I read the italicized paragraphs last night before bed in a book called Trust. I pray it is encouraging to you. It was to me especially after a challenging week!
Feelings are purely responses - sometimes good responses and sometimes bad ones - to the ups and downs that God brings into our lives. Unpredictable and unstable as they are, if we allow our feelings to determine our well-being, rather than allowing our standing in Christ to determine our feelings, we are going to be anxious about everything all of the time.
Joy and peace are characteristics of the Christian life, but inevitably there will be times, whether through sin or through some hardship or through just being human, when joy and peace elude us. But the presence or absence of good feelings is no measure of God's favor. Christ is the only measure.
Our relationship with God and all the good that accompanies it are secure in Christ, no matter how we feel. Christ is all we need for an accurate assessment of where we stand with God. During times when God's presence cannot be felt, when the joy that is meant to accompany our Christian walk has left us, we can remember his promise: "I will never leave you nor forsake you"
Do you know who you are in Christ? I think this is what I was losing sight of last week. I lost my awareness of who I am in Christ and, therefore, lost my joy. God views me as he views Christ. When I placed my faith in Jesus, God, the judge, declared me righteous and I became his daughter. He transferred the perfect, sinless record of Jesus to me. This is amazing grace people! This is the greatest gift, and I was allowing my feelings to steel the JOY that comes from knowing that my greatest need has already been met - SALVATION! There are no greater needs though I sure do think so at times.
He loves me whether I check of all my "to-do's" or not! He loves me and, therefore, allows trials for my good. To change me. Often times, trials are preludes to great blessings. I want to have a mind set on him, on ALL his promises to me (I challenge you to take a minute to look up some of his promises), so that I can feel peace instead of anxiety and so I can experience the feeling of freedom that comes from faith! Maybe next time I'm feeling stressed (which I'm sure will happen sooner than later) and the next time I feel like giving up, I will be able to recall this post and speak TRUTH to myself instead of listening to my feelings. But, I may need you to help me remember :)
This was taken from John Piper's blog - Desiring God.
Don’t give up. No, rather “take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7).
Don’t give up when that familiar sin, still crouching at your door after all these years, pounces again with temptation.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Don’t give up when you feel that deep soul weariness from long battles with persistent weaknesses.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:8–9).
Don’t give up when your long prayed-for prayers have not yet been answered.
And he told them [the parable of the persistent widow] to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).
Don’t give up when the devil’s fiery darts of doubt land and make you reel.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day…in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:13,16).
Do not give up when the fragmenting effect of multiple pressures seems relentless.
But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger . . . (2 Corinthians 6:4–5).
Do not give up when the field the Lord has assigned you to is hard and the harvest does not look promising:
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Do not give up when you labor in obscurity and you wonder how much it even matters.
Your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:4).
Do not give up when your reputation is damaged because you are trying to be faithful to Jesus.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account (Matthew 5:11).
Do not give up when waiting on God seems endless.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30–31)
Don’t give up when you have failed in sin. Don’t wallow. Repent (again), get your eyes off yourself and back on Jesus, get up and get back in the fight.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9); if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
Jesus knows your works (Revelation 2:2) and he understands the war (Hebrews 12:3). “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19).
Don’t give up.
Good, huh? I think this "Don't give up" stuff is worth printing and putting on the fridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment