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Praise and Power
While I live will I praise the Lord: I
will sing praises unto my God while I have my being. (Psalm 146:2)
Are You Tired Of The Fight
by Milford Bowen - Praise and
Power Website
Did you ever have a day when it
seemed like you just could not get through to God? The sky seems as
though it was made of brass. Your river has run dry. You are caught in a
dead end street. The mountains are too high and the river is too wide.
You are discouraged and almost defeated. Satan is sitting there
rubbing his hands together in glee, thinking, "I've got him right where
I want him now, and he isconsidering throwing in the towel."
What happens next? Where do I go now? The children of Israel, God's
chosen people, never had it so good as when they escaped their land of
bondage and suffering. Yet, when they came to some seemingly
insurmountable obstacle they saw it only with their five-senses eyes and
cried out in self pity and fear,"let's go back to where we had food to
eat and a place to live."
They had taken their eyes off of the goal that God had placed before
them and focused on the obstacle. One of those obstacles was coming up
to the Red Sea. What they saw was an obstacle so great that they forgot
the promise of God. How could they ever get these hundreds of thousands
of people across this
body of water? Should they build boats or maybe a pontoon bridge? Or
should they go around? But their former captors were hot on their trail
to bring them back into bondage.
Do you get the picture? Satan is hot on our trail to bring us back into
the bondage of fear, doubt and worry. Our obstacle is so great we may
say, "I'm tired of the fight, I might just as well as give in."
Right there is part of the problem. We are tired of the fight because we
have been conducting our own battle instead of quietly and steadfastly
resting in God and letting Him do our fighting for us. If we would quit
the battle and just stand for God and give praise to Him we wouldn't be
so tired, and the battle would be over and done with.
God's promise to His people was that there was a land that was theirs
for the taking. Joshua 1:13 tellsus ". . . The LORD your God hath given
you rest, and hath given you this land." Even before the time of
captivity in Egypt God had spoken to Abram, later known as Abraham, "In
the same day the LORD made
a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, . .
."(Genesis 15:18). It was a promise of God that was more sure than if it
had been written in stone. This land was already given -- the promised
land. All they had to do was to go in and claim it.
His promises are sure and steadfast. "Blessed be the LORD, that hath
given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised:
there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he
promised by the hand of Moses his servant" (I Kings 8:56).
Doesn't that make you think of the promises that God has made to us, His
born-again children? The Lord has given rest to his people, according to
all that He promised and not one word of all He has promised has failed.
God hasn't ever failed us. Why should we fail Him now? We are so close
to becoming the overcomers that He promised we are, we should not give
up now. Just "hang in there" one more step, and then another, and you
know, just over that mountain top it's all down hill, the victory is
won. It's like the continental divide. We continue our walk, not looking
at the obstacle in front of us, but at the goal, and on the other side
of the divide we can flow with the rivers and streams all the way to the
ocean without looking back, or even remembering the struggle we went
through to endure and to stand and to continue faithfully to walk with
God.
You are the victor, more than a conqueror. It just takes one moment of
standing for God, and then another moment, and pretty soon you will have
stood faithfully for one hour. A few more hours and it will have been a
day, then a week, then a year. Such victory brings peace and rest to
your soul. You become stronger and more courageous in your stand with
God.
Several times in Joshua, chapter one, we read how God tells His people
to "be strong and courageous (bold)." The results are that things we
call impossible are possible, because God specializes in things we call
impossible. God is powerful and He can do mighty works in our lives as
we don't back down, but
stand fast on His Word.
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