Bob Cassell, Messenger
One of the most difficult things in life is to have a relaxed mental attitude when things are falling apart or when you are faced with difficult circumstances, failed relationships, or privation.
How may we orient to and find a better pathway when things are seemingly impossible? First, nothing is impossible with GOD! He is the author and finisher of all circumstances. There has never been a problem that is too Great for God, he is outside all difficult circumstances and is not altered or affected by them in any way. However, you are affected by the many trials and difficulties you have and will continue to face, but please know that God sees you and knows all about you, before, during and after the circumstance.
When you face the charge of the gnat or the charge of the lion, growing faith first learns to successfully handle the charge of the gnat, every time. Then, other trials or tests may be confronted by a growing and maturing faith that emanates from concentrated study and application of the living word of God. If you never learn to handle the charge of the gnat you will never be able to handle the charge of the lion. Faith must be tested and developed in order to grow. I am persuaded I have learned much more from the hard things in life than I have from the easy things with no trials, hurts, or heartache.
It is painful but count it all JOY when YOU fall into many temptations (trials) knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience but let patience have her perfect work that YOU may be mature and complete wanting nothing James 1:2-4.
There is nothing that can happen to you until it first has his permissive will to work for your highest good and HIS ultimate glory.
No matter how severe the circumstance, problem, or personal need, God is tapping his foot and waiting to give you time and space to stop, look, listen, and fully trust in him. In some instances, circumstances are so severe we have no choice but to wait on him and trust him with all our being. Let’s slowly read and reflect on a pertinent scripture that will allow you to move your eyes away from whatever is causing the trial, difficulty, or worry in your life.
It is certain, if your attention and focus is centered on the circumstance or difficulty you will be embracing the problem rather than a solution to the problem. This is not to suggest the problem is not severe and legitimate. Let’s assume that it is and further that it is far beyond your ability to remedy. First take your eyes from self and direct your entire being on him, his strength, and his promises. The result of this focus, in spite of overwhelming odds, is to exchange all of your human strength for a strength beyond you, and that is strength in him and his infallible word. Look away from you and to him with all of your being, knowing he is the master of all difficult circumstances. He is not surprised, unable, or without his precious love, strength, or ability to provide for you.
Have you learned to truly trust him, and in your deepest trust did you leave the problem at his feet? Did you let it go and say, “Lord, I cannot remedy this problem, it is too great for me, but it is not too great for you.”
Let’s pause for a minute and examine just what you are doing or have done to place all of your dependence on him. Have you read and do you understand they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint. When you say, “O Lord, I can’t do it,” the Lord hears and sends to you his “I CAN DO IT” and I will give you the strength to endure your grave need. I will provide every resource necessary for you to meet this problem or tragedy in your life. I will and I am able, you are not, so why not trust me?
You must exchange your inadequate and weak human strength for his marvelous and never-failing divine strength. This may appear impossible, but please remember you are looking to and must depend on the only God who is truly the master of all difficulties and impossible circumstances in life. It may seem impossible due to your present circumstances but when you as a rare and trusting eagle deposit all of your care on him the result is… you are elevated beyond every circumstance or problem.
You SHALL mount up with wings as eagles. You are not to live in or under your circumstances, you are to allow him to elevate you to heights beyond every circumstance or exigency. And if you lean on him… YOU SHALL RUN and NOT be weary. Please pause to consider when you exchange your strength for his strength, you don’t doubt or look back to or even beyond the immediate problem. You look directly to him and his abilities to come to the rescue, you look away from you and to him.
The power of God is not exhausted when you truly trust him and his infallible promises. His power and promises are sure and steadfast! The truth in his promises is as reliable as his character, which you can count on, because he never changes. The promises he made for yesterday are as reliable as the promises he makes for today and tomorrow, because behind every promise is his faithfulness and unchanging character.
You can always count on him, but you cannot depend on your emotions, your human viewpoints, or even your experiences. You can depend on him; you can believe his word is true because of its source… it comes from him and no matter how difficult the circumstance he has given you something that is greater than any trial or circumstance you will ever face. You must realize it is his immutable character that stands behind his word. Many who read this information will say or think… I have tried to trust him, but I could never tell he answered my requests or met my needs. I tried and tried, but he never came through for me. Tried and tried is not the path to trod, it is to trust and trust no matter the occurrences on the day after your petition or later, your opportunity is to believe and trust in his promises because when you believe them you are in the right place. You may be thinking, I have tried my best, but it doesn’t work FOR ME. The proper view is not does it work but is it God’s truth that you are trusting?
Man’s work vs God’s truth. Your focus on FOR ME may be the problem, and your trying may be your best human effort but that is the wrong source because it is focused on limited human ability or resolve. The Christian way of life is not to be lived by taking quick steps and sudden starts and stops. You are to advance steadily and unswervingly toward spiritual maturity by using God’s supernatural power and provisions.
You may ask where do I look and what do I embrace. God has provided all the power that is needed for your success in time on planet earth. That means today, tomorrow, and every day for the remainder of your quickly passing life. He has provided bible information truths and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to go with you on every step of your pathway.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway Psalm 119:105.
This powerful verse gives you clarity and light to move forward as the lamp lights the immediate steps you are about to take, and the light illuminates the pathway beyond the immediate steps.
The wonderful and powerful Holy Spirit reveals God’s dependable truths and the principles by which we embrace God’s power. When you claim and fully trust in his infinite power, for every need in your life, you have chosen to live as a believer who actually and consistently develops a relaxed mental attitude. It is then that you shall renew your strength, walk and not faint, and soar high with eagles.
Every Child of God stumbles at times. We all become discouraged on occasion and feel that we should give up! Here in, Isaiah, 30:21 we are admonished to walk and that is to go forward, not to retreat or give up. “This is the way, walk ye in it.” A non-fainting believer is not perfect but is one who is aware of walking by means of the controlling power of God the Holy Spirit. This non fainting believer knows to claim the unfailing promises of God such as contained in Psalm 55:22.
Cast thy burden on the LORD and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
How long must you wait on the Lord? The admonition is to keep on trusting him! He is the only one you can keep on trusting. He is the one who has the solutions to all matters of life and who has the power to deliver you! There is no problem greater than the ability of God to solve it! For with God nothing shall be impossible, Luke 1:37.
Man has accomplished much, and we have been benefited by many of his achievements, but what are his achievements compared to the impeccable work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who put into existence trillions of stars and billions of galaxies.
Psalm 8:3-4 when I consider thy heavens, and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Meditate for a moment on this super surpassing creation accomplishment. All that you can and cannot see on a dark and starry night is a breathtaking sky filled with innumerable stars, including visible and undiscovered galaxies and who knows what else but God himself.
Do you think our powerful God who flung the worlds into existence with the span of his hand, Isa 40:12, can handle your most severe and pressing problems? When you see some of what he has done, it is only a small reflection of who he is and what he has accomplished. Can this powerful, creative and sovereign God handle your problems that are far less difficult than creating the entire and expansive universe. When you focus on him and what he can accomplish you have tapped into the greatest and best source of reliable problem solving!
Because of who and what he is and all that he offers, you can have peace, power and stability now, even under the most trying circumstances. The faith you possess should not be alone or cramped inside of you. Your personal and well exercised faith should immediately rush to him and embrace his promises, with no doubts, knowing who is outside of you, available and ready to help. He should be made the total object of what little faith you have. You see, it is not the strength of your faith that is meritorious, it is the object of your weak and vacillating faith. It is truly all of him and none of you!
Your faith should be an experiential, persistent, moment by moment trust in the power of God to handle all that is beyond you and your best efforts. A mature and trusting Christian believes the promises of God regardless of occurrences and impossible circumstances, even to the point of agreeing with Job’s statement,
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him… Job 13:15.
This is an enduring and dependent trust that is the ultimate exercise in making the Lord and his word the object of persistent and objective faith. This kind of faith will stand the test of any trial and is the only thing to do when circumstances appear to be beyond your control.
I remember a discussion I had with my best friend many years ago that included some of this information. We had just concluded a beautiful time of fellowship and as we parted ways I asked my friend, what parting words should we share? He asked, what do you have for me Bob! I responded, “God is not a way out… he is the way through.” I asked my dear friend, “now what do you have for me!”
He responded immediately and said, “Bob you are not in control, God is!” Both of us said in departing… “that is exactly what I needed to hear!”
It is easy to believe the Lord’s promises when things are going well, but if you are overwhelmed with unsurmountable problems and all seems hopeless, isn’t the same Lord who is with you during good times also with you in your darkest hour? Will you be prepared, because of a consistent reliance on his word, so that you can look through the gloom and see him as your reliable God, who is behind every promise in his word? If God is truly the God, who created the universe and has never lost the course of one single star, if he knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, do you not think that he can keep track of your most severe problems and solve them? Of the more than 7,000 unfailing promises in the word of God, surely there is one you can claim that is perfectly suited for your predicament or problem.
God is no respecter of persons he “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” Heb 13:8. God never changes he will wait for you to trust him so that he can bless you!
Therefore, will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of Judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him Isa. 30:18.
To wait on the Lord is to redeem the time you have remaining on this small planet. Use your precious time wisely and continue to believe his word no matter what happens, no matter the difficulties, and no matter how adverse the circumstances! Let faith in his promises triumph in and through any difficulty. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11:6.
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid for the Lord thy God, he it is that goes with you. He will not fail you, nor forsake you Deut. 31:6.
Wait on the Lord be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say, on the Lord Ps 27:14.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee Ps. 56:3.
Here is a scripture I have shared with many who were facing seemingly impossible and hopeless circumstances, including my dying, Dad who said, when told he had only six weeks to live. “Well, no one can live forever, I’ve had a good life, the Lord has been good to me…I accept it!” This was his finest hour as he trusted this scripture through his last breath. I had the high privilege of holding his hand as he slipped quickly and peacefully into the glory of heaven. I am looking forward to seeing him soon as I am closer to eternity now, than I have ever been in the entirety of my quickly passing life.
Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Isa. 41:10.
How about you? Are you prepared for a life beyond the life you are now living? How will you pass from this life into eternity? Will you have help or will you do it on your own. Do you need a mediator between God and man? Of course, you do! You need the only savior who saves and the only mediator that can transport you from death to eternal life and that exclusive one is THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, the only savior.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Timothy 2:5.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved Acts 4:12.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou (that’s you) shall be saved! Not might be saved but shall be saved Acts 16:31.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life JN 6:47.
