The chorus to a song
with the above title goes:
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He never promised that the cross
would not get heavy,
And the hill would not, be hard to climb,
He never offered, our victories, without fighting
But he said, help would always, come in time.
Just remember when you're standing, in the valley of decision,
And the adversary says give in;
Just hold on, our Lord will show up,
And he will take you through the fire again.
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These days
have brought some difficult times for many of us. Many people are very
concerned about losing
their jobs, losing their homes, and not having the
ability of taking care of their loved ones. So needless to say, stress
levels are very high. We just elected a new President, and most people
have their hopes on him fixing the problems. This is the bigger problem; we are putting our hopes on a
man, or a system of government when we should be putting our faith
in God.
Let us look at the first two lines of this song: He never promised that
the cross would not get heavy, and the hill would not, be hard to
climb. Now let us look at what Jesus says in Luke
9: 23-26 (23)
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
(24) For
whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for My sake will save it. (25)
For what profit is it to a man if he
gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?
(26) For whoever
is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed
when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy
angels.
I believe Jesus makes it pretty clear, that this life is not going
to be easy. Fortunately for us we live in a period of time and a
country, in which a lot of suffering is not the norm. But unfortunately
we get so spoiled to having everything we desire, and life in most
cases is like a walk in the park; we can easily stroll through life
enjoying the view, but eventually we will trip and fall. How we
handle these falls is the key; Do we pretend that we can lift
ourselves up, or do we let God lift us up and carry us on our
journey.
Taking up your cross daily and following Jesus
is sometimes a difficult task. For going against the
grain, not fitting into the concepts that society sets for us, or
not imitating your friends and family members will most likely
result in you losing those relationships. But believe me the rewards of
carrying your cross and following Jesus, have rewards which will be
more beneficial then following the world. If you lift up your cross
and follow Jesus, he will surely bring you through the fire.
How about the hills not being hard to climb? How can a
hill be hard to climb, when Jesus said you have the
ability to move mountains. Jesus stated this in Mark 13:
(22) So Jesus
answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
(23) For
assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed
and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that those things he says will be done, he will have
whatever he says.
(24) Therefore I
say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you
receive them, and you will have them.
The rest of the chorus in the song talks about; He
never offered, our victories, without fighting. But he said, help
would always, come in time. Just remember when you're standing, in the
valley of decision, And the adversary says give in; Just hold on,
our Lord will show up.
I believe the lines are pretty clear, God never offered you a perfect
life; struggles, trails and tribulations, are part of life. We will
have battles through life which we will have to fight. How we fight the battles and who we allow to stand on our side is
very important. Do we fight with God standing by our side, or do we
go along with the adversary?
Who are these adversaries; are they Satan, family members which are
misled themselves, or friends that are always looking for the easy
way out; Is it possible it could be all of them? This is surely
something we need to pray about. Prayer is a
wonderful thing, it is your communication with God, and your cell
phone is not needed.
Now back to the statement about our hopes in the new
President-Elect. Although the President-Elect will have tremendous
power, his power will be nothing in comparison to the power of God.
Let's do a little comparison:
- God can move
mountains, the President has difficulty moving Congress.
- God will open
doors for you to get a job, most likely a better job than the one
you lost. The President will talk about creating jobs, but jobs are
created through need and demand. It is still questionable if the
President-Elect will be able to handle his own job.
- God will put a roof over your head, and food on your table. The government will
control you thru food stamps & Section 8.
- God's will
answer your prayers, although it is sometimes not the answer you
wish for, but it will be the best for you. The President might
answer your letters, but usually is a standard form letter and not
from him personally, but one of his staff. The President can not
answer Prayers.
- With God all
things are possible (Mark 10: 23-31). The President stood on the
platform of change, but the only change we can be certain of, is his
change of address. Since he will be moving into the White House.
- God never changes (Malachi 3:6), and God's term
of office is forever (The Bible). Presidents term of office is 4
years. (Constitution of the United States Article 2)
- God will be
with you thru the fire, just like he was with Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-Nego (Daniel 3: 19-30).
The
President will not be
with you thru the fire, he will be too busy being rushed out of the
fire by his security staff.
We are curious creatures; After
September 11, 2001, we all stood together in prayer and hope for God's
help. Trying to understand why this happened, and where we were heading.
A year later we were in 2 wars, but life moved on. Unless we had a
family member in the military, this no longer effected us. Here we are
in 2008, and we are unsure of where the economy is heading; Again we
stand together in prayer. Why are we only standing together in prayer
during these times? We should always be communicating with our God,
since we have all his promises and his word (The Bible). Sure we live in
a great country, our freedoms are unsurpassed. But we should not be so
naive, as to think that our hopes and future should be put only in the
hands of our government and President.
Jesus died for our
sin's, opening the door for a relationship with God. We have the power
to develop this relationship, or choose not to pursue it any further.
Throughout our life we have been in situations which we realize should
have consumed us, but somehow we got through. God always seems to be
there, but sometimes we do not want to recognize him . Maybe we should
reach out to God, instead of always waiting for him to reach out to us.
Do we really wish to attempt walking through the fire alone? Do we want
to gamble that the fire will not consume us?
Joshua 24:
(15) And if it
seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom
you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on
the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
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