I Will...

Life is sure full of many obstacles, challenges, and tribulations, is it not? And, oh so much more for the believer in, and follower of, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Job 5:7 states, "For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward."  And Psalm 34:19 states, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Temptations from within and temptations from without, how does one navigate through the mine field we face on our way to Heaven? I would like to mention a few I can think of and how we might best deal with them. Every day and sometimes every hour we should hear His voice and be able to cry out to, and listen to, the One Man that never spoke like He did before (John 7:46).

So, do you trust God? As a believer you have trusted God for salvation, the greatest of all promises. He has delivered you from sin, hell, and the devil by your trusting in Him. If you have trusted Him in the greater thing, would He not be faithful in being trusted in the smaller things such as...Here is my attempt, my aim, and His words to put an unshakable rock and foundation under your faith…

Anxious? Isaiah 41:10, "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."  The great I Am is with you, for the Spirit of Christ is within you, His omnipotent hand will strengthen, help, and uphold you, and all this surely and most guaranteed to be done. And Titus 1:2 states that God cannot lie. Treat the promises as a reality, as someone would treat a check. Take the promise and endorse it with your own name by personally receiving it as true and real.

Do you fear making decisions about the future?  In Psalm 32:8 we read, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you." The words, I will, once again, are great comfort to knowing and being confident in the uncertainty of what lies ahead, knowing He is always for you, and never against you, and confident that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. By reading the scriptures, we get to know the mind of the Spirit; by praying to Him, we get to know the will of the Spirit.  All prayer should get to seeing His kingdom come, and His will being done.

Do you fear about getting old? Isa.46:4 states, "Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you." Five times those words, I will, come from the great, I Am, a great foundation of bedrock to rest our listless souls, minds, and beings on.  He will carry you because underneath are the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27).  The Psalmist admits that once he was young and now that he is old, yet he has not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread (Psa. 37:25).

To conclude, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom.8:28).  English puritan Thomas Watson said, "The grand reason why all things work for good is the near and dear interest which God has in His people. The Lord has made a covenant with them. Jeremiah 32:40, "I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me."

Elder Randy Slak