There is an old saying, "Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it." Right now, many are feeling helpless at being able to control and make their own lives into what they want to make of it.
There is a lot of fear out there! Losing our freedoms has accelerated out of control. It may have started long before 40 years ago, but during that particular time of my life, I have seen the loss of our freedoms here in the United States increase at an alarming pace. Besides all of the economic woes, secular humanism, and socialism now clearly being seen as creeping into our Constitutional Republic, the fact is that we have all witnessed that the last 11 months of this new administration has accelerated the pace - exponentially. The fear of lost freedoms, the decline of the dollar, and the devastating worry of the future loss of U.S. sovereignty are most prevalent on the minds of Americans who are really paying attention to what is happening.
What do we do when faced with such hardships?
Answer: We turn to the Lord God, Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth. We pray and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ ever more fervently than when things were going well.
We heed the two main points of the following devotional:
[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
By strength shall no man prevail.
Ultimately, any suffering that we go through on this earth is nothing compared to what Christ suffered for our salvation.
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.--We suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
God knows what each of us are going through. This is a crucial time to help each other out. Give to those in need. It is a time for the church of Christ (all Christians, not the buildings or denominations) to help the needy, the suffering.
Our church family is conducting a toy and clothing drive. The goal is to collect 6,000 toys for children and 100,000 articles of clothing for adults. Big goals! But it can be done if each person does their part...right? We don't need to rely on government to rescue those in need. This is a huge opportunity for the churches of our nation to come through and prove that, "By strength shall no man prevail." (Especially an evil man [men]).
We can slay the giant Goliath of fear, need, worry, pain, suffering, loss, hopelessness, grief, sadness, and unbelief by doing what the Gospel of Jesus Christ instructs us to do while here on this earth! Share the Gospel, love one another and give!
As C.H. Spurgeon states in the devotional below, it is Jesus Christ who takes our weaknesses and makes us strong:
I . . . glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in Persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then Am I strong.
Here are the devotionals in their entirety:
Daily Light on the Daily Path Devotional
Saturday December 5, 2009
http://bible.christiansunite.com/devotionals.shtml
Morning
[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy
statutes.
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.--We suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
He knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, [and] to prove thee, to know what [was] in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.--Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, [so] the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
Ps 119:71 Heb 5:8 Ro 8:17,18 Job 23:10,11 De 8:2,5,6
Daily Light on the Daily Path Devotional
Saturday December 5, 2009
http://bible.christiansunite.com/devotionals.shtml
Evening
By strength shall no man prevail.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.--And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang [it], and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. . . . Behold, the eye of the LORD [is] upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.--Both riches and honour [come] of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand [is] power and might; and in thine hand [it is] to make great, and to give strength unto all.
I . . . glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
1Sa 2:9 17:45,49,50 Ps 33:16,18 1Ch 29:12 2Co 12:9,10
Hat Tip:
Christians Unite.com
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