Congratulations! If you are reading this....you are reading my first blog...ever. Thanks to Josh...I will now be a blogger. I'll try to talk with Josh ahead of time and get an idea of what he might be talking about at Illuminate on Wednesday night and write something to get our minds and hearts going in that general direction. As of right now, I have no idea what Josh will be talking about...so I'll just give a little something that God has put on my heart lately.
Life isn't easy. It's a fact. No one, including God, promises that it will be. Often when we go through a stressfull or painful situation, it's tough to keep our eyes focused on Him. We continue to want to look at the situation and fix it ourself. We are reminded in Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." We aren't meant to take worries on ourselves. We don't know enough to fix it. God is not limited to time and knows how each situation will turn out. We are to lift worries to God...then our job is to pray about it, talk to God, and trust that God will take care of it. Psalm 56:4 "In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" When we hold on to that worry...that fear...we can see in ourselves, a lack of faith that we have in God. This is where we can turn to the word to know that God loves us...He will provide for us...He will get us through all situations...He will make us stronger through them. Through this we will gain a stronger faith that next time, He too will provide comfort and get us through it. Through scripture we can be encouraged that lifting our worries to God and trusting Him, because He loves us, is the only way to handle a bad situation. God is the God of All Comfort.
Read 2 Corinthians 1: 3-11
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
I hope to see you all in a few hours at Illuminate tonight!!
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We need to learn to rely on God, even when things are going good. its always easy to slip up when things are going bad or when you feel like you don't need God when things are going good. God wants you to bring everything to Him, no matter how small. If we remember that and rely on him for everything then we will find its easier to trust him in the harder times.
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