Christ Will Rescue You

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Your Way Out

1 Peter 5:10 (NLT)
“In 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.”

Looking for a way out of your troubling circumstances? Fear, loneliness, and hopelessness creeping up on you? You’re not the first person to feel this way, and you won’t be the last. 1 Peter 5:9(NLT) tells us, “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.” No matter what we face in life, no matter how difficult or tough it may seem, God promises that we have the victory in Jesus Christ. If God says it, it must be so!

All of us have times in our relationships where we become weary. Sometimes, the issues of our partners are weightier than we expected, and this can make us feel boxed in. When those issues are domestic violence and abuse, the toll on our total well-being can be overwhelming, but can be comforted in the reality that we don’t have to go through it alone. There are many resources available for those of us that are being abused, and we should take full advantage of them. We must also know that the best gift we can give ourselves is to pray to God for help. When we do, He often answers our prayers through other people. He works through them to help us at just the right time. So, we should never hesitate to ask our Heavenly Father for help, nor should we hesitate to accept the help He sends.

We should also be aware that our internal healing is also very necessary. It's possible that the person we're in a relationship with had red flags from the very beginning, but we either ignored or didn't recognize them. Maybe we thought these things would get better, or that the person's love for us would overshadow any deficiencies. Whatever the case, it is very likely that we need increased wisdom, so that we make better choices in the future, and we learn how to discern the Will of God for our lives. Our Heavenly Father doesn't ever want anyone to be abused in any way, and when we learn more about His love, we will gain greater confidence in life.

So, it isn't uncommon that we need to be strengthened internally to feel better and stronger about seeking help. God tells us in Isaiah 41:10 (NLT), “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” God is our strength, and it is important that we feed our minds and souls with the promises of His Word so that we can be empowered by His truth.

Some of us look at the current state of our lives, and we think, “How did I get here?” It can be pretty shocking, but we must not blame ourselves or sink into self-condemnation. We must remember that we have the strength of God within us because the Holy Spirit lives within. God's Word teaches us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT), “19 Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” Our Heavenly Father has trouble covered in grace on all sides, and His Spirit is in us helping us beyond what we can imagine.

It’s a great strategy if we can decrease the amount of focus that we place on our circumstances and situations and increase the focus we place on God. He never disappoints us, and He will never leave or forsake us. Romans 8:28 tells us that He will cause all things to work together for our good if we will give Him our trust and honor. He can heal us way down deep, where we need it most, because His Spirit is in us, and the Spirit will always be our way out of any trouble or problem we face.■

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, February 6, 2024

Rivers of Difficulty

Isaiah 43:2-3(NLT)
“2 When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

A good friend recently went through a tumultuous situation in her relationship. “I feel broken, afraid, and alone! How could he hurt me this way!” Sometimes the people we love the most are the ones that will hurt us the most, and this is a very difficult reality to accept. When it happens, some of us go into repair mode, and that can look different for each person. It’s not uncommon to blame and punish ourselves for the pain we’re experiencing, and this means that we might continue to give up our power to the one that is hurting us. We might also neglect to remember that real and genuine love doesn’t hurt. This is the kind of love we should desire for ourselves because it is the kind of love God wants us to both give and receive.

Many people have been misinformed about what it takes to have a healthy significant relationship. Some of us don’t possess this knowledge and wisdom because we’ve never been taught. This is one of the many reasons why it is so extremely important to read God’s Word. We need to learn about the example of Jesus Christ, because his example is one of true and genuine love. Through his life, ministry, and sacrifice, he teaches us how to love God, ourselves, and others. He also teaches us how to recognize when a counterfeit is in our midst.

In John 15:13(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.” In this verse, he is teaching us how real, true, and genuine love behaves. When someone loves us truly, they are willing to make sacrifices for our well-being. They want to see us be our best selves, and they will always do whatever they can to help us be at our best. This is what real, true, and genuine looks like. It’s the way Jesus Christ loves each of us.

He said in John 13:34-35(NLT), “34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” It is not complicated to love people through the love of Jesus Christ. It’s a privilege and honor, and it’s in no way a burden. If what we’re receiving doesn’t look like the love of Christ, it’s a counterfeit, and it would be in our very best interest not to entertain it.

John 3:16(ESV) says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten Son, and He sent him into the world to save us from the darkness and torment of eternal hell. This overwhelming, unconditional, and powerful love was in Christ as he carried out his ministry on earth, and because of his sacrifice, when we accept Christ into our hearts, this incredible love is in us through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5(NLT) says, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

How incredible are the promises of God in Isaiah 43:2-3? They are beyond comforting. He tells us that when we go through rivers of difficulties and walk through the fire of oppression in our relationships and in life, He will not allow us to drown or be consumed. He is with us. He’s our Rescue, and He has saved us through Jesus Christ. God’s love is the love of Jesus Christ, and we will always have it. This is where our power and strength must be anchored, and when it is, we’ll understand that through Christ, we are worthy of God love. We will be confident in the knowledge of how precious we are to our Heavenly Father, and we will not fall for anyone that doesn’t know and treat us that way too.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

We Can Get Through Anything

1 Peter 5:8-9(NLT)
“8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

Outsmarting the enemy isn’t new for those of us that are in Christ and trust him with all our hearts and minds. Through the Apostle Peter, God is warning us to remain on alert, to not sleep on the reality that we have a spiritual enemy, and he is dastardly, dark, and evil in every way. Our Heavenly Father also tells us in this passage to stand firm against the enemy. We must know that God would not tell us to stand firm and strong in our faith if we didn’t have the ability to get this done. In truth, our Heavenly Father has given us everything we need to be strong, filled with faith, and victorious in every situation, despite the enemy’s plots and tricks against us.

The times are challenging. There’s no doubt about that, but 1John 5:4(NLT) declares, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” Whether it’s dealing with financial crises, abandonment issues, domestic violence and abuse, addictions, fears, phobias, or any other kinds of troubles and tribulations, we can have victory over it when we wholeheartedly place our faith in God.

God’s Word reminds us that we’re not the only ones facing hardship and troubles. Believers in Christ are facing obstacles and adversities all over the world. We must be confident that we are important to our Heavenly Father, and He will never abandon us. He knows we need His help and He is always willing and able to help us.

Romans 8:28(NLT) tells us, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Sometimes, we may not see all the things that God is doing in the background, but as soon as we lifted our earnest prayer to Him, our Heavenly Father began to move on our behalf. We must trust this. None of us understand why we endure such difficult times, but it isn’t necessary to know more than the reality that God has equipped us through our faith in Him, and this is enough to overcome anything that the enemy throws our way. We can be confident that when we place all our faith in our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, we can get through anything.

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 145:9(ESV), “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” It’s a given that the enemy will try to trick us into believing that God isn’t full of mercy and grace, and that God will not be good to us. This is a lie from the depths of darkness, and we must not believe it. In John 8:44(NLT), Jesus Christ was rebuking those who refused to believe in the truth of the Gospel. He said to them, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

In John 8:44, Jesus Christ tells us exactly who satan is; he is the father of lies, but as God’s children and followers of Jesus Christ, we must reject the enemy’s lies. When we’re at the most vulnerable times of our lives, we must cling to the truth of God’s love and grace toward us. He promised to never leave or forsake us, and nothing can ever separate us from His love. We must believe this with all our hearts and minds, because God will never let us down, and He will always come to our aid when we ask Him.

“We Can Get Through Anything”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2024. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.