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It is easy to feel discouraged and disheartened when times of testing and
trial try to bring down our spirits and make us want to just give up.
What we must quickly realize in these moments of weakness is that we have
One whom we can each call upon who is a very present help in time of
trouble. This One is all knowing, all powerful, and all comforting. He
is our Rock, our Anchor and the answer to every dilemma that we might find
ourselves in. We should remember the Lord has our back no matter the
trials, the setbacks, the discouragements and the shortfalls. He loves us
with an everlasting love and wishes for our joy to be full. But even
though the Lord has made many promises to comfort us, to strengthen us and
to give us the ability to triumph, we must be the ones who call upon His
Name and ask for help. We must realize that we can't do it on our own and
see the simple truth that we need God to help us become better, wiser and
stronger than we are right now. He wishes to equip us with all that we
are lacking, but we must have the humility to call upon Him and ask for
the help that we need. When we recognize our weakness in ourselves that
is when we can begin to be strong in Him. When we acknowledge our lack of
wisdom, our lack of understanding, our lack of strength that is when we
can receive from the Lord what we've been missing in ourselves.
My best advice to anyone is to make the Lord the leader and sustainer of
their lives. When we have an unmoved and unfailing trust that God is with
us, then nothing will be able to discourage our hearts or make us question
what our ending will be. We will know by faith that all things will work
together for our good because we love God and we are called according to
His purposes. The Lord loves us more than we can ever know and He wishes
for us to be one with Him in fellowship, in communion and in spirit. See
that God loves you. Call upon Him today and share every burden, every
heartache and every shortfall that has tried to bring you down. I assure
you that God will replace your heaviness with His yoke that is light and
is encompassed with peace that surpasses all understanding. He is our
burden bearer and wishes for us to be one with Him.
I hope this message encourages and challenges your heart to see that we do
need the Lord to be the leader of our lives so that we might reach the
heights of victory that He has for each of us.
WHAT IS YOUR ROPE TIED TO?
You may have heard of the man who decided to repair the roof of his house.
The pitch was steep, and to be safe, he tied a rope around his waist and
threw the other end of it over the top of the house. He called his son and
asked him to tie it to something secure. The boy fastened the safety rope
to the bumper of their car parked in the driveway. It seemed like a good
idea at the time.
But a little while later, his wife needed to run a few errands with the
automobile. Unaware of the line securing her husband, she started the car
and proceeded to drive away. The rope immediately tightened and jerked the
man over the roof and into thin air. Now before you become alarmed, let me
assure you that this never really happened. But I chuckle at the image of
the poor guy sailing over the top of his house like Evel Knievel without a
motorcycle.
This story, factual or not, points to a great truth. It is a truth about
where we place our security; about those things to which we've tied our
safety lines. What is your rope tied to?
Think about it. What do you depend on to keep you from disaster? Is your
rope tied to a good job? Is it tied to a relationship with somebody you
rely on? Is it tied to a company or an organization?
In her wise and sensitive book Lessons In Living writer Susan Taylor tells
of discovering how unreliable some of our safety lines really are. She
tells of lying in bed in the early hours of the morning when an earthquake
struck. As her house shook, she tumbled out of bed and managed to stand
underneath an arched door-way in her hall, watching in horror as her whole
house tumbled down around her. Where her bed had once stood, she later
discovered nothing but a pile of rubble. She lost everything - every dish,
her automobile, every stitch of clothing.
Susan huddled, scared and crying, in the darkness. In the pre-dawn morning
she cried and called out for help.
As exhaustion set in, she thought that maybe she should be listening for
rescuers rather than making so much commotion. So she grew still and
listened. In the silence around her, the only sound she heard was the
beating of her own heart. It occurred to her then that at least she was
still alive and, amazingly enough, unhurt.
She thought about her situation. In the stillness, fear abandoned her and
a feeling of indescribable peace and happiness flooded in, the likes of
which she had never before known. It was an experience that would
permanently change her life.
In the deepest part of her being, Susan realized a remarkable truth. She
realized she had nothing to fear. Amazingly, whether or not she was ever
rescued, whether she even made it out alive, she sensed she had nothing to fear.
For the first time in her life she understood that her true security did
not depend on those things in which she had placed her trust. It lay deep
within. And also for the first time, she knew what it was to be content in
all circumstances. She realized that, in an ultimate sense, whether she
had plenty or hardly enough, somehow she would be all right. She just knew it.
She later wrote, “Before the quake I had all the trappings of success, but
my life was out of balance. I wasn't happy because I was clinging to
things in my life and always wanting more. My home, my job, my clothes, a
relationship - I thought they were my security. It took an earthquake and
losing everything I owned for me to discover that my security had been
with me all along...There's a power within us that we can depend upon no
matter what is happening around us.”
She had tied her rope to the wrong things. It took a disaster for her to
understand that those things are untrustworthy. So she let go of the rope
and discovered peace. She found that her true security was a power within
- dependable and sure.
What is your rope tied to? And what would happen if you found the courage
to let go of it?
By Steve Goodier
Read and meditate on these scriptures:
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Psalm 34:1-5 “I will bless the LORD at all times: His praise shall
continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the
humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and
let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and
delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him, and were lightened:
and their faces were not ashamed.”
Psalm 37:3-6 “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the
land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and
He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the
LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”
All of these scriptures can be found in the King James Version Bible.
Today’s Selected Poem: TEN RULES FOR A HAPPY DAY
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/inpoem133.htm
Today’s Selected Testimony: GOD IS FAITHFUL
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/testimony118.htm
In Christ’s Service,
Dwayne Savaya
God’s Work Ministry |
