For many who feel they go one step forward in the Lord and then two steps backward, be encouraged. I sense the Lord saying, "I count the one step forward and two steps backward as forward progress."
In football, when the team needs one yard for a first down and the player carries the ball forward one yard yet gets pushed back two yards, it's still marked as a first down. The referee of the game calls that forward progress and I believe the referee of the universe does that also. He only counts your one step forward, not your push backs. I'm convinced that many who feel like quitting are actually making progress.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)
The Lord Sees Your Victory Before You See Your Struggle
"You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob." Psalm 44:4 (NIV)
Many years ago at a Russ Bixler miracle meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I stood in proxy (stood in the place of) for my father, who for twenty five years, couldn't stop smoking cigarettes. When I arrived home, my father was in the living room watching television. I whispered to my mother in the kitchen what I had done for my dad so he would stop smoking. I didn't know he overheard me telling mom. He walked into our kitchen and said, "Maybe that's the reason when
I lit up a cigarette about eight o'clock this evening, it didn't taste right, so I put it out." Dad never smoked another cigarette the rest of his life! It was the same time I stood in proxy for him that evening sixty miles away.
On the other hand, my mother, who was bound by cigarettes, fought the craving for 16 years. Each time she was tempted, she would go down to the basement of our home to an old box of jars and would kneel down, crying out to the Lord for deliverance. Finally, after sixteen long years the craving left her. I believe now that God wasn't counting the years she couldn't stop smoking, but only the sixteenth year when she overcame it. The Lord for some reason knew
something good was happening in her as a result of persevering. During this time my mother learned compassion for people who struggled in their weaknesses and many were delivered before she was, for she knew how to pray for them as one of them.
He is Weaning Many from Their Struggles
I believe this coming year will be a landmark for many who will break free from their struggles. Those who have cried out to the Lord for many years and yet are still bound will discover deliverance just because they didn't quit trusting the Lord for their victory. Although some will have instant deliverance, others will know they were being weaned from their bondage. Remember, in our struggles, we as believers, are not sinners struggling to become saints, we
are saints struggling against sin.
My mother had major heart bypass surgery in her 70's. The surgeon came to the waiting room and said to our family: "When you go in to see your mother, she's not going to look that good to you. But because of what she's been through, she looks great to me." I sense many reading this article feel like they are not doing well in their own eyes and also as a result of what the enemy and other people are saying about them. But I
hear the Father saying, "But because of what you've been through, you look great to Me... because of what you've been through." Many who feel like quitting are actually doing well from what God sees.
The Lord takes into account what we have been through and what we are presently battling. He understands why we are struggling. He remembers all of our struggles from the womb to the present moment. The One who numbers the hairs on our head and knows our every weakness, knows us best and loves us most. When everything is against us, He isn't.
Amazing Grace Is When We Think We Have Blown It
"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews
4:14-16
Are you still struggling against sin? Fighting sin will never deliver you, drawing closer to Jesus will.
You are Crucified with Christ
Remember, you've been crucified with Christ. You were nailed to the Cross with Him. No matter how much your old nature acts like it's still alive, it's dead. You are dead, dead to sin but alive unto God... You are free before you are free because of Calvary. You are free indeed. Go ahead and live unto God.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
Remember, God already had your funeral. He buried you with Christ and raised you up with Him. Go live!
"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103 11-14 (KJV)
Whispers Of Hope...
* John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, stated, "Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour."
