Christ Will Rescue You

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Don’t Become a Pillar of Salt

“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:26 (ESV)

“Life is good. I have no complaints.” A dear friend said this to me not too long ago, but a couple of weeks after I spoke to him, he phoned again. With a very dejected tone in his voice, he expressed that he was feeling very down about his life. He felt that things were hard and said if he had a chance to do it all over again, he would do many things differently. Often during our conversations, he has talked about his “boys” and how they have it so rough because of their unhappy marriages. They complain to him all the time about their wives. He has always felt his life was pretty easy in comparison, because he is unencumbered with the responsibilities that his married friends have, but something has happened to change his perspective. His life took a turn that surprised him, and he sees things differently. He’s regretful, especially about his choice to end his last relationship, because now, he’s facing the most challenging time of his life alone.

All of us have been at a place in our lives where we regretted some of our decisions. It’s not a good feeling. We remember at one time feeling carefree, and we didn’t think about the possibility that circumstances might change. We didn’t heed God’s instruction to remain prayerful and close to Him so we can always hear His voice and follow His guidance. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13(NLT) that the Holy Spirit that indwells us “will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” We desperately need the Spirits guidance, and we need to have a hearty prayer life so that we learn to recognize the Spirit’s promptings, because they guide and keep us on a safe path.

Many of us make ourselves comfortable with situations that do not require us to grow, evolve, and change for the better. Some of us remain in relationships that continually hinder and hold us back. We’ve discarded good relationships and held too tightly to bad ones. Like my friend, we always think we have more time to get ourselves straightened out, and we prolong the spiritual maturity and growth that will equip us for challenging times. We become stuck, because we refuse to accept that we should be spiritually growing and moving forward.

Some of us become stuck because we’re continually looking back to past mistakes, or because we want to recapture and relive the past. No matter the pull, looking back too long will cause us to lose stamina and momentum on this race called life. If we refuse to move forward, things can become catastrophic. The Old Testament record of Lot’s wife gives us a window to see how this can play out.

Abraham is called the Father of our Believing, because he was fully persuaded that what God says He is willing and able to perform. Hebrews 11:8(NLT) says, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” When God told Abraham to leave his homeland, he obeyed, and his nephew, Lot, went with him. Both uncle and nephew had lots of family, servants, and livestock, so much so that the servants of the two began quarreling. Abraham finally said to Lot in Genesis 13:8-11(NLT), “8 Let’s not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen. After all, we are close relatives! 9 The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.” Lot chose Sodom because it looked lush and beautiful, but it was a treacherous place and doomed to be destroyed.

Before it’s destruction, the angel of the Lord gave Lot and his family instruction and said in Genesis 19:17(NLT), “Run for your lives! And don't look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” As the sun was rising one morning, the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 19:25-26(NLT) says, “25 He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. 26 But Lot's wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.”

This nameless woman, Lots wife, refused to look ahead to what God had in store for them. Clinging to what was behind, she turned and her choice to disobey and to kick faith to the curb was sealed. Many of us are doing what Lot’s wife chose to do. We’re refusing to accept the truth that we must grow continually in Christ, and this is a process that will never stop.

My friend was once involved with a woman that very much wanted to be his wife. In my estimation, she was the best thing that ever happen to him. Everyone thought so, and he knew she was a good woman, but when things became serious, he brushed her off. He wanted to be free and saw the responsibility of taking care of a woman’s heart as burdensome and too much for him. He was clinging to this rather than understanding that we’re here on this earth to love others to our greatest capacity. He failed to understand that responsibility and accountability are benchmarks of spiritual maturity in Christ, and that we can’t steward greater blessings without accepting greater responsibility.

When it comes to relationships, some of us are stuck in the same patterns we had in high-school, and we haven’t matured much emotionally since then. Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt reminds us that we must have faith in God and do as Abraham did, which is to move when God says to move. This means that our relationship with Him must be a priority in our lives, so that we learn to recognize His voice and follow His guidance. Don’t become like Lot’s wife and hold too tightly to the wrong thing. Instead, make it a commitment to be flexible to God’s Will as He leads you to greater responsibility and greater blessings. ■

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.

“Don't Become a Pillar of Salt”, 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.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

The Questions You Can’t Seem to Get Answered

Jeremiah 33:3(ESV)
“Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things you have not known.”

Once, when I was going through a difficult time financially, I felt like I was drowning with no one to rescue me. I had been divorced for almost a year with two children to take care of. My life at the time did not resemble anything I had envisioned for myself ten years prior. Newly divorced meant that I would need to rethink the plans I once held for myself, because nothing seemed to be turning out the way I had hoped. I still loved my husband, but I was facing the reality of taking care of my children and myself. Our security felt unsteady and unreliable, and I was sinking in my mind and heart. Over and over again, often with tears strolling down my face, I asked God, “Why did you let this happen to me?”

I was bewildered with no idea why my marriage fell apart. I genuinely thought that we had achieved a unity and harmony in our marriage that other couples wished they had. How could I have gotten that so wrong? My husband wasn’t as happy as he pretended to be, and while he led me to believe our marriage was solid, for the longest time he had been waiting for an opportunity to leave. He found it when the kids went to visit their grands for the summer.

The pain wouldn’t go away, and I couldn’t shake my need to understand how things went so bad so quickly. A lot of people blame God for their sorrows. Even though I didn’t know the Lord the way I know Him today, I knew that playing the blame game was wrong and unproductive. I was looking for answers that would help me turn things around. I wanted to know how to get my husband back. My life needed to change because I didn’t think I could go on dealing with that gaping hole in my heart.

As the divorce became complicated and at times very ugly, I was angry with God. “Where are You when I need You the most!” I’d cry out. The truth is that He was right there with me. The psalmist said about the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father in Psalm 23:4(NIV), “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” God is with us no matter what we go through. He never promised that we wouldn’t have pain in life. Many of us are living testimonies that indeed we do. He helps us to endure the pain, and through His help, guidance, and comfort, we become spiritually stronger, and most importantly, our faith in Him grows.

God asks us to cut anxiety out of the picture, and to turn our sadness into thankfulness. He tells us Philippians 4:6 (NIV), “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” This is instruction from our Heavenly Father about how to handle the adversities of life. So, the question is never about God forsaking or abandoning us, because He will never do that. The question is always about why we are not trusting Him the way we should. It’s about our disinterest in getting to know Him better through His Word, and our failure to let Him prove that He is the only One that cannot fail.

In John 16:33(NIV), Jesus Christ said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Our Master Jesus didn’t hide the reality of life from us. In this world we will have trouble. Sometimes those we love the most will betray and hurt us the most, but we can’t allow this to take us down. We can have peace in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He overcame the world, and through his love, power, and strength, so can we.

God has not kept us in the dark about life in the Spirit. Through His Word, He has told us everything we need to know. We want answers about why our hearts were broken and why we were mistreated. Jesus Christ gives us this answer in John 10:10(NKJV). He said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” In this verse, Jesus tells us that the devil is the thief, and he is in the world to steal, kill, and destroy, but through Jesus Christ, we are overcomers! So, the questions we can’t seem to get answered must not be about what the enemy has done, but about the victory that Jesus Christ has won for us. We should be asking him every day how to please God and live for Him. When this is our focus, we will live through the peace, strength, and power of Christ. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“The Questions You Cant Get Answered”, 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.

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Hope Will Not Put Us to Shame

Romans 5:3-5(ESV)
“3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

“This is a tough one for me – I’ve never been alone and Kevin’s decision to leave me and the kids still doesn’t seem real to me.”

In my spirit, I felt that my friend Gwen was going through something. We’d usually talk at least twice a month, but it had been a while since we last spoke. I’d called her a few times and sent a couple of text messages, and it took a while for her to respond. When she did, her responses were brief, and that wasn’t like her. Gwen and Kevin had been married for twelve years, and the last two years had been tough. One of their kids has autism, and Gwen didn’t think Kevin was as supportive as he should have been. On a Saturday afternoon, my doorbell rang, and there stood Gwen. She stopped by on her way to her mother’s house and said she wanted to see me in person instead of telling me about her news over the phone. “He left me and the kids!” She belted out and fell into my arms as they seem to automatically move to embrace her.

Romans 5:3 says that we rejoice in our sufferings because they produce endurance. Endurance is a quality that is necessary to run this race of life that God has set before us, but when we’re going through something like Gwen, endurance may not be all that appealing. In fact, it’s probably the last thing any of us would want to think about. As a parent with mouths to feed, your mind is inundated with thoughts about how you’re going to support your kids and get from point A to point B. The thing we must recognize is that endurance is the ability that allows us to do that. It helps us to move ourselves out of heartbreak and into a place of resilience and strength. Endurance goes hand in hand with faith and hope, because even though things may look troubling, our faith in God sustains us and carries us through.

Psalm 95:6-7(NLT) says, “6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, 7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!” When our minds are racing with anxiety and worry, most of us don’t listen, but we should. We should listen to the truth that God tells us in His Word about His power, love, peace, and comfort. He is worthy to be praised and our gratitude for all He has done for us should prompt us to pay attention to His promise to help us. It is an extraordinary privilege to worship God and to do the things that please Him, but some of us have an accurate image of our Heavenly Father in our minds and hearts. Because of this, we can allow the difficulties of life to make us become emotionally detached from Him. Whether we know it or not, this is a deeper pain than any heartbreak or abandonment caused by a mere human being.

When we’re broken, and have others depending on us, we need the kind of comfort and assurance that only the Lord can give. God leads, guides, and directs us into the kind of life that pleases Him and fulfills us as well. He is our Shepherd, Refuge, and Maker. We’re His people and He has promised to take care of us. He allows us to rest in green pastures and leads us beside peaceful waters. He, and He alone, restores our souls and lead us in the paths of righteousness. We need to remember this when we’re faced with devastating loss.

No matter how damaged we are, God is forever and always our Shepherd. He said in Malachi 3:6(NKJV), “For I am the LORD, I do not change;” Titus 1:2 tells us that He cannot lie. He wants us to lean on Him because He has all power in His hands, and He is willing and able to help us. We must also be clear that we have a part to play as well. We must shift our false beliefs and thoughts away from defeat and self-punishment and allow God’s perfect love to cast out all our fear and anxiety. All the traumas and heartaches we endure will reveal some patterns of behavior that we need to release. They need to be removed from our lives, so God’s love has greater room to move and restore.

Psalm 146:5(NLT) says, “But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God.” Our hope in God will not bring us shame. It will bring us victory, restoration, and renewal! Our hope in God will give us the strength to learn from our past mistakes and take back our power to love better and make better choices. We do not have to be held captive by the pain we’ve endured. We must be committed to ask for God’s forgiveness for all our sins. We must pray for wisdom and understanding, and we must pray and apply the blood of Jesus Christ in those areas in our lives where we need healing and deliverance. Although our hard times are unexpected and painful, God has something much brighter and better for us if we remain hopeful, keep our faith in Him, and focus our eyes on His love and power.■