2 posts tagged “scripture”

  I'm currently in a situation where I'm crying out to God for justice.  I've been wronged big time, and due to a threat, am not able to defend myself.  I so badly want to fight back that it burns up from within me.  I want to tear my clothes in anguish, pour ashes over my head, and punch the ground that has cursed me.  I want to take a stance against these people and say, "NO! You're not going to spread your lies about me!  You're not going to mislead others in order to save your own face!"  I want to pray for God to strike them down, demolish their evil deeds, and cause everyone to see that it is in fact the enemy, Satan himself, who is behind their behavior.

  But no matter how difficult it is, I must refrain from doing so.  No matter how badly my heart is ripped apart when people text or call me to learn of what's happened, because they trust me and know that I will straighten out all the rumors going on around about me, the threat from a certain couple of people prevent me from doing so.
 
  "Why, oh Lord!? Why have you put these people into power?  And why have you allowed them to trample and stomp over me, your servant?"  I cry to Him for justice, and I want it NOW.

  But my wife reminded me of what Joseph said to his brothers..."What you meant for evil against me, God meant for good."  She also encouraged, "Let them sin against God, not you.  The Lord will have vengeance, but in the Lord's timing, not ours."

  I think that what stops me from doing what my emotions are telling me is when she said, "Let THEM sin against God, not you."  I must remember that the Lord brought us here according to HIS Will, and He knew that this would happen.

  I'm not trying to preach to you about trusting in God.  I just want to share my struggles with you so that you might be encouraged, for it's one thing for a Christian to tell another to trust in God, it's another thing for a Christian to take his own advice when Satan attacks him head on, and it's still yet another thing for me, a Christian, to share with you my journey as I struggle with stepping to the side and allowing the Lord to do His Will...in God's timing.

In Sunday school today, the topic was John, but in it we got onto the story of the woman who'd been hemorrhaging for 12 years.  (Mark 5:25-34)

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.  She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."  Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"  And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, "Who touched me?' "  He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

  Though the context doesn't say it directly, I'm willing to say that the woman was wealthy, it says that "she'd spent all she had" on "many physicians".  Unfortunately though, instead of getting better, she only "grew worse".

  Now, please understand, I'm not taking the Jehovah's witnesses' side on refusing medication.  I do believe in going to the doctor's when sick, in need of check ups, the hospital when needed, etc., so I'm neither saying to not go to a doctor when sick nor to refuse treatment.  What I AM trying to get at is...what do you suppose kept her from seeing Jesus as an option before?  For "she had heard about Jesus", and she was rich, so she could've gone anywhere by any means long ago to be healed, but it wasn't until He was walking through her town that she decided to go to Him.  

  Notice the timing...by the time Jesus was walking through her town, she was bankrupt.  For so long she had relied on her finances to take care of her, and it wasn't until they were all gone that she finally looked to God.  But she couldn't see yet because her view was blocked by her own wealth, like a fog, or a wall.
  In Daniel 4, it says that Nebuchadnezzar (famous, powerful, extremely wealthy king of Babylon), after spending years in the wilderness, lifted his eyes towards heaven, and his sanity was restored.  Then immediately after, he praised, honored, and glorified the Lord.
   Once the wall was cleared, they could both see the Lord.  And what they needed could only be granted by God.  They believed and were transformed, both physically and spiritually.

    Look today at how many of us rely on things other than the Lord.  Maybe it's money, status, popularity, our jobs, or something else.  But once we lose some or all of it, what's the first thing we do?  We cry out to God asking "why me" or "why did you do this to me?"
  There's a saying I heard on House the other day...something like, "foolish is the one who says he doesn't believe in God, but yet gets mad at Him when things go wrong".

What's the fog or wall in your life that's keeping you from seeing the Lord?  What needs to happen in order for you to finally "lift your eyes towards heaven"?