Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

This song (or something like it) must have been sung over me last Friday night as I struggled on and off to sleep (Ps 42:7-8). I was in quite a bit of pain, and tired of sleeping on my back. A few tears (I am embarrassed to say), flowed out of the side of my eyelids, as I began talking to the Lord about it. But then I felt ashamed for those thoughts (really what was grumbling) about my situation.

I began thinking on others that are such a worse place, and began to pray for my brethren who are truly suffering across the world. Some sick, some hungry, some with no place to lay their head (like Jesus Christ). Many who would love to have one night sleeping in a bed as I have.

Even worse, we see the beheadings, the abuse, the murderous rage against Christians going on across the world and since the beginning. The nations of the world turning against Israel. The more they reject God, the more they are like their father (John 8:44). They do not know the horror in store for them if they die rejecting the Son of God.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.  Ps 2:1-5

Believers are not of this world

We can trust in Him, no matter how bad it may look.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  Matt 6:25-34

Don’t get imbalanced with the fears of the world, put your mind on better things — Jesus!

THE JOY OF THE LORD IS OUR STRENGTH

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.  

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,

whatsoever things are honest,

whatsoever things are just,

whatsoever things are pure,

whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are of good report;

if there be any virtue,

and if there be any praise,

think on these things.  

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, >>do: and the God of peace shall be with you.  Phil 4:4-9

The Lord will satiate your soul

For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Jer 31:25

There are no words to give justice to the way God helps with our attitudes when we start thanking God for what we do have, and most especially this unfathomable gift of eternal life (2 Cor 9:15).

Pain, fear, worries, sorrows etc. seem to dim, when we keep our mind stayed on Him (Is 26:3). One day all our troubles will fade, sorrow and sighing will flee away, tears will be wiped from our eyes from the One who gave His life in such great love for us.

You can trust in Jesus through it all.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  Is 26:3

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  Phil 4:11-13

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Psalm 34:18-19

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Ps 28:7

The first words of the song I woke up with in my ear…

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

Just to take Him at His Word;

Just to rest upon His promise,

And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”

The enemy of our souls attacks us via many methods — the government, the news agencies, t.v., radio — the evil in the world, or even the trials in our lives. In all of those and more he seeks to instill fear and defeat in us. He has many in this world depressed, empty, even suicidal, without hope. Others he has distracted or blinded with entertainment, jobs, our needs, family, etc. I am not saying all are bad things necessarily, but we have to remember our priorities, and not let our senses be dulled by the prince of the power of the air. We need the Lord and His Word, and He needs to be first in our lives. It’s a daily struggle to obey with His help to be a disciple (or at least it is for me as scattered as I am).

The lost ones around us need to hear the good news.  We cannot grow weary yet.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  Gal 6:9

We are not of this world…

Are we not those who have such a great hope?

Do we have troubles?

Do we have trials?

Do we have difficulties and sorrows? 

Yes of course we do. Many much greater than others, so I dare not to compare my little woes with those who are or have dealt with far more.  Let’s fix our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith.

We have so great a salvation, and such a great hope, and probably not much more time to work. So we must press on and pray for opportunity or ask the Lord what He may be trying to show us (trust Him that He will in His Word).

A friend and I talked recently (over the phone) about God’s Grace being sufficient in all, and how His Grace will abound when we need it to see us through difficult times.  He will give us the Grace we need, we need to lean on Him.

It is so sweet to trust in Jesus!

Jesus, seeing and foreknowing what was to come upon Him before His crucifixion, was in agony. His friends, sleeping instead of praying as Jesus had asked. Alone, yet never alone — but suffering. As He prayed, His sweat, droplets of blood falling to the earth. A small foretaste of the blood, sweat and tears that would be shed ahead.

Jesus faced and carried the burden of the entire world’s wickedness from beginning to end. The iniquity of every man, woman and child (1 John 2:2), knowing it would be ALL laid upon Him (Is 53:6). As frail humans, we at least can turn off a channel when we cannot bear to see the wickedness, or choose not to hear or partake of something we cannot stomach. We can put down the newspaper or even hide in our houses. But everything, every disgusting, vile, dark thing was laid upon Him. Every dark thing… The magnitude of the evil multiplied throughout time — past, present and forward, He would take upon Himself. Suffering and dying in our place. The sheer torture of just the forethought, I cannot even imagine.

But Jesus became a man and humbled Himself unto death for us. He was God who became man, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, one of no reputation (Phil 2) who would lay down His life willingly in our place (John 10:17-18; John 15:13), no greater love…

The Lord of glory, laid aside His glory to die for us. Yet He prayed for, and longed for the glory He had with His Father since before the creation of the world (Jn 17). Shedding His blood on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins, once for all (Heb 9-10).

He took our just punishment –- death, (for the wages of sin is death, this we know…Rom 6:23)

The difference is…Jesus died in our place for our sins, but is no longer hanging on the cross, nor buried in the ground. He rose again three days later as He said He would. He is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25-27).

He is NOT the baby Jesus, He is NOT a victim still hanging on the cross, He is the Victor!

He arose! He had victory over the grave, death had no more sting (1 Cor 15:50-57). And we too are given victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and will rise again to be with Him forevermore.

Therefore, my BELOVED BRETHREN…

→ Be ye STEDFAST,

→ UNMOVEABLE,

→ ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD

→ Forasmuch as YE KNOW that your LABOUR is NOT in VAIN in the Lord.

SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

Remember brethren, how GREAT a death we have been delivered from.  And in this world, He will continue to deliver us until the time for us to be with Him. We are comforted by Him. May we comfort others that are in trouble. As we suffer with Christ, our consolation abounds by Christ. Here Paul says they even despaired of their life — but there was a purpose… So that their trust would be on God and not on themselves.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death….2 Cor 1:3-10a

The Lord wrote His Word for a reason.

Too many are neglecting His Word. We need to do more than just hear it from a pastor, or just read a verse or two in passing. We need to hear it and take heed to it (Ps 119:9). We need to study it (with God’s approval always forefront – 2 Tim 2:15). Not to win some argument, but to be sure we are rightly dividing the truth.

We need to hide it in our heart to keep from sinning. If we are noble we are to search it daily to see if these things are so, in order to not be fooled by false doctrine. If Solomon, the wisest man can fall into apostasy, so can you, don’t fool yourself. Stay in the strong meat of His Word (Heb 5:12-14) so you can discern between good and evil.

His Word is treasure, and we should all love it (Ps 119:140,162). His Word gives us patience and hope (Rom 15:4). Don’t love it?

I liken time away from His Word to an anorexic who has had trouble with food and they do not crave it and eventually it actually repulses them as they starve to death. OBEY for your own good. Abide in Him, continue in His Word (Jn 8:31-32). Get into it with just obedience (if you don’t feel like it), and with His help, try to continue in His Word. God will reward you (Heb 11:6).

Ever felt like your soul was literally clinging to the dust?

(The Word has the answer – Ps 119:25)

Weak?

(Ps 119:28) His Word strengthens us.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.  Rom 15:4

If you die tonight, are you SURE you know where you are going?