We all get to the point in our walk with the Lord where we don't know where our strength has gone. We cannot fathom how we will wake the next day and still be saved by this grace that we once held onto so tightly. Our grip is slipping, and the pressures of this world seems to much to bear. Our well is dry, our spirit is numb, we want to give up and fall to the ways of the world and live an "easier" life like those around us. Remember these three words: faith, pray, wait.
Faith: faith is the foundation of our salvation, and it comes from hearing and believing the Word of God. We must see our dependency on God to keep us in our faith. We cannot have faith without God, and there is no such thing in us as autonomous life our life is only through Christ. Jeremiah 32:40 says " I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me." This is simply saying that God has made a covenant/promise with us that He will never stop doing good to us, and He will work in us to ensure that we never leave Him. So God in his majesty and perfection is promising that he has, is currently, and will take action to ensure we will never leave Him. This doesn't mean we just sit and let Him do all the work, but His promise to work for us gives birth to our desire to meditate on His word and work towards a deeper relationship with Him.
Pray: prayer is our most valuable weapon in the war against the world. We can rejoice in prayer, we can repent in prayer, and we can also report/petition to God what we need from Him to keep going. He ultimately already knows what we need, but He wants to hear from us. James 1:6 says "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." We must trust that through Jesus and the Holy Spirit our prayers aren't just floating up into outer space. We must trust in His hearing of our cry for help, just as we trusted in His faithfulness the first time we cried out for His grace and mercy to pardon our souls.
Wait: prayers are not always answered immediately, and sometimes we feel they were not answered at all because our human minds cannot see the divine work our Creator is doing, but I assure you He is listening and working for your good. Romans 8:30 says " And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified." The work of the Lord in your heart is not a one and done action. It is a continual process that He is faithful to complete until the day of judgement. Do not lose heart, wait for his answer, He will keep you and never forsake you!
" To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Jude 24-25
Press on fellow soldiers,
Mark Harlow
