There was a young woman who loved
the Lord who recently spent some time away from home. She was able to spend
time with friends she had not spent time with for a long while, a couple whom
she had not even seen for two years! After hearing some of the struggles
they were facing, and knowing what it was to face struggles herself, she shared
with them some of the magnificent things that her wonderful Savior was teaching
her at the time. She also shared with them Biblical teachings and knowledge she
had gained in the past, and some of the ways the Lord had blessed and sustained
her through past trials. She related with exuberance that the Lord loved those
girls and that if they found their worth and fulfillment in Him, they
would not need to be searching for it elsewhere, and continually meet with
disappointment and pain. Her worldview was strengthened, and although she
encountered a bit of culture shock, she had poured encouragement into her
friends by the grace of God and the Power of His Spirit.
The Lord blessed her with phenomenal
things from His Word during this time, as well, which kept her going—fed her
fuel with fire and kept it blazing—gave her a reason to share that hope within
her!
But when she returned home, and
expected that fire to continue, she was discouraged to find it quite the
opposite! :-( In fact, she felt as
though the Lord had put up a wall between Himself and she and she was very disheartened.
Was there something wrong with her house that hindered her from intimacy with
her Lord, even though she did her best to irradiate what might? She hadn’t
changed at all since she had come home—in fact, she tried to spend time with
the Lord in a more similar way then she had during her vacation, but to no
avail. It even came to the point where she subconsciously thought, “What’s the
use?” and battled with depression. There was a sudden weight on her heart—
And she didn’t know why
:-(
She wondered if perhaps the Lord
had been giving her a taste of His magnificence while she was away, in blessing
her time with Him, only to remove those blessings when she arrived back home as
if to say, “Here—you know how wonderful fellowship with me can be. Now that you
are back home, in your own native environment, where everything is so much
harder to practice and live out, how bad do you want it?”
But she knew better. That seemed
like something her earthly father would say is against the nature of God. God
doesn’t tease or taunt.
But she also remembered, that
after His great victory on Mount Caramel, the prophet Elijah also suffered
with depression and discouragement. Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him and he
ran off into the desert and asked the Lord to take his life, he was in such
despair!
Even though he’d just come out of
a major spiritual victory, a mountaintop, if you will, he suddenly felt plunged
into darkness! :-( It was as though, after this hard and wonderful work, Elijah was
spiritually drained.
This young woman also
remembered that it was after a forty-day fast in the wilderness—another
spiritual victory—that the Lord Jesus Himself was intensely tempted and
attacked by the devil.
Perhaps, she reasoned, this is
what was happening to her. Or perhaps, yet another plausible explanation, the
devil saw the damage she was doing to his kingdom, the joy she was finding in his
greatest Enemy, and was all over finding a way to prevent ‘anymore of that’ at
all costs!
Is this you today, dear sister?!?!?!?
If it is, please! Do NOT
loose heart! Pray that God would bind satan and his demons in the name of Jesus
and keep them away from you! Persevere! Get into the Word one more
time, and even if it doesn’t feel as if you glean anything, you still
spent time with Jesus and tried your best.
“…Nothing
‘jumps’ out. Is it then unprofitable? No, because it does
help even if we can not feel it. It is like taking potatoes and holding them
under running water. Even though a lot of dirt may not come off, they
still are cleansed to a degree. So I should just continue
reading. It was cleanse my heart and make it good soil for growing
fruit.”
{Taken from The
Family Daughter, page 103 Emphasis mine }
I love that illustration and find
encouragement from it! :-) Also, get alone with Jesus, and even if you do not feel
like putting forth the effort to pray, even if it doesn’t seem worth it, or if
you don’t feel as if you have anything to say to Him—talk to Him anyway!!
Be brutally honest. He can handle it. (read that once as well LOL- here is the link to where: Lessons Learned in the Valley MOHL
And please, dear sister!
TAKE HEART!!!!!
Omisoul—Jesus totally and completely LOVES YOU!!!
Be ENCOURAGED
by how God handled the situation
with Jesus and Elijah. The Bible says that angels ministered unto them! (Mark
1:13) (1 Kings 19:5-8) And before you say, “yeah, well Jesus was
perfect! Of course God would send angels to minister unto Him
in His moment of need,” remember that while Jesus was
sinless—Elijah was not!! :-D (James 5:17-18) I know the context isn’t
quite the same, but God is not going to leave you comfortless! (Psalm
23:4) (Isaiah 43:1) (Isaiah 51:12) (Hebrews 2:18)
Remember, you are a Daughter of
the King of Kings, and you are enlisted in His army! You are a Princess
Warrior! You are of infinite value and worth to Christ and His kingdom! If you
are simply trying to live for Him and keep Christ at the center of your
life, guess what?! Satan does not like you! If you are on fire for
Christ- if you are living for Him—satan is going to do all he can to make sure
that fire is stamped out! >=(
So, by the mighty, all-powerful grace
of GOD DO NOT LET satan DO THIS!!!!! Persevere! Fight the
good fight of faith! The King has adorned you with perfect armor—put it
to use in a way that glorifies Him and defeats the enemy! (Ephesians
6:10-18) Pray for the help of the angels!
“Prayer is often a contest
between demons who hinder, and angels who minister.” ~~Evangelist/Preacher Tom Harmon
(And I can almost promise
you, taking time to seriously just pray will probably eliminate that
“separating wall” feeling you have in your heart!♥)
Walk by God’s grace and finally,
rest in His comprehension-surpassing peace! (2 Corinthians 1:2) (Philippians
4:6-7)
If you want, I will pray for you!
Press on, dear sisters! I know
you may feel as though you are, but take heart, because, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
~~Love Katie
PS. I actually felt the Lord
lay this on my heart today. Often when I do a blogpost, it is because God has
given me something that thrills and excites me, but today, it was different. I
didn’t really desire to write this, but I felt I should. So I began.
And guess what?
I was adding the finishing
lines on it, when suddenly, Microsoft Word decided to glitch. A blip popped up
on my screen informing me that “Microsoft Word has stopped working”, and before
I realized what I’d done, I clicked the only button—“close”—on the blip and
lost the entire, basically finished blogpost.
Yep. Can anyone say
“confirmation”? :-D :-D :-D
By God’s grace, I immediately
reopened the program to find that 3/4th of it was “recovered”, but I
still had to rewrite the last few paragraphs.
If you needed this today, if you feel like the
young woman in the story, BE ENCOURAGED, sweet sister! God made sure you got
this today!!!!! He loves you!
{Pictures via Rachel and Google Images! :-) }
