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Happy Troubled Christians
by Jerry Ousley We had come to the end. Deb and I had been married for a few years and our son, Jeremy was still an infant. Bills had piled seemingly to the ceiling of our meager two bedroom mobile home. We had purchased a new car a couple of years before (please remember that this was when you could buy a new car for under $4000.00) and we still owed on it. There was the phone bill, the water bill, the electric bill, hospital bills and our mortgage payment, all on top of that car payment. We didn't know what we were going to do or how we were going to get the money to pay all those bills that were due. We prayed; not just a quick meaningless prayer but we persevered and when we arose we both knew that God was somehow going to take care of the situation. He did. At that time I was still selling insurance and the Lord blessed us with a large sale. Deb had been laid off from work and was drawing unemployment (then it was only around $100.00 a week). Within two weeks of that prayer she got a very good paying job and things began to turn around. You know, I believe that God wanted to do those things for us even before we prayed. One might think that we needed to pray to get God's attention, reminding Him that He had promised to supply our needs. But guess what; God knew what we needed even before that prayer. He knew exactly what we needed and when we needed it. The prayer wasn't so much as reminding God of what He had promised us but it was a time for us to get our hearts and minds straight. Our prayer didn't invoke God's blessing on us, it really only reminded us that He had promised to take care of us. We received a great peace after that prayer and we knew that God had the situation under control. But again, our puny prayers didn't stir the Almighty, All Powerful God into action but merely served to let us know that He had this. Well what do you know I finally got it through my thick skull that I had no power because of God, but that my prayers only serve to remind me that He's got the wheel and we're cruising' just fine! In Matthew 5 at the beginning of the chapter we read about the blessings of God. We call them the Beatitudes. Jesus spoke of eight things that can make us blessed. Remember now, the word "blessed" means "to be made happy." It seems that there are a lot of troubled Christians in the world today. We come to the Lord and receive His gift of salvation thinking that He's going to be our answer and our problems will all be over. But guess what once we've grown in the Lord a little it seems that our troubles are just beginning. So why should we bother coming to God and asking for salvation if it's only going to heap a pile of trouble on our shoulders? We come to Him despite troubles because of these blessings. There are some negative things found in these blessings. First we read "Blessed are the poor in spirit " there it is "poor in spirit" means that we are weak spiritually. How can that be a blessing? It's because we have the opportunity to become rich in spirit. Jesus also said "for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." The poor in spirit can become rich in spirit because they have the promise of Heaven. We also read that those who mourn are made happy because they shall be comforted. Happy are the meek, because they will inherit the earth. Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness; they will be filled. Happy are the merciful because they will obtain mercy. Happy are the pure in heart because they will see God. Happy are those who make peace because they will be called the sons of God. And happy are those who are persecuted because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them! Though we may be troubled, perplexed and it seems that we're in a pit with no way out, know that despite our difficulty we can be made happy because God does hear us. In fact He knows what we need way before we do. But let's continue to remind ourselves in prayer. We may be a troubled people, but man are we happy, and shortly God will send someone by with a rope to get us out of that pit! Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |