There are many Christians getting discourage and want to throw in the towel and give up on God. But why? I have spoken to few Christians that are going through a lot, and they are at the point where they don’t believe there is a God anymore. They ask if there was a God why was a laid off my job, why is my bank account empty, why am I going to bed without food, why is my car about to fall apart, why have all the relationships I had fallen apart, why is nothing going right in my life? These were some of the questions that I heard. My heart burned within me to hear these things because I can relate to them.
This morning at work a young lady came to me and said, “God is not what my pastor talks about.” I was a little shocked by her words and questioned why she felt that way. She went on to say that her life is a living hell and no matter how much she prays for the Lord to help her, He doesn’t do anything but cause more suffering in her life. She had gotten to the point where she started blaming God for the issues in her life and yelling at Him for not answering her prayers. Then she went on to say, “If God wasn’t going to listen to my prayers and help me, why did He tell us in the Bible to pray to Him and ask for Help in time of need?” I stood there speechless, as the tears ran down her face and she was pouring out her frustration. It was one of those moments where I didn’t want to say something to make it worst and I didn’t want her to go on feeling defeated. So I gave her a hug and tried to encourage her to hold on. But she got even more upset and said, “Hold on to what? There isn’t any God and even if there was a God He is cruel and evil. What God would do this to me after I gave up so much to be with him? What type of God would bring so much pain to my life when people in the world who could care less about the Lord are flourishing and barely have any issues. This is not fair, I might as well be like the unsaved at least they get more happiness in their life and less issues to worry about.” By this time there were few people gazing over at us but I ignored them and focused on the young lady.
I sat her down at a table and began to allow the Spirit of God to speak through me to her. Half way through the encouragement she stopped crying and was smiling. My heart felt relieved and I knew that it was the devil trying to make her feel defeated so that she could give up on the Lord and serve him. What an annoying Devil?
The sad thing is, this sort of feeling is attacking a lot of Christians every where. This weekend I sat down and was thinking that all my life I barely had anything easy, I had to work really hard for things and I had to suffer so much through out my life. The devil tried to attack me in my mom’s womb, when that didn’t work he kept trying. As I grew older, he tried to attack my mind and caused me to become suicidal—I just hated myself. I hated everything about me; there was nothing about me that seem good. Then in college I went through so much; people lied on me for no reason, I had to constantly prove myself to professors, people hated me for no reason, people hated me because I was black or because I was female. Then professors lied on me to the point where I almost didn’t graduate but God stepped in and made a way out for me. I was financially broke—there were nights when I didn’t have anything to eat. Even now that I am in NH, there are months when my bills are more than my paycheck.
I tried to consolidate my private student loans but was told by every consolidation company that they are no longer consolidating private loans they are only doing federal loans because of what happened to the economy. That totally messed up my plan and now I am stuck paying for about $70, 000 in student loans--the monthly bills are extremely high. At one point I was thinking about getting a part time job but that would mess up my time to go to church and get any rest. Then the issue goes on to work, the company is laying off so many employees and the work load in increasing for everyone. Then on top of that I am not even sure if one day I might go to work and get a pink slip like my co-works did. Many of them came to work thinking they had a job when they didn’t. Then to really top it off my health is not the best. For some reason the doctors always seem to find something wrong with me every time I go for a check up. Why is that? Why do the children of God have to suffer so much? Why do most of us have to be hanging on a thread?
Although I went through and is till going through my hard times, the Lord is there with me all the time. I may not have a lot of money in my pocket but my bills are always paid on time. I may not have many friends but He always sends someone to cheer me up and bring joy to my life. Yes, there are times when I feel a little down because there are many people who criticize me for standing firm to my belief in the Lord.
Many people at work would tell me to stopping being so focus on the Lord and enjoy the one life I have. There are some men that would come and ask if I want to “hook” up with them. But after telling them that I don’t believe in sex before marriage they would laugh at me. They would tell me that they have been with many Christian females and some even went as far as to say, “With that Christian stuff you going to be single all your life because even the Christian men want the same things these days.” Sorry for being so open but those were some of the things I have to deal with from people around me. It is almost as if no one really respects a true Christian anymore or wants to be one.
That is why I love going to church because I get to be around people that love the Lord and have the same belief. I don’t have to worry about someone putting me down for not committing fornication with them. I don’t have to worry about someone being upset with me because I refused to drink or smoke with them. Being in that atmosphere brings comfort and relief to my life. Whenever I feel down and listen to other people testimony of how God is there for them, it gives me a little more strength to hold on and to trust God. The pastor preached one Sunday about the inconvenience in our life, the issues that we some times go through are nothing but inconveniences.
The guest preacher for the Sunday night service preached a powerful message on killing the giants in our life. That feeling of defeat and wanting to give up is a giant that we can defeat. Although we might come to the point in our life when we feel like there is no way out, if we trust God He will make a way. God is sometimes waiting on us to stop trying to do it on our own and let Him handle it.
This reminds me of the story of Lazarus. When the people sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick and dying, Jesus never went there the same time—He continued what He was doing. Then days later he finally showed up—to show them something that they were not expecting. They sawed Him healed many people but He wanted to show them that He was the Resurrection and Life. After He resurrected Lazarus from the grave, the people were amazed to see Him do something greater than what they were expecting.
That might be the same for us today. We are expecting God to do something that we are use to but He wants to show us something greater. He may not come when we want Him to but He is always on time. He will always deliver us out of all of our troubles. Plus He doesn’t give us more than we can bear. We may say, ‘I can’t bear this burden’, but you’re still standing you’re not died. Therefore, you can bare it. The Lord equips us and gives us strength to endure until He brings relief.
I don’t understand why we have to go through so much, but everything happens for a reason. As someone once said, “If we didn’t go hungry one day- we won’t know that God could feed us, If we didn’t get sick – we won’t know that God can heal us, if our heart didn’t get broken- we won’t know that God can heal the broken hearted ….” Each time that I go through things it increases my faith in the Lord. It causes me to believe that He will come through for me the next time I have a tough situation in my life.
Plus you would be amazed to see how many people got saved from watching someone trust God or listening to someone’s testimony; most of the time it is our experiences that touch people’s heart, and help them to accept the Lord into their lives.
When I was sick with my foot, I went to more doctors than I can remember, I went to doctors in state and out of state but none was able to help me. It got to the point where the doctors told me there is nothing more they can do, and that I won’t walk again. But the Lord proved the doctors wrong by healing me. Whose report do you believe? My healing was a testimony to those that saw me go through it and others that I met later on in my life. God would sometimes allow you to go through things to increase your faith and to help you to relate to others in the same situation.
Today my encouragement is to hold on to the Lord, don’t stop trusting him. If everything you hold dare should be taken away from you this moment, would you still trust the Lord? Job went through it and God blessed Him in the end for it. Job’s life was a mess—talk about issues. He lost everything he had --his money, his kids, his friends, his health, but one thing remained-- his faith in the Lord. He knew that God was going to deliver Him out of the situation and he held on till the end. The Lord blessed him with twice as much as he had before.
Don’t miss out on the blessings that God has in store for you. Stay strong and allow the Lord to work in your life. There may be times when it seems like He is no where around but that is the time when He is carrying you through it.
This morning at work a young lady came to me and said, “God is not what my pastor talks about.” I was a little shocked by her words and questioned why she felt that way. She went on to say that her life is a living hell and no matter how much she prays for the Lord to help her, He doesn’t do anything but cause more suffering in her life. She had gotten to the point where she started blaming God for the issues in her life and yelling at Him for not answering her prayers. Then she went on to say, “If God wasn’t going to listen to my prayers and help me, why did He tell us in the Bible to pray to Him and ask for Help in time of need?” I stood there speechless, as the tears ran down her face and she was pouring out her frustration. It was one of those moments where I didn’t want to say something to make it worst and I didn’t want her to go on feeling defeated. So I gave her a hug and tried to encourage her to hold on. But she got even more upset and said, “Hold on to what? There isn’t any God and even if there was a God He is cruel and evil. What God would do this to me after I gave up so much to be with him? What type of God would bring so much pain to my life when people in the world who could care less about the Lord are flourishing and barely have any issues. This is not fair, I might as well be like the unsaved at least they get more happiness in their life and less issues to worry about.” By this time there were few people gazing over at us but I ignored them and focused on the young lady.
I sat her down at a table and began to allow the Spirit of God to speak through me to her. Half way through the encouragement she stopped crying and was smiling. My heart felt relieved and I knew that it was the devil trying to make her feel defeated so that she could give up on the Lord and serve him. What an annoying Devil?
The sad thing is, this sort of feeling is attacking a lot of Christians every where. This weekend I sat down and was thinking that all my life I barely had anything easy, I had to work really hard for things and I had to suffer so much through out my life. The devil tried to attack me in my mom’s womb, when that didn’t work he kept trying. As I grew older, he tried to attack my mind and caused me to become suicidal—I just hated myself. I hated everything about me; there was nothing about me that seem good. Then in college I went through so much; people lied on me for no reason, I had to constantly prove myself to professors, people hated me for no reason, people hated me because I was black or because I was female. Then professors lied on me to the point where I almost didn’t graduate but God stepped in and made a way out for me. I was financially broke—there were nights when I didn’t have anything to eat. Even now that I am in NH, there are months when my bills are more than my paycheck.
I tried to consolidate my private student loans but was told by every consolidation company that they are no longer consolidating private loans they are only doing federal loans because of what happened to the economy. That totally messed up my plan and now I am stuck paying for about $70, 000 in student loans--the monthly bills are extremely high. At one point I was thinking about getting a part time job but that would mess up my time to go to church and get any rest. Then the issue goes on to work, the company is laying off so many employees and the work load in increasing for everyone. Then on top of that I am not even sure if one day I might go to work and get a pink slip like my co-works did. Many of them came to work thinking they had a job when they didn’t. Then to really top it off my health is not the best. For some reason the doctors always seem to find something wrong with me every time I go for a check up. Why is that? Why do the children of God have to suffer so much? Why do most of us have to be hanging on a thread?
Although I went through and is till going through my hard times, the Lord is there with me all the time. I may not have a lot of money in my pocket but my bills are always paid on time. I may not have many friends but He always sends someone to cheer me up and bring joy to my life. Yes, there are times when I feel a little down because there are many people who criticize me for standing firm to my belief in the Lord.
Many people at work would tell me to stopping being so focus on the Lord and enjoy the one life I have. There are some men that would come and ask if I want to “hook” up with them. But after telling them that I don’t believe in sex before marriage they would laugh at me. They would tell me that they have been with many Christian females and some even went as far as to say, “With that Christian stuff you going to be single all your life because even the Christian men want the same things these days.” Sorry for being so open but those were some of the things I have to deal with from people around me. It is almost as if no one really respects a true Christian anymore or wants to be one.
That is why I love going to church because I get to be around people that love the Lord and have the same belief. I don’t have to worry about someone putting me down for not committing fornication with them. I don’t have to worry about someone being upset with me because I refused to drink or smoke with them. Being in that atmosphere brings comfort and relief to my life. Whenever I feel down and listen to other people testimony of how God is there for them, it gives me a little more strength to hold on and to trust God. The pastor preached one Sunday about the inconvenience in our life, the issues that we some times go through are nothing but inconveniences.
The guest preacher for the Sunday night service preached a powerful message on killing the giants in our life. That feeling of defeat and wanting to give up is a giant that we can defeat. Although we might come to the point in our life when we feel like there is no way out, if we trust God He will make a way. God is sometimes waiting on us to stop trying to do it on our own and let Him handle it.
This reminds me of the story of Lazarus. When the people sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick and dying, Jesus never went there the same time—He continued what He was doing. Then days later he finally showed up—to show them something that they were not expecting. They sawed Him healed many people but He wanted to show them that He was the Resurrection and Life. After He resurrected Lazarus from the grave, the people were amazed to see Him do something greater than what they were expecting.
That might be the same for us today. We are expecting God to do something that we are use to but He wants to show us something greater. He may not come when we want Him to but He is always on time. He will always deliver us out of all of our troubles. Plus He doesn’t give us more than we can bear. We may say, ‘I can’t bear this burden’, but you’re still standing you’re not died. Therefore, you can bare it. The Lord equips us and gives us strength to endure until He brings relief.
I don’t understand why we have to go through so much, but everything happens for a reason. As someone once said, “If we didn’t go hungry one day- we won’t know that God could feed us, If we didn’t get sick – we won’t know that God can heal us, if our heart didn’t get broken- we won’t know that God can heal the broken hearted ….” Each time that I go through things it increases my faith in the Lord. It causes me to believe that He will come through for me the next time I have a tough situation in my life.
Plus you would be amazed to see how many people got saved from watching someone trust God or listening to someone’s testimony; most of the time it is our experiences that touch people’s heart, and help them to accept the Lord into their lives.
When I was sick with my foot, I went to more doctors than I can remember, I went to doctors in state and out of state but none was able to help me. It got to the point where the doctors told me there is nothing more they can do, and that I won’t walk again. But the Lord proved the doctors wrong by healing me. Whose report do you believe? My healing was a testimony to those that saw me go through it and others that I met later on in my life. God would sometimes allow you to go through things to increase your faith and to help you to relate to others in the same situation.
Today my encouragement is to hold on to the Lord, don’t stop trusting him. If everything you hold dare should be taken away from you this moment, would you still trust the Lord? Job went through it and God blessed Him in the end for it. Job’s life was a mess—talk about issues. He lost everything he had --his money, his kids, his friends, his health, but one thing remained-- his faith in the Lord. He knew that God was going to deliver Him out of the situation and he held on till the end. The Lord blessed him with twice as much as he had before.
Don’t miss out on the blessings that God has in store for you. Stay strong and allow the Lord to work in your life. There may be times when it seems like He is no where around but that is the time when He is carrying you through it.
No comments:
Post a Comment