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HOW DO I HANDLE THIS? Some Answers for the Battles of Life by Introduction - Explanation Chapter 1 -Thankfulness Chapter 2 - Gratefulness Chapter 3 - Trust Chapter 4 - Giving Thanks Chapter 5 - Why Conclusion - Closing Comments Note: All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible, simply due to my many years using this version of the Scripture. **************************************************************************
Obviously these are not all of the "answers" for all of life’s situations. These are some of the "answers" since Jesus is THE ONLY ANSWER. Any "answers" you find here are simply ways He has led myself and others to Himself. What we have found is that when we yield to Him in every situation, then He can work in us. How it is that you go about yielding to Him is different in each situation. Usually it involves a giving up of our pride, our self-reliance, our ability, our own strength (or what we think we have as strength.) This is not easy and it usually hurts. Yet if we will continue, we can find Him Who is THE ANSWER... and we will find He has been nearby all the time! My prayer for you and my desire for you is that you find the answer you need in Jesus. Chapter 1
"Hello" the voice on the phone said hesitantly. "Terry, this is Jim Taylor," I answered. There was a moment of silence, then I could hear sobbing. "What’s going on?" I asked. Terry answered, "I was just sitting here in my office with a cocked .38 pistol. I was getting ready to put it in my mouth and pull the trigger." My heart jumped. It was a good thing I had not put off the urge to call him, I thought. "Hey, put the gun down and let’s talk." Over the next hour I talked with and listened to Terry and began to share with him some ideas as to how he could get through what he was facing. Terry was not a Christian in the vital sense. He had gone to church and did acknowledge that there was a God. He knew what Jesus had done, at least historically. He knew about praying, but as far as I knew, he had never had a personal encounter with the Lord. I began to share with him the basics of thanking God "...always for all things..." (Ephesians 5:20) and how it is God’s will that we give thanks "In every thing..." (I Thessalonians 5:18) Over the next few weeks he began to practice what I had shared with him and began to thank the Lord for everything. The good, the bad, the ugly. The important and the unimportant. Within a year his personal life had turned around. No, his problems did not disappear. But his "old" personality did. Where before he had been a self-styled curmudgeon, now he was a grateful, thankful person, able to look on the bright side of things. And if he was not always positive, he at least knew Who held his future and that He had his best interests at heart. The change was so radical that at a yearly gathering of fellow shooting enthusiasts many remarks were made as to "how Terry has changed!" A lot of the remarks were made by non-Christians who did not know exactly what had happened but could see that it was positive. It was a testimony to God’s grace. Several years later Terry was involved in a terrible automobile accident. I spoke to him in the hospital where he was recovering. His pelvis was broken, all the ribs on his right side were broken and his body was battered. But his spirit was not! As we talked he told me how grateful he was "for" the accident. He said, "...as I slid on the icy road I saw I was going head-on into a smaller car. I said, Oh Jesus, don’t let me kill these people! and suddenly my 4WD just turned sideways and they hit me in the side. If it had been head-on my larger vehicle would have killed them." In spite of the pain and injury, Terry was thankful. "In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:18) It had not been an easy lesson but Terry had learned it. The "art" of praise is not one that comes easily to us humans. Thankfulness sometimes seems to be a quality that we must learn, rather than one we are born with. The Scriptures make it clear that not being thankful is one of the steps downward as a life spirals out of control. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful..." (Romans 1:21) The path downward is listed in the rest of the first chapter of Romans and it is not a pretty one. Most of us are thankful for the good things that come our way. Many times we express to the Lord our gratefulness for His provision, protection, comfort, guidance and so on. But what about when bad things happen, even when it is as minor as a picnic being interrupted by the weather? Are we supposed to be thankful when bad things happen? And how can we? The call was one every parent fears. When I answered the phone a frantic voice informed me that my 10-year-old daughter had been hit by a car. She was alive, but injured. My wife and I sped to the scene to find a crowd of onlookers. My little girl was lying on the pavement while medical technicians readied her for the ambulance. "Pray for me daddy!" she screamed when she saw me. I knelt and prayed some plea for the Lord to intervene. The next few hours were a blur. The emergency room, x-rays, forms to sign. After they wheeled her into surgery I sought out the quietness of the hospital chapel and knelt at the front. I could think of no words to pray no matter how hard I tried. Finally I began to worship, praising the Lord in other tongues and then thanking Him that Jami was still alive, that she was in His hands, praising Him that He knows best in every situation and is able to work all things together for good. As I began to thank and praise the Lord the little accusing voices in the back of my mind began to go silent. You may have heard them. They’re the ones who try to tell you it’s God’s fault or your fault. They try to make you feel as though things will never be right again. As I thanked and worshipped the Lord, the Holy Spirit began to minister to me and peace began to fill my mind. There were some rough days ahead, but during them all I had assurance that God was working on our behalf and that my daughter was going to come through this. Today, over 8 years later, you would never know she had been hit by a car. All the credit belongs to the Lord!
Chapter 2
"I have been in most all of the healing meetings and never received a healing" the man in the wheelchair told me, "and I am glad I did not." A strange statement coming from one who was paralyzed from the waist down, wouldn’t you say? We had been talking about some of the great healing ministries of the past decades. This man had visited most of them seeking healing and had not found it. Yet now he expressed thanks to God that he had not! In answer to my question as to why he was grateful for not being healed, he went on to explain that until recently he had not believed in speaking with other tongues. He had attended the healing crusades because he saw people were truly being healed. He wanted the benefit but not the responsibility, as it were. He had never been been healed yet he continued to search until one day he was convinced from the Scriptures that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was a real experience for today, and he had received it. Looking back he said that if he had been healed years earlier he never would have come into the fellowship with the Lord that he was now experiencing. And he was grateful that God, in His wisdom had held back any healing. It was as if he had his eyes opened and he could see just a little from God’s point of view. Often we do not see "the big picture." God’s plan remains a mystery until it has all unfolded. Take the life of Joseph for instance. If you read his story from Genesis, Chapter 37 on, you will see unfolding before you the mystery of God’s providence. Yet you must remember that Joseph did not know for sure that this was God’s plan. Being rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, cast into prison for a crime he did not commit. Forgotten and alone in a strange land. I know there were times when Joseph felt like giving up. He was hurt by the rejection. He was wounded by the accusations. He was frustrated by his inability to have the truth about his situation come to light. His emotions surely ran from anger to despair. For over 13 years he was forgotten by everyone. Everyone, that is, except God. And much of the time he felt God had forgotten him. How do I know Joseph experienced all this? Two reasons: (1) He was a human being just like you or me. He had the same emotional makeup as we do. He was not superhuman. (2) When he was married and began to have children he named his first child "Forgetting" (Manasseh) and the second child "Fruitful" (Ephraim) His word are significant: "...God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction." (Genesis 41:52) He acknowledged the affliction he suffered, yet he was not ruined by it. When Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers they were afraid, for they had tried to kill him and now here he was, nearly the most powerful man on earth. Yet he reassured them, "...it was not you that sent me hither, but God..." (Genesis 45:8) He now understood that all he had endured was for a purpose. God had a plan and everything that had happened to him had happened for a reason. Notice his gratefulness in Genesis 50:20, 21: "...ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." Joseph held no grudges or bitterness. He was yielded to God’s will. And surprisingly there is no record of him attending any grief therapy classes, healing of the memories or any of the dozens of other so-called "spiritual" pseudo-Christian psychology groups that have risen up in this day and age. (Here I do not refer to those who minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, but rather to those who try to be "spiritual" apart from Jesus Christ and His shed blood)* Joseph simply resigned himself to the Lord’s will, knowing that God had his good in mind, no matter what happened. I believe he also understood that God can work "...all things...together for good.." - as we love Him. Sometimes many of our "spiritual" endeavors are simply our way of trying to get out of God’s will. Perhaps we have found His will not to be to our liking. It may be we have found ourselves on a rough path and just do not want to walk that path, even if it is the direction Jesus is going. The person who wrote the 119th Psalm seems to have learned a very valuable lesson. "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." (Verse 67) "It is good for one that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." (Verse 71) Grateful for his afflictions? Yes. Here is one who has learned that nothing happens to the child of God by accident. And instead of becoming old, bitter and hard he became one whom the Lord could use to bless untold millions of people down through the centuries. In one sense you are a product of what you have experienced. Have your experiences made you a better person or a worse one? The answer to that question is not in what you have experienced, but rather in how you reacted to them. Check yourself. Have you gotten better or bitter? Several close acquaintances have been through some hard times in the past. People had turned on them and hurt them terribly. There was fighting of the kind that should not happen between Christians. The different results were amazing. One could speak of nothing else than how badly they were hurt. Every time you were around them the subject would come up and you would hear how badly they had been wounded. Others never spoke of it, or did so in terms that did not convey any bitterness or resentment. What was the difference? One person conveyed the idea of "how could they?" while the other one expressed the thought that God was in control of all things and this, too, would "...work together for good..." (Romans 8:28) Which one do you think could move in forgiveness more easily? One who can move in forgiveness will soon find themselves in the realm of gratefulness, able to acknowledge, "...it was not you..." It was the Lord who brought me to this place. And as the song which says, "I’m forever grateful..." they soon understand that the Lord’s plan is always the best, even if it does involve hurts.
Chapter 3
A person who can be grateful in the midst of trial is one who has real trust in the Lord. Our mouths often reveal what is really in our hearts. While at times we can say the "right" things, under pressure the truth - what we really think - often pops out. "How could this happen to me?" or "You do not understand what they have done" and similar expressions often reveal the fact that the speaker really does not understand what it is to trust the Lord. And though some can express trust verbally, anger and bitterness showing through later on is the real expression of what they truly think. To trust the Lord is to commit yourself to Him, even if it means that nothing will work out the way you would desire. How would you like to have a ministry that will result in people leaving by the thousands, until there is no one left? You say the Lord would not do that? Then you have not read Isaiah, Chapter Six. There the Lord told him to go and speak to the people. When Isaiah asked the Lord for how long, God told him, "...Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate," (Isaiah 6:11) Would God ask a man to do that? Obviously He did! Would God allow pressure to come upon a person until they cursed, swore and denied that they even knew Jesus in the first place? How could that be the Lord? Yet if you read the account of Peter in Matthew, Chapter 26, you will see that is exactly what happened. Jesus knew ahead of time that this was going to happen to Peter and He had even warned him about it in Luke 22:31-34. But Jesus stopped it from happening! He simply told Peter, "I...have prayed for (you) that (your) faith (does not) fail..." While it looked like Peter’s faith failed miserably, he came out of it! And in the end it made Peter the man God intended that he should be all along. A rock. How can you trust a God who would do that to a person, you might ask. It must begin with the understanding that God is the Creator and we are the created. What He chooses to do with what He has made is His own business. Re-read what I just said and say to yourself, "God made me. What He chooses to do with me is His business." Does that statement bother you? If that statement does bother you then you need to get to know God. When you know Who He is and what He is like, when you understand something of His nature, then you will know that you can trust Him totally. You will know personally that He is totally good. Whatever happens, He means for you to experience His goodness in the end. In the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, all the hardship that Israel has endured is rehearsed for them. The wilderness, the hunger, the snakes, the scorpions, the drought. And God’s provision is also recalled. The manna, their clothes not wearing out, the water from the rock. In verse 16 Moses tells them that God brought them through all this in order that He might "...do thee good at thy latter end;" Get this: God sees the end! This is the supreme element of trust, believing that He knows how it will all turn out and His intentions toward us are only for good. Yes, there are sufferings and hardship and pain and wounds. And in the end a person who has endured will say, "It was worth it all." That is total trust. My father-in-law lay dying of cancer, suffering pain that neither my wife or I could understand. We had prayed, fasted and sought the Lord. God had impressed upon my wife that He was going to take her Daddy Home. He would not be healed. And her Dad knew that also. He had resigned himself to God’s will and committed himself to the Lord totally. One day as the pain was especially intense, my wife said, "Daddy, I hate to see you suffer like this!" and he replied, "Honey, there are some things that cannot be learned any other way." In his last days his fellowship with the Lord was extremely sweet and close. One day a friend walked into the room to find him glowing. Asking what he was experiencing, my father-in-law replied, "Jesus was just giving me a Bible study." It was not too many days later he slipped off the earth as my wife and her sister sang some of his favorite hymns to him. He trusted God totally, even unto death. If you trust, you do not complain.The children of Israel constantly complained. They griped about the accommodations, the food, the weather. Nothing suited them. They hated slavery in Egypt, and if they had been allowed to, they would have gone back to it. All because they never trusted the Lord. They never learned that He would take care of them. The tests and trials of the wilderness were designed to teach them that no matter how hopeless the situation looked, God would bring them through. After 10 of these trials, and after 10 failures to learn God’s way, the Lord gave them up and would not take them into the Promised Land. "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." (Hebrews 3:10-11) All the Lord wanted them to learn was, TRUST ME! Out of all the millions of people only Joshua and Caleb learned the lesson. The Bible says that they had "...another spirit..." with them (Numbers 14:24). It was the Holy Spirit. It was a spirit of belief, a spirit of faith. One that said, "If God sends us there then we can do it!" It was total trust. Job had the same spirit of trust. Yes, he wished that he had never been born. But he NEVER charged God foolishly with his lips. His attitude toward God was one of "God got me into this and He will get me out." From that he never wavered. I have heard some preachers say the reason Job had all these troubles is that he feared, so therefore it came upon him. Not only is that absurd, it is a sure sign that the person is a poor student of Scripture. Any preacher who speaks such nonsense should immediately repent of siding with Job’s "friends." God’s Word to them is "...you have not spoken to me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." (Job 42:7) Read the Book of Job carefully and you will see that God orchestrated everything. He had a purpose in mind. The devil was not in charge. Neither was Job. God was in total control. And today Job would tell you, "It was worth it all!" Because Job trusted the Lord completely. (Read James 5:10-11) However, as far as we know, at least in this life, Job never had it all explained to him. There are some things we will never understand here. That’s part of trust. While we do not understand it all and cannot explain it, yet we trust the Lord that He knows best and commit ourselves to Him. If you are one of those people who has to have explanations for everything, let me warn you. Trust does not always have the explanation. It only trusts. And trust is part of the basis for real praise.
Chapter 4
"In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:18) It is possible to develop such confidence in the Lord, such trust, that no matter in what situation you find yourself, you can be thankful. I will not try to tell you that confidence like this comes easily. However, it is possible. God would never have given us such a command as I Thessalonians 5:18 if it were not possible. With His will comes His ability. He will help us do whatever it is He desires us to do. And Scripture makes it very plain, this is His will for us. Usually the first thing we must do is change our way of thinking. When we find ourselves "in" something we need to stop, repent, if necessary, of wrong thinking or speaking, and make ourselves express thanksgiving. We can begin by saying something like: "Lord, forgive me for (complaining, griping, accusing you - whatever, you fill in the blank). I now by an act of my will thank you that I am in this situation. I praise you and thank you that YOU ARE LORD. You are in charge and in control. I thank you that you are not discouraged. I thank you that you will get me through this situation..." As you begin to express trust by your voice, as you vocalize the promises of the Scripture, you will find that trust, faith, thanksgiving and eventually joy will begin to fill your heart and mind. But... YOU HAVE TO START! Even when you may not feel like it. Make yourself do what the Word says.Trust God to do the rest. I remember one time early in our marriage when work was slow and we did not have any food in the house. My wife went to bed since it was easier to sleep than to sit around the house hungry. As I sat at the kitchen table sipping some water, I fought thoughts of doubt, discouragement, fear and unbelief. After a time I began to make myself praise the Lord. I began to thank Him for His goodness to us. I began to thank Him for the situation in which we found ouselves. As I began to worship Him I began to feel like worshipping Him. The longer I went the better it got until at some point I was caught up in the glory of the Lord and began to dance up and down the small hallway of our mobile home. My joy woke my wife who thought I had lost my mind until she, too, caught the joy. We worshipped the Lord freely that night and went to bed without any fears. No, our situation did not change immediately. No one miraculously brought groceries to our home. Work did not open up quickly. Money did not coming flooding in. But we changed. Our outlook was toward the Lord and our trust was in Him. And... He brought us through! We did not quit. And I am grateful for the struggle. I learned a lesson about God’s grace that I do not think I could have learned any other way. "In EVERY THING give thanks..."! (I Thessalonians 5:18) The thanks that we render must be verbal at times. I know that many times we have grateful hearts. Our attitude is one of thanksgiving. But still, in the midst of trial and test, we need to use our vocal abilities. "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." (Hebrews 13:15) Often until we bend our will and offer to God the fruit of our lips, things will not change. And it is so hard to say it, isn’t it? That old proud thing called ego just does not want to bend. Don’t feel guilty because of it. Just take it as a sign of what you have to do and deal with it. Many times we try to come into God’s presence without preparing ourselves. Yes, I know that the Lord is always with us. That sense of His presence, the awareness that He is closely involved with me in this specific situation, is what I am trying to communicate. Albeit imperfectly. Psalm 100:4 says we should, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Without this we are the ones who do not benefit. This is more to prepare us, I believe, than Him. We are not trying to "butter Him up" - to make Him feel good about us. He knows me intimately, better than I know myself. The fact that He still loves me speaks volumes about His character, not mine. No, as we express thankfulness we are the ones who conform to His image. "I am the Lord, I change not..." (Malachi 3:6) If He does not change, guess who does? And while we speak of change, here is one to challenge us. Ephesians 5:20, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" While you may have progressed to thanking God in everything, how about thanking Him for everything? I understand the questions that arise. How can I thank God for this situation? The hurt, the pain, the suffering it has caused cannot be from Him. Why should I thank Him for something so terrible or tragic? I, too, have wrestled with this Scripture. I have read what others have done in their wrestling with it. Some have attempted to explain it away, or simplify it until it has no meaning. In the end I have come back to it like it is written. "Giving thanks always for all things..." If God is in control of the universe, if Jesus is Lord of all, then "...all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God...For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us..." (II Corinthians 4:15, 18) It all depends upon where you place your focus. If you are focused on this life, you will not be able to thank God for all things. If you are looking at Him, at the things which are eternal, then this life is nothing but a wisp of smoke that appears for a moment and then vanishes. And everything that He allows to come to us is for our ultimate good. "and we know (note: it does not say, ‘and we feel’) that all things work together for good to them that love God..." (Romans 8:28) As we know Him, then we know that all things are for our sakes, that "...all things work together for good..." and then we can give thanks always for all things. It does not mean the things themselves are good. It does mean God is greater than those things. The mother stood crying in the congregation. Just earlier in the week her little baby had died. The church had fasted and prayed and sought the Lord for the child, yet seemingly to no avail. Now here stood the mother in the midst of the people, tears running down her face. Instead of accusing the Lord she raised her hands and with a broken heart cried out, "My God does all things well!" A lesson to angels, demons and the church. Giving thanks always for all things. And the accuser of the brethren was cast down by the word of her testimony.
Chapter 5
I would not be so egotistical as to assume I know all the reasons why the Lord wishes us to thank Him in and for everything. I am still learning that lesson myself and I am far from living it the way He wants me to live it. However, I have been privileged to know some people who have gone through the valley of the shadow of death and who have learned some of the reasons. The plane crash was a horrible one. Four teenage boys killed in an instant. One of my very best friends in the world owned the plane and it was his son who was piloting it. Not only that, two of his other sons were aboard the airplane, along with a friend. The pilot was 18, the youngest 14. A family nearly wiped out by tragedy. The boys had been involved in the youth group in their church. All had led exemplary Christian lives. Hundreds of teenagers were at the funeral. Many families were scarred by the accident, none more so than the family of the boy who was flying the airplane. Within several years there was a divorce, the family divided. Accusations, hurts, recriminations. Wounds from loss that would not heal. Ever. Almost 10 years after the crash I asked the father, "Have you ever come to a conclusion about this?" His answer was revealing. He told me, "Jim, I do not have any answers as to ‘why’ this happened. I do know, however, that if I accuse God, the devil wins. And if I praise the Lord, Jesus wins." In a horrible situation he had learned the lesson that Israel never learned. Trust God always. In everything. Did it make him feel better? No. Did it heal the hurt? No. But neither did he question God’s love, or wisdom, or even His existence as some of us might have. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice ye heavens. and ye that dwell in them:" (Revelation 12:10-12) Many times the "word of our testimony" is simply the praise that we express to the Lord in the midst of trial and tribulation. If we complain, murmur or question, we sometimes only make a bad situation worse. Thanksgiving, praise and expressions of trust in the Lord often do more than rebuking the devil. One reason for this is that praise is a "key" to victory. Look through the Bible and many times you find that God required his children to praise Him before there were any concrete signs of winning. Jericho readily comes to mind. There the children of Israel had to shout before the walls came down. In II Chronicles 13 the soldiers had to shout before the battle, when they were outnumbered two to one. In II Chronicles 20 it was the singers who went out in front of the army to sing and praise the Lord. While this may not make sense to the natural way of thinking, it is God’s way. His ways are not ours. The types in Scripture are many and have been explained in much better detail by teachers better than me. Judah is one type. The word "Judah" is the Hebrew word for "praise." when he was born, his mother was so happy at having this baby that she named him "Praise" or "Judah" (See Genesis 29:35) The tribe of Judah came from this boy. They were the tribe that was chosen by God to lead the armies of Israel into battle in Judges, Chapter 1. The obvious lesson is this, praise is to lead the way in the fight. We need to remember this and act accordingly. Remember also that Jesus is from the tribe of Judah. The implications for typology here are plain. If we want to see the Lord manifested as the Lion of the tribe of Judah we need to be "in" Judah, that is "in" praise. Our lives should be enveloped by the attitude of praise and thanksgiving. In coming before the Lord, we "Enter...his courts with praise..." (Psalm 100:4) and on and on . Take your Bible and search them out for yourself. then you will know it for yourself and that it is not just what some preacher said. There are many scriptural reasons why we should praise and thank the Lord. Psalm 149:6-9 lists some of them. "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. praise ye the Lord." Praise often binds demonic power very effectively. More so than shouting and commanding in some instances. It keeps the enemy from filling your mind with doubts and fears. And it can bring peace in a situation where nothing else prevails. Some years ago I was a Correctional Services Officer in a State Prison. Not too many of us were Christians, but there were several who were and were not afraid to live it inside the walls. Just before I went to work in a certain unit an incident had happened that had all the guards talking. They were telling me how crazy this one guard was. Apparently there had been a clash between rival gangs in the mess hall during the noon meal. As the gangs squared off to go to war, this guard had walked in between all the combatants and had begun singing at the top of his voice, "Oh there’s power, power, wonder working power, in the Blood, of the Lamb," I asked, "what happened?" thinking maybe everyone had jumped on the guard and tried to kill him. "Oh nothing," they said, "everybody just filed out of the chow hall and left." A potential riot had been quelled by a guard who was willing to stand up and praise the Lord. Not too crazy. Just the weapon of praise at work binding the enemy.
It is my sincere wish that this little book will cause you to reconsider the goodness of the Lord. I also hope that you begin to develop a life of praise; or if you used to have one, to renew it. If you are not sure that you know the Lord, begin to worship Him today. As you praise and thank Him for taking your sins, for dying in your place, for carrying your sorrows, He will reveal Himself to you. Simply begin to acknowledge out loud that Jesus carried your sins and died in your place. State the fact that you choose to acknowledge that He rose from the dead, and begin to thank Him for it. Speak aloud the words, "I choose Jesus as Lord of my life!" If thoughts come to the contrary, talk louder. No, it is not the volume that wins the fight. It is the persistence. Praise and thank Jesus for all that He has done and what He will do and you will see real change. Praise is a weapon in our fight of faith. The battle is real and is with the enemy of our souls who would have us to doubt, mistrust or accuse our Lord. NEVER GIVE IN! Continue in the way of praise and thanksgiving as a lifestyle. You will be amazed at what the Lord will do for you One day I walked into the home of a young man who had broken his neck in an accident some years before. While he could get around he was partially crippled and it was hard for him to grasp things with his fingers. His frustration was often evident in his words and his attitude. Yet here he was, on the floor, picking up little primers one by one and laughing. When I asked what was going on he explained that he had been trying to reload some pistol cartridges and had upset the primer box dumping a hundred or so around the floor. Instead of cursing, as he usually would have done, he exclaimed, "Well praise the Lord!" Immediately he was filled with joy and now here he was, struggling to pick them up, and laughing at the same time. It was a triumph of praise. "...in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." "...in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6,7) *Grief support groups that recognize that it is the Holy Spirit who gives us "...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness..." according to Isaiah 61, are not referred to in this statement.
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