WHEN LIFE IS TOUGH
© Rosemary Bardsley 2020
Remember ...
Remember who you are ....
You are a child of God ... adopted by the Father, very precious and incredibly loved (Ehpesians 1:5).
You are a 'saint' - a person God has set apart for himself (Hebrews 10:10).
You are a member of God's kingdom (Colossians 1:12).
Remember who you belong to ...
You belong to God, not to yourself (1Peter 2:9).
You belong to God, not to the world (John 17:16).
You belong to the one who is Lord of all (Romans 9:5).
You belong to the one who is Creator of all (Colossians 1:16).
You belong to the Sovereign God ... and no one can snatch you out of his hand (John 10:28,29).
Remember what God did for you in and through his Son, Jesus Christ...
He brought you from spiritual death to spiritual life (Ephesians 2:5, 6).
He removed the sin barrier that separated between you and God, giving you permanent access into his presence (Colossians 2:14).
He reconciled you to himself (Colossians 1:20).
He established peace between himself and you (Romans 5:1).
He fully acquitted you of all your sin and guilt (Romans 3:21 - 24).
He fully paid out all the condemnation and judgement due to you (Romans 8:1).
Remember where you are ...
You are 'in Christ' (Galatians 3:28).
You are safe in the Father's hand (John 10:29).
You are being carried close to the Father's heart (Isaiah 40:11).
You are seated with Christ in the presence of God (Ephesians 2:6).
Remember who God is ...
He is love ... and loves you with an everlasting love (1John 4:8; Jeremiah 31:3).
He is light ... and there is no darkness in him (1John 1:5).
He is good ... good beyond our imagining (Psalm 34:8).
He is all powerful ... so powerful that he takes hold of the bad things and brings good out of them (Romamns 8:28).
He is in control ... and if he has chosen not to stop a bad thing happening, you can be sure that the good he will bring out of it is far greater and more important than the bad thing that happened (Genesis 50:19, 20).
He is all-knowing - he knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).
To stay away from Bible study and from church would be to do the very worst thing that you could do when there is upheavel in your life. It would be the one thing above all things that would give Satan the foothold he is seeking in your life.
He, Satan, does not want you to be reminded how much God loves you.
Satan does not want you to be reminded how much Jesus has done for you.
Satan does not want you to have the encouragement of Christian fellowship, and the strengthening impact of the Word of God in the songs and in the message, and the tangible reminder of Christ's death for you in 'the bread and the wine'.
He loves to see you wallowing all alone in your grief and bitterness - it plays right into his hands and works towards his evil purpose for you.
The Word of God commands us:
'Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you' [James 4:7,8]. It also says: 'Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith ...' [1Peter 5:8,9].
Don't give up.
Remember.
Remember that you are so dearly loved by the Father.
Remember also, that there is a group of believers who love you, with whom you will be reminded and reassured of his love, and strengthened to resist the evil one. Don't exclude yourself from fellowship on the basis of some false perception that you have to get rid of the hate and the hurt before you are worthy ... not one of us is worthy. We are all sinners forgiven by his grace. It is hearing of that grace in song, in message and in the Lord's supper that will help you to rise above the hate and the hurt. It is seeing and feeling that grace in the love of your fellow Christians that will confirm the love that God has lavished upon you in Christ.