’s roadmap to success. We think we can get there using our own opinions and decisions about what is right or wrong for us. That’s not a workable strategy for life.  

We can be very hard-headed and stubborn. God knows this, and He will allow us to try things out our way, because He will never violate our free-will choices and decisions. Doing things our way will inevitably land us in a place that is far less than optimum. Experience is the best teacher. We have to go through some things and figure it out the hard way that God’s way is always best. He is our Creator, and we are His children. We were created to be humble and loving before our God.

Whenever we’ve overstayed our welcome in a place, situation, or a relationship that isn’t helping us to spiritually grow, circumstances will become very toxic and uncomfortable. This should prompt us to seek change. We are creatures of habit, but sometimes, we are out of place with our thoughts and behaviors, because they are not aligned with God’s Word and His purpose for our lives. He didn’t design life to be full of difficulty and confusion, but the troublesome things of life can thrust us into a new way of thinking. Often, a new way of thinking is exactly what we need.

Jesus Christ teaches us in Luke 6:40(NLT), “Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.” Becoming like Christ is God’s goal for us, and it is the greatest, most wonderful reality that we could ever hope to achieve. We were created to be led by God. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to surrender to Him, and to repent of the sin of trying to do things our way. We must know Him for who He is. He is Alpha and Omega, He is full of mercy, kindness, and grace. He will not leave us in times of trouble, but we must wake up to the extraordinary and magnificent truth of who God is and have faith in the awesome reality of His goodness and love for us all. ■

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 Won’t Ever Leave You”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

Pray Honestly, Openly, and Frequently to the Lord

 

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”
Philippians 4:6(NLT)

“How can you tell me not to worry – that’s all I know how to do!”

Worrying is what many of God’s people do best these days. Not because we want to, but because it’s so much happening all around us that worrying is the first response many of us run to. None of us could have predicted that we'd face times like these. They are dangerous times, and things have been this way for a long time. People are struggling to keep their lives together. Many women are facing evictions and abandonment right now and they don’t know where to turn. As with any challenge, this season is a reminder of how delicate and fragile life is. Circumstances and situations reveal that we are definitely not in control, and if there’s anyone that thought they could live without God’s grace and mercy, they are experiencing a wake-up call like no other.

Whenever and whatever the crisis, God tells us in His Word how to approach it. He tells us to go instantly into prayer about it. 1John 5:14(ESV) tells us, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us." Nothing slips by our Heavenly Father. He is fully aware of everything we're going through. As a matter of truth, He knew we'd face it long before we ever thought about it. He knows every detail of every-and-any-thing that has ever happened, in your life and in the lives of everyone else. Regardless of the situation, or how conditions appear, He tells us to pray.

The Apostle Paul, tells us in 1Timothy 2:1-2(NLT), “1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.” As God’s children, we are to take on His nature and begin to move in what He has called us to do. We are to pray for others as well as ourselves. We're to pray for those in governmental authority, whether we agree with them or not. God's Will is that believers have a life of peace, and in order to live in peace, we are to align our thoughts, words, and deeds with the example of Jesus Christ. This means that we don’t just sit on our hands and complain about our situations; we get busy trusting God and praying in faith. 

2Timothy 1:9(NLT) says, “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.” Even in the midst of our pain and turmoil, we must have confidence that God saved us and called us. We couldn't do anything to earn the blessings He's given us through Christ. It's because of God's grace that we have received His tremendous provision, protection, and care. We must pray to invite the power of God into our situations and to demonstrate that we honor the reality and magnitude of who our God is. He's truly awesome and amazing. He's loving towards us, and He delights in helping us. We should go to Him with everything, from the least to the greatest details of our lives. James 5:16 tells us that the prayers of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. We have been given the authority of Jesus Christ in the earth, and this authority allows us to partner with God to set a path of change in our lives.

If you want to see results, pray. Even though you don't know what tomorrow may bring or how your circumstances will change, pray honestly, openly, and frequently.  Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, knows exactly what to do, and he knows exactly how to help. He wants you to trust his love enough to pray and believe that he will not and cannot fail you. No matter what we're going through, we must pray in faith. God helped those before us, and they faced greater peril and desperation than we can imagine. Just like them, He didn't bring us this far to leave us. Remain diligent in prayer and believing. Do not doubt God's power, and be confident that He will never leave or forsake you when your trust is firmly planted in Him. ■

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.

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.

“Pray Honestly, Openly, and Frequently to the Lord”, 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