During the Christmas and holiday season, some people are challenged with grieving a loved one’s passing, have financial problems, health problems, and are physically drained. During the time when it should be the most beautiful and joyous time of the year, people are having a rough time. The good news is if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have hope. For those who are not saved, I urge you to repent of your sins, and acknowledge you are a sinner who needs Jesus and believe in your heart that Jesus died, was buried, rose, and lives. Receive Him into your heart, and you are saved (Read Romans 10:9-10 for an outline for salvation). Without God, you can not make it through the challenges in life, no matter how much money you have, how healthy you are, or how many friends you have. You can do the natural to seek help, but you need the super on the natural to get you through. Let God be the author of your life.
Isaiah 43:2-3,5,18-19: 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
It can seem like God is not there when situations in your life are dark, and you can’t see that God is there making things new for you. My previous blog Fix Your Gaze, You’ll Be Amazed! focused on looking to God, the author, and finisher of our faith. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. God brought Him through it. God can do the same for us if we let Him. I watched the movie “Harriet,” and the quote she used is, “I rather be free or die.” Our only freedom is through Jesus Christ; what goes on internally will manifest on the outside. True freedom is in our mind because as person thinks that is where they will end up. Choose life so that you can live.
Job had his gaze fixed on God to praise God and trust him through health issues, children dying, friends blaming him for what he was going through, and his wife telling him to curse God and die. He even prayed for his friends and got his deliverance. Job remarried. God blessed him double with beautiful children, and his health and wealth were all restored. God made all things new again in Job’s life.
The devil comes at you at your highest moments and your lowest moments. The devil will make you think you are the only one going through problems. When I was promoted to the praise team at church, a voice in my head told me, “no one cares about you.” At the highest moment in my life, the devil tried to make me think no one cared about me because he is the Father of lies. Depression started to come into my mind. I spoke against it with the word of God. One time was not enough; I had to continually say it for the devil to flee from my mind. The others promoted to the praise team started talking and said they were getting the same voice that no one cared about them. We all laughed at the devil and shared how we resisted the devil’s voice,
John 12:24 New Living Translation: 24 I tell you the truth unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
The scripture came to me at a time when I believed God for something. I wanted it to be one way, but I had to let it die and surrender to what God had for me. In the end, God gave me more than I could ever have imagined. God does exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to God’s power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). Jesus had to die to His will and surrender to what God had for Him. In the end, his death produced for us eternal/new life. We are now forgiven, healed, set free, and redeemed from the curse. To receive the new, we must die daily to the fallen life and nature of the flesh and live a new life by renewing our minds to the word of God and His way of thinking.
Go through! God makes all things new!
Prayer: Thank you, God, because I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I have a new life through you. No matter what I go through: life, death, blessing, or cursing. I let nothing separate me from the love of God. I will spend eternity with you in the next life. I can go through because you are the Great I Am, the Most High God, and all that I need /The Great Shepherd. Your ways are higher than my ways. I die daily to my way of thinking and surrender to the kingdom’s way of thinking. I walk in the newness of life. I thank God for making everything new in my life, In Jesus’ name! Amen!