Many are under the impression that once someone accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they suddenly get this “no more trouble for me armor”. On the contrary, this is not so at all. When I received Jesus Christ, I felt as if I had another chance with life to fix all the damage that I had done. I was granted God’s Holy Spirit and He became and is my guide to the life I live now.
John 7:
38 “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive….
I so too have received a best friend, my Comforter whom comforts me in times of trouble. This trouble, is the prime of this post. The world that we live in today is much so governed by sin. Once upon a time when I was so blind in my sin the amount of trouble in the world didn’t seem to be so great. By the power of the Holy Spirit, my eyes and ears have be awakened to the corruption of the world. I’ve come to the revelation that a lot of the media, such as movies, music that we watch and listen to does influence our minds whether we want to admit it or not. I remember back when I didn’t care too much about God I listened to and watched some very dark media. These all perverted my thoughts. Whenever I got angry I listened to popular rappers, 50 Cent/Eminem, or heavy metal album Queen of the Damned. Now, I’m not mentioning these because I’m saying they should be banned. I’m just saying that hey, what we put inside of us changes us.
Music is pretty much everywhere, in all forms of entertainment. We hear it in movies, television commercials, many of us play it when we study, when we go to sleep, while driving and even when we wake up. So with that, the lyrics that we listen to, the essence of the sound influences our minds, bodies and even our very souls.
Thank goodness that God caught my heart in time before I acted on some of my thoughts. I say some of my thoughts, because to be honest, I did act immorally on many; cursing, cutting, lusting..just to name a few.
Now what does this have to do with trouble coming? Well, since I was once a part of this junk I couldn’t really see anything since my eyes were dimmed with darkness. Now, one of the troubles that one faces as a believer is lack of hope. This is a faith shattering trouble. The lack of hope comes as a result of the corruption in the world. I see so much corruption in the world that we live in today, murder, rape, folks being so hateful towards the Gospel of Jesus Christ/the Gospel of perfect love, that I wonder to myself sometimes what’s the point. Whenever the Holy Spirit calls us to speak the Gospel and we keep quiet we believers ourselves are rejecting God. When we reject God, we sin, and as many know, sin separates us from God. Then through our separation we often feel drought-ed of God’s presence. Then we start questioning our own faith. I have a mate whom once believed in God and then sadly, for whatever reason, could be this, just stopped believing in His existence. How devastating!
Hebrews 10
26 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
This is just one of the many forms of trouble, which kills our faith without our even knowing. Spreading the Gospel is every believers’ mission. For one, when eyes are opened to the Truth and the love of Jesus Christ is felt, one begins to hate the things that which the Lord hates, sin. The only anti-dote to sin is Jesus Christ. No other way can save us from our sins.
John 14:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
We believers are called to spread the Gospel, because Jesus Himself commanded us to do so. To reject His command is an act of disobedience and is sin.
Matthew 28:
19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Other troubles may come in financial bankruptcy, loss of a family member. We cry out to God, why? Why me, or why us? We never really know why God does the things He does. However, we know that God is eternally good and He never gives us too much that we cannot bear.
1 Corinthians 10:
13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
Plus with Him as our Rock we can overcome any trouble we may face. All physical bodies return to the ground from whence it came at some point. A family member/relative or friend physically leaving the earth is inevitable. Sure we miss them, but the way I see it, the real loss is when while still on earth, the passed away one rejected Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Money is great to have. However, we can’t take it along with us when we leave this earth. So basically, we shouldn’t get too attached to it. Besides, any earthly riches that we gain are to be used for the glory of God. That is, to help others in need. Accumulating money whereby it remains stationary in an account is pointless. Earthly wealth is temporary, so we should not let our desire for it consume us. Let God be always first in our hearts.
Sometimes we need to break something down, like a house, to make it into a better one. I believe many times God does this in our lives. As we did not create ourselves, God did, we can’t possibly know everything about ourselves. However, God does. He knows the number of strands of hair on our bodies, the very nature of our hearts. Sometimes there’s something that’s preventing us from becoming the person God intended us to be. So a certain amount of “trouble” comes into our lives in order to bring us into “full mode” with God. We go to school, study, and at the end of the semester we get a bunch of exams. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like exams much, but it’s a wonderful reward when the results come out and my performance was outstanding. It’s then that I realize that I truly know my academics. In the same instance, when we overcome our spiritual troubles, it is truly wonderful. Our faith is strengthened and we walk a step closer to God. God always allows Himself as a solution to our troubles. No matter what they may be.
Our walk to glory was not intended to be easy.
Luke 24:
26 “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
If we intend to be Christ like, it can’t be any different for us.
John 16:
33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Followers of Jesus Christ, like Him so too shall be persecuted by worshipers of hate. More trouble! But….
Matthew 5:
10 “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Non-believers themselves face many more troubles. Non-believers most often live by the standards of society. Clearly the standards of society have be corrupted. Since non-believers have no faith or hardly, little faith, they often have a harder time getting out of their ditch. It is only through God, through the love of Jesus Christ, that we are delivered out of despair, out of our troubles. This is why it is the duty of us believers to spread the Gospel, those who chose to receive shall be saved. Those whom do not shall remain slaves to unrighteousness.
John 8:
34 Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
One might say there are non-believers whom live moral lives. True, but none of us are without sin. Sin separates us from God so we need to have faith in His plan for salvation to gain eternal life. Physical death is only to be feared when one have not received the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Non-believers claim that we believers often “shove our God down their throats”, and want non-believers to believe in God out of fear. Certainly not! Believers of the One True living God are often so overwhelmed by God’s love they just want folks to know it as well. A relationship with Jesus Christ is the best relationship of anyone’s lifetime! Many believers were once slaves of sin, once enslaved we searched endlessly for ways out and found the only way out through Jesus Christ. We feel it to be our duty to tell others of this remedy. My mates, the scary place is hell, an eternal hell is even scarier. You don’t believe in the existence of hell? Well, this is your decision but I do believe with this mentality you’re headed for trouble! An eternal one at that. Dear non-believer, it is of your best interest to sought out Jesus with your heart. It’s not going to be easy, life on earth is not easy for any one. Well, it certainly hasn’t been easy for me. So what’s the difference? The eternal love /comfort of God is. I shouldn’t tell you this, but before I used to make my passwords all related to folks whom I care for. We human beings often let each other down. As a result, my passcodes have changed many times. My passcodes are now all related to God in one way or another, the relations haven’t changed since. God does not fail me! I don’t often understand His actions, but should I really? He wouldn’t be God if I did. I don’t even always understand my own actions, much less!
Psalm 73:
28 “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”
Regardless of the troubles we face, in everything we do, may we do it for the glory of the Lord God. May we love Him, love others and love ourselves!
Hebrews 10:
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Amen!