Faith in God Takes Strength Through Christ – Sunday Thought For The day

What many fail to acknowledge and even more fail to realize, is that being a true born-again Christian is not for the weak and faint of heart as the Communists, cultural-Marxists and atheists would have you believe.  And for those who are reflexively driven to disagree with me, I ask if you could endure what the Apostle Paul endured and still maintain the victorious spirit he did while imprisoned in Nero’s prison?  Or the persecution of the Apostle Peter by Nero?  Or even the sacrifice of Polycarp?  Obviously, God gives us strength and comfort, but that strength and comfort must be received.  God provides it, but we must take it.

But, Satan being the liar and deceiver that he is, sends forth deceivers and his false teachers to mislead people into projecting that being a Christian is “zip-a-dee-doo-dah” all the day long, which brings me to my first point.

This past week wasn’t a particularly easy week for me health-wise, plus, I had been under spiritual attack from multiple fronts.  During this battle I received an email from a beloved sister in Christ who with her husband owns a small business, asking how I was doing.  She with her husband and family pray for me often.  I took a moment thinking how to answer.  Would I give it the old “I’m doing fine,” which would be a lie; Or would I sob and complain about God not answering my prayers as I thought He should, boo-hoo oh woe is me?  My friend wrote: “How are you doing?  I pray that you are healing and growing stronger every day.  God Bless!” 

I thought, “Lord how am I doing?”  And in that moment the Holy Spirit witnessed to me exactly how I was doing and had been doing the entire week.  I replied back: “Truthfully the past couple days I have been fighting fatigue, just an overall weariness coupled with emotional fatigue.  I know it is the enemy.  I have nothing not to rejoice and praise our God about.  I suspect the emotional fatigue is do to spiritual battle being waged against me.  But, my/our God is my shield and buckler, my courage and my strength.  I refuse to succumb to depression and the lie that I am in this battle alone.  I am not alone!!  My God and my Savior are with me.”

I wasn’t prepared for my friend’s response.  She replied: “Your email came at just the right time!  I am here working, and I am buried…[family members] are unable to come to work due to illness and other issues. I was feeling sorry for myself and lamenting to God that I am just too old and tired to continue at this pace. Depression covering me like a blanket, so much so that tears were welling. And then I read your email. Your words: “I refuse to succumb to depression and the lie that I am in this battle alone.  I am not alone!!  My God and my Savior are with me.”  She praised and thanked God for encouraging her through me.

As my Pastor and I shared before The Daily Rant prayer ministry at church that same evening, I praised God for my honest response and for His using it to encourage her as well as myself.  I thanked God for His Holy Spirit giving me the words to share my true feelings in that moment.

The words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 KJV flooded my mind.  I thought of a dear brother in Christ, who perhaps a year ago had mentioned in a comment to an article I’d written that he was having a difficult time.  I felt led to email him inquiring if there was something he would like me to pray about?  Nothing could have prepared me for his reply.  This God fearing Christian man’s family had suffered the loss of child, grandchildren and family suffering that were unimaginable and another grandchild had cancer.  But, what moved me was his genuine steadfastness in the Lord.  Because he replied as honestly as he did and his unshakable faith in God, I shared his account with my Pastor and The Daily Rant prayer ministry was born.  We had been praying about starting such a ministry for years, but we just felt the Lord was having us wait for the right time.  This was the right time and God has blessed the prayer ministry powerfully.  God used his honest expression of trusting the Lord without one word of “why me” or anger.  God blessed him with other people being prayed for and healed through a ministry we had wanted to start long before.  And yes, God healed his grandson of the cancer.

I remember the day my true Christian brother’s sister shared the awaited for test results for what appeared to be a serious health issue.  Despite the horrific symptoms, my Christian brother’s sister’s test results came back negative on every level.  Symptoms notwithstanding, the tests revealed there was nothing wrong.  There was no explanation for the symptoms.  We praised the Lord when word of same was received.  But, it was more than that.  In my body and Spirit, I felt as though I had been healed myself.  The joy I felt over God’s healing of her, inexplainably felt over every inch of my body inside and out as if I had been healed.  I felt such a joy and assurance as we praised God for his faithfulness; I was brought to tears.

My second point is this.  God the Holy Spirit gives us victory over fear and hopelessness.  It’s not like the unsaved believe they have victory.  Theirs comes through machinations that cannot and do not last.  In Christ our victory over fear, hopelessness and the grave are eternal.

There are times we’re wearied and times we suffer emotional fatigue; but, as true Christians we should never experience abandonment.  God has promised us He will never forsake or abandon us.  He is my/our God.  We may be helpless, but He is never helpless.  Jesus Christ is our victory.  The Holy Spirit is our comforter.  Christians are not without concerns, but we walk every day, all day, with He who said “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (See: Matthew 11:28-30 KJV)  That doesn’t mean we don’t have pain and/or suffering.  It does mean that the love of God through Jesus Christ keeps us.

READ:
Romans 8:35-39 KJV
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.