Thoughts on Discouraging Circumstances

Recently I have been struggling with discouragement.  I share this not to complain, but because I would like to share how the Lord is helping me to battle against it.  If we as Christians always "look like we've got it all together" we will never be an encouragement to others and we will hinder ourselves from honest transparency and growth.

The other morning when I was really feeling discouraged, the Lord brought to my mind that I need to speak His truth to myself.  I don't need to focus on the circumstances - I need to focus on truth, on God's word, on His commands, on His promises.  So, praying for help and guidance, I started studying.

The first thing I did was start with scriptural commands that applied to me: 

Scriptural Commands:

Do not fear

Do not be anxious

Trust Him

Sometimes we forget what God has commanded.  by being fearful and anxious I am in disobedience to Him.  That's not where I want to be!

Next, I started looking for passages of scripture that applied to what I was struggling with.

The Lord directed my steps to this passage in Numbers.  Once I found this passage, I started thinking on application.  Here is the passage, and my thoughts on it.   

"And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people."

- Numbers 21:4-7 -

The people were discouraged because of the difficulty of the way they were called to walk.  Because of this discouragement they began to complain and speak against the Lord and the man God had appointed to lead them.  The Lord punished them severely for their attitude.

When things get hard we must:

- Make sure we are in the way God has called and that we are following the leadership and guidelines He has placed before us.  Sometimes difficulty comes when we are walking in disobedience.  I must make sure I am not creating my own cross.

- When things get difficult, don’t look at the circumstances.  We must keep the end goal in mind.  We are pilgrims being called to another realm.  The temporal is only a tool and means in His hand.

- Do not lose heart.  Speak truth to yourself.  My greatest fears come not from reality but from what I imagine could happen.  Fear comes from the “what if” and the “how is this going to work?”  God didn’t give the children of Israel a detailed plan for getting out of Egypt to living in the promised land.  He just guided them step by step..  I must be willing to just follow His leading step by step.

- Do not complain.  We must not grumble against the way the Lord is leading us.  Everything is part of His plan, so we must take it patiently as that.  We must have faith, trust, and obey.  We must choose to be thankful for His plan and for His guidance.  We must refuse to complain because of difficulty or uncertainty.  This will keep us from becoming blinded by discouragement.

- If I have sinned by not walking in the way God would have for me, by not obeying the guidance He has given me, or by complaining against how He is working, I must confess this and repent of it.  I must turn my heart, and ask the Lord to turn my heart, to thankfulness and trust.  Start speaking the truths of God’s word to your heart and thanking Him for the ways He is working in the circumstances in your life for your sanctification.

 I was so thankful for how the Lord directed me during this time, and am continuing to study His word for truth to use.  The battle is not over, but He has given me weapons to fight with, and by His grace I am seeking to win each battle as it comes.  I hope that as I've shared this that it has been at least a small encouragement to some.  The Lord is always with us - closer than any battle we are fighting - and with Him we can always win!

 "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:

and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

- 1 John 5:4 -

~Brittany

Hope Thou in God

"Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.  Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?  Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise Him."

~ Psalm 27:3; 42:5 ~

Take away faith, and in vain we call to God.  There is no other road betwixt our souls and Heaven.  Blockade that road and we cannot communicate with the Great King.  Faith links us with Divinity.

An outstanding minister said that one evening he found himself staggering along under a load that was heavy enough to crush half a dozen strong men.  Out of sheer exhaustion he put it down and took a good look at it.  He found that it was all borrowed.  Part of it belonged to the following day; part of it belonged to the following week, and here he was borrowing it that it might crush him now - a very stupid but a very ancient blunder.

Never yield to gloomy anticipations.  Who told you that the night would never end in day?  Who told you that the winter of your discontent should proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow?  Do you not know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter?  Place your hope and confidence in God.  He has no record of failure."

- Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

- taken from Streams in the Desert, Volume 2, December 26th

~Brittany

Valleys turned upside down become . . .

" and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way."  Numbers 21:4
When the children of Israel left Egypt, they were sighing.  Satan has stolen their song.  When difficult times came, they took their eyes off God and saw only the difficult.

Am I speaking to someone who has fallen into that trap?  The blessings of God are falling like raindrops around you, but you're so busy counting your problems that you forgot to count your blessings.  Did you know that God inhabits the praises of His people?  In Psalms 22:3 David said: "but thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel."  In Psalms 16:11 we read, "in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

The point of it all, dear Christian, is this, we need to be quite careful not to become a reflection of our problems.  Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there!  And when the way is difficult and discouraging, keep your eyes on Him.  He is as worthy of our praise when we're in the valleys as when we're on the mountain. God made the valleys just like He did the peaks.  If you'll offer up your praises in the valley, He just may very well turn that valley upside down and change it into a mountain!

Taken from the August 31,2014 Wheeler Grove Baptist Church bulletin.  Written by their pastor Brother Kara in the Pastor's Corner section. What a blessing to worship with them that day while we were up visiting Seth's Dad.

Big Problems and An Almighty God

I was so encouraged this morning when I read Matthew Jacobson's post.  I could so relate to what he wrote.  Life is not always just smooth going.  Right now, we Alexander's are feeling that way.  And yet . . .  is not our God bigger than any of our problems???

Here is the link over to the post by Matthew that was such a blessing to me and really helped me to have a right focus for today .
Matthrew Jacobson Post Big Problems And An Almighty God
I hope you will be encouraged and blessed as well.  ~Karen

Tony Konvalin posted this quote on his blog at What They Said that I thought went so nicely with Matthew's post.

"A Christian, for the sweet fruit he bears to God and men, is compared to the noblest of all plants, the vine.  Now as the most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless: so doth the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions."

Joseph Hall

He Will Sustain You

"Cast your burden upon the LORD--and He will sustain you." 

- Psalm 55:22

The promise is not that the Lord will remove the load we cast upon Him, nor that He will carry it for us, but that He will sustain us so that we may carry it. He does not free us from the duty, but He strengthens us for it. He does not deliver us from the conflict, but He enables us to overcome. He does not withhold or withdraw the trial from us, but He helps us in trial to be submissive and victorious, and makes it a blessing to us. He does not mitigate the hardness or severity of our circumstances, taking away the difficult elements, removing the thorns, making life easy for us, but He puts divine grace into our hearts, so that we can live sweetly in all the hard circumstances.  
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"
 - Philippians 4:13
-- J. R. Miller

A dear brother shared this with us this morning, Thanks Isak! :-)  Oh to cling to the truths that Mr. Miller spoke here about casting our burdens upon the Lord.  I have been so encouraged as I have seen this verse played out in our home this week.  We have been dealing with something that in some ways really has seemed like a death to us.  It has been hard.  When you love people it so difficult when the Lord removes them.  But just as this says, as we cast our cares upon Him, He did not remove the hurt and sting, but He has sustained and strengthened.  

One day I felt as if the battle was really being lost.  I have been praying and fasting and yet discouragement was overwhelming to one in our home.  The Lord laid it upon my heart to call in "extra troops", so I asked just a few of my sisters in the Lord to pray with me and although I know that I should not have been so amazed to see the power of prayer, I was.  It was so amazing!  We serve an awesome God and I know in our home the trial that God has called us to go through, although it has and really continues to be hard, has been such a faith building experience.  Thus we can see and understand just a bit more why we are called to:

 Rejoice evermore.

 Pray without ceasing. 

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

(1Th 5:16-18)

~Karen

Waiting and Fighting off the Birds of the Prey

Portions of this are taken from Joel Beeke’s book Parenting By God’s Promises other portions are summaries of what he wrote. 

Have you ever felt deeply discouraged about your family? 

Mr. Beeke gives some insight into the covenant that God made with Abram in the book of Genesis. 

And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.  In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy see have I given this land.  Gen. 15:17-18a

To confirm his faith, Abram asked God for a sign.  Abram was not abandoning his newfound faith; he was simply confessing his weakness and the need of a confirming sign from God to strengthen that faith.  Abram’s question sprang from faith, not unbelief. 

Keep laboring for our children.  As we do so, God teaches us that the success of happy, well adjusted spiritually minded, Christ-honoring, God-glorifying, Scripture-grounded children growing into adulthood is never because of us.  Sometimes the Lord makes us realize our own insufficiency so that we learn to rest completely on the trustworthiness of His covenant and on the character of God Himself as the Author of it.

What does that mean?  When Abram asked for a sign, God told him to gather some animals, cut them in two, and put the pieces on two sides so that someone could walk down the middle (Gen. 15:9-10).  Abram knew what was happening; the steps God had commanded were part of a common way of making a covenant in his day.  The two covenant-making parties would cut some animals through the middle and make two parallel lines with the pieces.  Then both parties to the covenant would walk down the center, between the halved pieces.  When they got to the end, they would shake hands, as if to say, “God do so to me, and more also, hewing me in pieces as we have done to these animals, if I break my covenant with you.”So, God was saying: “Abram, you want a sign, so I will give it to you.  I will give you a wonderful sign of the covenant. 

Abram did exactly what God had told him to do and then waited for the Lord to arrive.  He waited all day.  The only thing that came was birds of the prey. 

I found it very interesting that birds of the prey are used as a metaphor for an evil conqueror in Isaiah 46 and other places in Scriptures. 

As parents, we know a little about this kind of struggle as our children grow up.  What is the use?  Instead of God coming, what comes?  Vultures!

That’s what came for Abram.  In verse 11, we read, “And when the fowls come down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.”  Doesn’t it seem that child-rearing is a lot like that – driving away vultures from our children’s lives?  There are so many vultures out there, so many people, so many things, and so many enemies that want to get at our children and destroy them. 

Abram’s trial of faith is often the trial of God-fearing parents.  We plead God’s promises and look for His benediction, but all we see are vultures. 

We must stand our ground, as Abram did, holding fast to the word of promise, obeying the word of command, looking to the God of the covenant. 

Tomorrow I will share the next section called An Impossible Task Attempted. 

I was encouraged and enlightened by this analogy as Mr. Beeke gave insights that I have never heard.  I hope you too will be encouraged to keep standing on the Word of God and fight off the birds of the prey as they come as we await for God in the various areas of our lives.