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2 Corin. 1:3-5 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. NASU
2 Corin. 1:3-5 - All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! 4 He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. 5 We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort… (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
WOW! I don't know about you I can only speak for myself, but many times when I've gone through hard times I thought God wasn't there. It was like God had gone on a vacation, and I was left to handle the mess by myself. I was wrong. God was there. In fact, the verse says, "He comes alongside us when we go through hard times." We need to memorize this verse and never forget it. He is right beside us. He has not abandoned us. When we needed Him the most He will be there. In the book of Hebrews 13:5-6 it says, "for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU," 6 so that we confidently say, "THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID." NASU
"…before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." We get to be the shoulder a person can lean on as they go through their difficult time. We get to share with them how God was there for us and that God is there for them. God isn't in the business of baling out on us when we need Him the most.
Patience and trust are the key ingredients that are needed when going through hard times. The next time you are going through a hard time, you will want to remember God is with you and you will use your experience to help someone else in the future. My suggestion is take good notes because you will be called on in the future to share your experience with others. Think On These: This would be a wonderful world if men showed as much patience in all things as they do in waiting for a fish to bite. Patience is often bitter, but its fruit is sweet. Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off. Stay Pumped and Have A Happy Thanksgiving, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend.
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James 4:10 - Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
NASU
If you are familiar with the story of Moses and the Egyptian Pharaoh, then you know this plague doesn't humble the Pharaoh. As a leader he was not able to bring himself where he needed to be and that was a state of humility. WOW! Do you know any leaders of any countries today that are not able to humble themselves? Or do you know of any wannabe leaders that are not humble?
There, my friends, is the reason that Moses was a successful leader. In fact, if you continue to read the following verses God called Miriam, Aaron and Moses to come outside for a meeting. In this meeting God tells Miriam and Aaron that he doesn't treat any of the other prophets like He treats Moses. Then God wants to know why Miriam was not afraid to speak against Moses? God then gives Miriam leprosy. Aaron begs Moses to ask God to remove the leprosy, which Moses does, but God makes Miriam endure the stigma that comes along with leprosy for a week. Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth then, and God protected him from his enemies, even those who were from his own family.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. NASU If you will follow this plan it is fail proof. You will be successful. You will receive Grace from God and God will exalt you at the proper time. He exalted Moses at the proper time and He will do the same for you. Be Humble and you will Be Successful. Think On These: We usually admire the other person more after we have tried to do his job. No man can truly stand erect until he has first bent the knee to Almighty God. Sincere humility attracts. Lack of humility subtracts. Artificial humility detracts. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend. I Kings 18:43-45 - He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times. It came about at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you.’ ” In a little while the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. NASU
In this vision God had told him that it was going to rain: 1 Kings 18:1- Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth." NASU Now, no one else knew it was going to rain. Everyone had been programmed to believe it wasn't going to rain because it hadn't rained in over three years. In verse 41, Elijah could hear and see a storm coming. While Elijah was on Mt. Carmel he knows a storm is coming but only he is able to see and hear it. He says to his servant (vs.43) “go…look towards the sea.” The servant does as Elijah said, but when he returns he informs him he saw nothing. They go through this ritual six times and each time his answer is the same, “There is nothing.” Imagine going through this same routine six times and coming back with the same answer, “There is nothing.” Elijah’s servant was not able to see what Elijah saw. God said (vs.1) that He was sending rain and Elijah believed him and he could see the rain coming. He didn’t see it physically but he saw it spiritually.
So what are you to do when you can see what no one else can see? You keep on displaying your faith in what you believe. At least that is what Elijah did and on the seventh time his servant came back with a different answer, a "don’t get your hopes up too high" answer. He says, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand…” The servant doesn’t have much faith in this little cloud. In fact, he says it is a “small” cloud. It is only the size of a man’s hand. Now if you think about that for a moment, physically speaking, that size of a cloud isn’t going to do much. That is what makes this story all the more fascinating.
You might have a vision or a dream and you have shared it with your family or friends and they all think you are “crazy” or worse yet: they even call you a “dreamer”. All I can say is keep believing or having faith in your dreams. Elijah did and in the end he was right and they were wrong. You may be the small cloud and God is going to do great things with you. Don't stop believing you are partnering with God. Think On This: Small minds are the first to criticize large ideas. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend. Jere. 26:8-11 - When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die! "Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'?….Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing." NASU
I can say without a doubt that Jeremiah was a man of God and he discovered that serving God brought with it some very painful situations. He was a Prophet of God, called to be a prophet before he was even born. Jere. 1:4-5 - Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." NASU I can guarantee you that he didn't believe his life was a piece of cake because he was a servant of God.
You obey God and the end result is suffering for you. This is what happened in Jeremiah's life. The very people Jeremiah was sent to help were the ones that wanted him dead. The people the prophets were sent to help would be the ones who either made their life very miserable or they killed them. Here is a conversation Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees about killing the prophets sent by God - (Mt 23:30-31 - 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." NASU) Jeremiah was an obedient man of God, but it caused him a lot of grief. You may be a servant of God today and have lots of grief. If you do, don't let your thoughts get you to doubt your calling. Don't be led down the path that God must not care about you or He certainly would not allow this suffering in your life. He called Jeremiah and told him exactly what to preach and who to preach this message too. Jeremiah did exactly as he was told and he was hated by the priests and the false prophets. Their hatred was so great they wanted him to be killed.
I mean do you have any enemies like Jeremiah? They want you dead and have a plan to end your life. The answer to that question for most of us would be "No". When I read what Jeremiah was going through I laugh now at what I had to endure in the ministry. I had people lie about me, misquote me, and God forbid the false accusations about my motives. Hello! Could you imagine me sitting down with Jeremiah and telling him how hard my ministry was? I can actually see this person who I visualize as Jeremiah rolling on the ground laughing. When he stops laughing he says to me, "Really, that is all that was done to you? They didn't try to kill you at anytime? Jere. 38:10 - Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies." NASU They were literally trying to kill this man of God. Why? He was doing what God had asked him to do.
Think On This: As long as your conscience is your friend, don't be concerned about your enemies. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend. |
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