BEYOND THE BRINK

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“I’m being pushed to the brink”, she said. “I know I need to ‘let go and let GOD’, I sure don’t need to hear that one again, but the truth is I am ready to quit.”

WOW!

But we have all been there haven’t we?

Some days we feel as if our faith is on trial and Satan is running a cross-examination that challenges our very confidence in God.

We feel stressed, oppressed, depressed…just “messed”…reallyJ

It is during those tough “trials” that we have to shed the way we feel and reach out and get a firm GRIP on the TRUTH. When our faith is being interrogated we must pause and ask ourselves am I going to lean on my feelings or am I going to believe what the LORD SAYS to take me through it?

Proverbs 3:5-8

Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

⁵ Trust the LORD completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. ⁶ With every step you take, think about what he wants, and he will help you go the right way. ⁷ Don’t trust in your own wisdom, but fear and respect the LORD and stay away from evil. ⁸ If you do this, it will be like a refreshing drink and medicine for your body.

As hard as things seem at times, GOD always has a purpose for trying our faith.

The truth is that He stretches us so that we will have a greater capacity to serve Him.

Like an athlete facing a barrier we may sometimes feel we are at our limit, but in reality the process occurs more gently, like stretching a new rubber band a little at a time. With each extension, we are able to accomplish more for His glory.

It is when we feel like we are melting under the pressure of life, we must remember, we aren’t the first to be taken to the brink…

Psalm 66:8
^8-12 Bless our God, O peoples!
Give him a thunderous welcome!
Didn't he set us on the road to life?
Didn't he keep us out of the ditch?
He trained us first,
passed us like silver through refining fires,
Brought us into hardscrabble country,
pushed us to our very limit,
Road-tested us inside and out,
took us to hell and back;
Finally he brought us
to this well-watered place.

The bottom line is GOD desires our complete dependence, regardless of the situation. That is why He will often test us in the same area repeatedly until we can successfully bear up under the pressure.

Why…

…Because like the PSALMIST we will be able to testify to the TRUTH via our own experience of GOD’s help in our toughest times.

Let’s face some facts, the walk of a believer and a “recoverer”is not an easy one that is for sure. We will taste both success and failure as our faith is in the process of growing and our faith will be put on trial and placed on the stand over and over again in this life.

Yet if we train ourselves to trust the truth and set our feelings aside, we will continue to draw nearer and nearer to GOD and I think that is where we want to be after all isn’t it? Paul thought so…

2 Corinthians 7:11-13
And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closerto God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart.

I love you all.

Hang in there!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney