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How many of you are struggling with your Faith right now? One minute you believe and the next you’re not quite sure. If this is you be encouraged, you're not alone! Many of us are being fought tooth and nail at this given time. The battle is real. All of these thoughts flood our mind, why? Because we have needs, we have concerns about other people’s needs and our heart is full of compassion because we want to help but some of us just can’t. It makes you wonder, how will things play out? You wonder if God is really going to answer your hearts cry, if he’s really going to move like scriptures tell us he can. My answer to all of these questions that plague us day in and day out, is Yes. He absolutely can.
God is a Father
We have to understand this about God... He’s not a man that he shall lie. He’s a Father.
Isaiah 64:8 - But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.
I want to read a short article that I found online about what defines a father.
WHAT DEFINES A FATHER?
The Christian faith acknowledges Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God. Yet Jesus taught His disciples to address God as “our Father in heaven.” Since Jesus is the only Son of God, why did He invite us all to call God “Father”?
Consistent with His teachings, believers have always used the word Father when referring to God. One of the most important creeds in Christian history begins with the phrase, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.”
Here are some essential truths:
Father = source
Our earthly fathers are an important source of our genetic makeup. But God is the ultimate source of our lives. He knew us before we were conceived and formed us in the womb.
[ The Servant of the Lord ] Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Father = provision
Fathers find joy in giving to their children. That’s because a chief role of fatherhood is to provide. Jesus used this reality to explain the goodness of God when He said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11). end of article
I know some things come into our lives that can make us feel uncomfortable. Things we can’t explain that really challenges our faith could bring us fear but God doesn’t want us to enter into fear or lose hope.
Isaiah 41:10
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
A Place of Defeat
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a place called "defeat", losing all hope and feeling like you have nothing left to hold on to but I’ve been there and it was so hard for me to get out of.
I had a major attitude, I was grumpy, warfare was off the hook in the mind and one day I went to church and God said, “Daughter, defeat is not in my word”.
God started telling me right where I was and my mind was saying God, I can’t do this anymore but he poured his love into me and then he said this “ You’ve come so far, Are you going to let the enemy come and steal all the ground that you gained?”
As soon as He said that I thought Oh No! No I don’t think so! When this took place I started to feel God’s strength enter back into my vessel and I thought long and hard and that attitude I had, I started using it against the enemy once again. People who loved me in the church, they saw the struggle and they started praying for me, encouraging me and I started to get that fire back in me but it was God’s love that kept me from completely going under.
When you enter into a place of defeat and hopelessness, it’s like a roller coaster of the mind. It’s exhausting! You become so tired mentally that your body becomes weak physically and this roller coaster really makes you sick, sick in spirit and in the physical.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
When God came and ministered to me, my desire to fight again became real and I started to thirst for God again. So ladies, do not enter into a trap of defeat!! Sometimes we don’t make it back and that's something we should be very afraid of. If the enemy takes you out, he's claiming you for his kingdom. You belong to the Father!
Strength in Battle
When we get to a point that we are barely holding on, God will always come to give you the strength that you need.
Psalm 46: 1
God is our refuge and strength, A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
Nehemiah 8:10
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
*remember I said I had an attitude? If you lose your joy, you do lose your strength and it becomes harder for you to fight.
Psalm 32:7-8
You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
God has delivered me from so much. He hid me from so much.
Lean not to your own Understanding
When I was thinking God was going to move in one direction, he moved in another direction and this is what happens when we lose our Faith. We think we have it figured out when we should rest in the Father's love.
Isaiah 55 : 8 New International Version (NIV)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
Trust in the LORD
Be encouraged. God is a good Father who fills you with Hope, giving us the joy that we need to overcome.
Hold on tight to God. Ask him to renew your strength and give you the peace that passes all understanding so that your faith would be strengthened in him. There is hope, there is joy, there is peace, there is love in the Father's hands.
Selah
