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If you’re not feeling like this is one of the most challenging seasons in your existence, then this teaching may not strike the chord that it will with those that are really having to press—and press hard. What’s happening is just bananas on every front imaginable; and if you’re looking at things from a sense-knowledge perspective, you’re going to be lost because nothing makes sense. This season has really baffled me, and there was a time when I thought nothing could shake my confidence in what I believed I knew. I thought I had the system down pat. I thought I knew how to tap into the Father’s overflow and keep my life running on full and plenty. But you see, what I was really doing was relying on my abilities and money as my sufficiency. Like Job in the Old Testament, I thought that if I did all the things I had always done, my life would continue a trajectory that contented me. Wrong!
We’ve heard the testimonies. We’ve seen the evidence. A phenomenal breakthrough always, always follows a season of great turbulence, and yet while we’re enduring the discomfort of a wilderness experience, we forget or doubt this. God tells us in Philippians 4:6 (NLT), “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” This is a command in the form of a strategy from the Creator about how to handle worry and problems successfully. But too many of us do not see it this way.
We haven’t taken God at His Word. Instead, on a whole, we have made worry and anxiety almost as much a part of our lives as breathing. Some of us have never experienced a time when we weren’t worried about some problem or taxing situation. We don’t know any other way.
Even if it’s on the smallest level, human beings are wired to try and make sense of things so that we can find a remedy for the problem at hand and solve it. This is a very linear way of operating, but it’s kind of engrained in our makeup. So, when we observe that there’s a piece of the puzzle missing or that something isn’t as it should be, we perceive it as potentially harmful and we want it fixed.
God wants us to know that this is a very limited or linear way of seeing things, because it requires us to only use our physical eyes and not our spiritual vision and strength. Any time we become fixated on only what we can physically see right in front of us, and we are looking only at our own ability to fix things, we can be sure that faith is not in operation.
God’s standard in 2Corinithians 5:7 is that we walk by faith and not by sight. Worry and anxiety is a dead ringer that we’re walking by sight and not by faith.
You and I can never know how truly overwhelmingly vital it is that we learn to trust God with every fiber of our beings. This is a lesson that begins at birth and goes to the end of our lives on earth. We absolutely must trust God as our sufficiency—as our everything. Or else we will live so far beneath our privilege that a life of true abundance will be out of our reach.
From the very beginning with Adam and Eve, God demonstrated this. John 1:1 tells us affirmatively that in the beginning was the Word. Before Adam and Eve, the Word of the Lord was established. The Word was on the scene before they arrived, and when they were created, God gave them the dos and don’ts; He gave them His Word. God didn’t create them with His Word automatically programmed into their minds and hearts. They learned it as He fellowshipped with them and taught them the truth.
We could never know all the reasons why God set up the Laws of the Universe in the way that He did, but we can know with full confidence that His Laws are righteous, perfect, and govern the universe and everything in it with a specificity and uniformity that is beyond flawless. In Genesis 2:17, He laid down the law to the first couple, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” This Word is BOND! It is Law, and they chose to violate it.
God does not abide where His Word is not obeyed. In order for Adam and Eve to enjoy the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit, their trust in the Word of the Lord could not be compromised. We cannot please Him without faith. It seems a very simple thing that they had to do, but we need only look at ourselves to understand how the allure of worry, the heaviness of doubt, and the feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment tricks us into compromising our faith.
The threats of bill collectors, not having enough to pay the rent or mortgage, child support sketchy at best, problems at work, can’t find a good job or a good man; and on top of these, add the isms we face daily while trying to keep our heads above water. It can shatter a sister’s sense of worth and confidence if she’s not careful. This is the master plan of the enemy—to have you focused on the chaos all around you so that you begin to question the love that God has for you.
That’s the enemy’s whole plan. There’s one chief modus operandi in his arsenal and it is to get the people of God to question God’s Word so that they act upon their feelings of doubt. Yes, circumstances are uncomfortable, but never forget that we’re in it to grow. God has placed us on this earth to grow up into the fullness of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We can never lose sight of this.
How does one grow spiritually in Christ? We grow spiritually by choosing to walk in the Spirit, and we cannot do it without faith. Understand that the carnal, untrusting mind diminishes with each decision we make to stand upon God’s love and Word. Jude 1:3 (NKJV) tells us, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” This is the revelation we need to catch.
Jude, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, was writing to encourage and correct those in spiritual infancy. They did not see themselves as contenders in the faith, but rather passerbys of it; so much so that they had allowed false doctrine to be brought into the church. This is what happens when we do not take God at His Word and trust Him supremely. We let our defenses down, and are tempted to entertain teachings that undermine our spiritual growth in Christ.
God’s goal for us is clear. It is to be greater than the worries that the enemy uses to try and plague our existences. Every single time that you make a choice to honor God’s Word rather than give in to the temptation of worry and doubt, you lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where the corruption of moth and decay cannot get to them. (Matthew 6:20). Most importantly, when you choose to trust God, you choose love, and you establish the reality that through Jesus Christ, you truly are greater than the worries in your life. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Be Greater than the Worries in Your Life” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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