Serving God does not exempt us from the challenges of life, it only guarantees our victory in the face of these challenges. The faith we have been given is a warring faith and the warring faith is the winning faith, for the fiery force of our faith can quench all the fiery darts of the enemy! Even before the battles begin our victory has been established! Hallelujah!
How much God spiritually 'stage manage' our challenges and storms! How? He allows only hostilities that are not beyond our capacity to handle! It's like a boxing match where a middleweight is pitched to fight against a heavyweight! And if you know enough football, it's like arranging Luton FC to play Manchester City FC! The difference in capacity is obvious, for Man. City FC the opposition in Luton FC is not one to lose sleep over, approach with the right mentality this should be a walkover victory. This is how we are to walk over, walk through life challenges and hostilities. The Psalmist said with Gods presence he can walk through even the challenges that bring to the point of death(Psalm23). You are walking through your storms now!
Let's consider one scripture again today on this subject. Its found in James 1:2-3 and it reads,
'Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way' (James 1:2-4 MSG)
The first few lines struck me even though that is not where I am going but it says that it is possible for challenges to come at us from all sides! Now how many of us have wondered, question God as to why "they are coming at you from all side". I have been in such situations before, they just seem to hit me on all sides. But as I read this I am reminded by the Spirit that challenges, storms on all sides are the precursor to victory on all sides! We can only boast of victory on every side because we have first been challenged on every side.
This is not my focus though for this scripture, the overall theme of this scripture is what am looking at and James the Apostle is telling us, the things that challenge us do mature us! The hostility that we faced, when allowed to do there work, produces maturity in us! So James advised us don't try to get out of it easily, face it headlong for every storm, in the end, makes you a better person! He said, '... don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way'
In other words, the storms that are meant to prove us also improve us!
What blessings we have when we go through the storms then, first our victory is guarantee and secondly the very storm that is meant to prove us also improve us! Hallelujah! This is why James said to count it all joy when the storms come because we will win and also we will become better in the process!
Read full message here A LITTLE WORD ON STORMS(3)
How much God spiritually 'stage manage' our challenges and storms! How? He allows only hostilities that are not beyond our capacity to handle! It's like a boxing match where a middleweight is pitched to fight against a heavyweight! And if you know enough football, it's like arranging Luton FC to play Manchester City FC! The difference in capacity is obvious, for Man. City FC the opposition in Luton FC is not one to lose sleep over, approach with the right mentality this should be a walkover victory. This is how we are to walk over, walk through life challenges and hostilities. The Psalmist said with Gods presence he can walk through even the challenges that bring to the point of death(Psalm23). You are walking through your storms now!
Let's consider one scripture again today on this subject. Its found in James 1:2-3 and it reads,
'Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way' (James 1:2-4 MSG)
The first few lines struck me even though that is not where I am going but it says that it is possible for challenges to come at us from all sides! Now how many of us have wondered, question God as to why "they are coming at you from all side". I have been in such situations before, they just seem to hit me on all sides. But as I read this I am reminded by the Spirit that challenges, storms on all sides are the precursor to victory on all sides! We can only boast of victory on every side because we have first been challenged on every side.
This is not my focus though for this scripture, the overall theme of this scripture is what am looking at and James the Apostle is telling us, the things that challenge us do mature us! The hostility that we faced, when allowed to do there work, produces maturity in us! So James advised us don't try to get out of it easily, face it headlong for every storm, in the end, makes you a better person! He said, '... don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way'
In other words, the storms that are meant to prove us also improve us!
What blessings we have when we go through the storms then, first our victory is guarantee and secondly the very storm that is meant to prove us also improve us! Hallelujah! This is why James said to count it all joy when the storms come because we will win and also we will become better in the process!
Read full message here A LITTLE WORD ON STORMS(3)
