Christian Articles to Encourage and Edify
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Keep Climbing
by Donna L. Watkins
" Observe the ant," the great Asian conqueror Tamerlane told his friends. In relating a story from his early life, he said, "I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a dilapidated building, where I sat alone for many hours. Wishing to divert my mind from my hopeless situation, I fixed my eyes on an ant carrying a kernel of corn larger than itself up a high wall.
" I counted its attempts to accomplish this feat. The corn fell sixty-nine times to the ground, but the insect persevered. The seventieth time it reached the top. The ant’s accomplishments gave me courage for the moment, and I never forgot the lesson."
God wins His greatest victories through apparent defeats. Often you may think that our enemy triumphs, but there’s a moment when God enters in and upsets the work of the devil, overthrowing the apparent victory, as the Bible says, "He frustrates the ways of the wicked" (Psalm 146:9). The end result is that He has given us a much greater victory than we’d have known. Remember Daniel’s three friends who chose to worship only God? We can only imagine how they felt as they were led to the fiery furnace. It "looked like" the enemy was winning as they were thrown in to the fire, but what a victory to all who witnessed it that God was the only true God of life and death.
We all have trials and illness and loss of strength you once had puts much suffering and sorrow into people’s lives, but we serve a God of hope and we must not let the enemy fill our soul with despair. Do not acknowledge defeat. Continue in faith to claim the victory through Him who is able to make you "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37), and you will soon see in the physical realm the glorious victory that God has already done in the spiritual realm.
May we be ever diligent in knowing that in all the difficult places that God allows us to be in, He is giving us opportunities to exercise our faith in Him that will bring the blessed results and glorious victory that will show the world around us that He is the one and only true God.
Life here on earth is preparation for eternity, so take your opportunities to believe in the Word and what it says as Truth. We listen far too often to what the world says rather than the Word.
Everything depends on our believing God. We believe we are saved because the Bible says so, not because you feel like it. Believe you are healed because the Bible says so. He took our infirmities and healed all our diseases. (Matthew 8:17) We’ve been given many interpretations of that Scripture and for most Faith isn’t even possible because of what they’ve been taught about it. Dig into the original Greek and Hebrew of that promise that came from Isaiah. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1). You have to know the Word is Truth to have Faith in it, so be diligent about learning what the writers meant by using a Strong’s Greek-Hebrew concordance.
When the three men were thrown into the fire, it seemed they were instantly killed as the guards were. It would’ve been an obvious fact if you’d seen it. But their steadfast faith in trusting the Lord saved them. It didn’t matter what people thought or how it looked or how it seemed or even about the facts. Faith is the substance of things NOT seen. Trust in the Word, not in what you see. We live in a physical world, but life operates on a spiritual one.
Don’t get hung up in the physical and miss out!