There have been a lot of battles in my life lately and they have caused me to realize that there are only 2 choices in every war...lay down & be defeated or FIGHT! I choose to fight! Jesus says in Joel 3:
Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say, "I am strong!"
... But the LORD will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
This has been MY verse lately! I have been so tempted to admit defeat, to lay down, and to abort the things that God wants to do in me. But, I just can't! God promises that He will never leave me or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6) and that He WILL complete the work that He started in me (Phillipians 1:6) and that He has already given me the victory
(1 Corinthians 15:57)!
I'm in the midst of refining. Jesus is continually changing me, burning away the dross; the things that will abort His will in my life. But this is a hard road to walk. Sometimes you feel so alone. Like no one could understand the weight of this burden. And then you remember, there is someone:
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say, "I am strong!"
... But the LORD will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
This has been MY verse lately! I have been so tempted to admit defeat, to lay down, and to abort the things that God wants to do in me. But, I just can't! God promises that He will never leave me or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6) and that He WILL complete the work that He started in me (Phillipians 1:6) and that He has already given me the victory
(1 Corinthians 15:57)!
I'm in the midst of refining. Jesus is continually changing me, burning away the dross; the things that will abort His will in my life. But this is a hard road to walk. Sometimes you feel so alone. Like no one could understand the weight of this burden. And then you remember, there is someone:
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.'
Isaiah 53
May I not forget that His pain was much greater than mine. And that His pain was for my victory! Victory over sin, bondage, insecurity, unforgiveness, anger, anxiety, fear, condemnation, confusion & death! That is my VICTORY!! His death was for my LIFE!!
