to when we are in trouble"? or "what do we do when we are
faced with a serious problem"? Let me break this into different
examples: you robbed a bank and you still feel really bad
about it, you have been trying to overcome your addiction to
pornography or fornication or adultery but you are still not able
to, you blackmailed someone and the person was sent to jail,
you are suffering from alcohol and drug abuse addiction, you
scammed a business client and made millions of dollars in the
process, you are trying so hard not to lie or cheat on your
spouse, you are suffering from inferiority complex and feel like
committing suicide at all times, you are so generous and
people take your kindness for granted, you hate yourself so
much and wish you were never born, you feel like a failure,
your children stress you out and you feel so depressed, you
are suffering from a terminal disease or sickness(e.g cancer,
aids), you murdered one, two or more people and feel really
bad about it, you are a drug dealer or drug addict, you are
always sad and annoyed, you didn't accomplish your life goals
at your age and you feel really depressed; etc etc. The list
goes on and on but one of you reading this may be in one of
the above categories. The question still stands "what should
you do"?
First, the obvious thing is not to give up. Jesus is full
of hope, love, and joy; and wouldn't want any of his people to
of hope, love, and joy; and wouldn't want any of his people to
give up. Let me make something crystal clear: God can
forgive anybody; I mean anybody. That is how much God
Jesus(God the son) is still willing to forgive you. All you have
to do is to come to him in prayer and surrender your heart to
him. Ask him to help you and he will transform you. The
transformation process doesn't just happen overnight; it will
take a while and you will be amazed. Don't try to change
yourself, come to Jesus and He will change you. The
tendency is that when you try so hard by your self will, you
keep doing the same mistakes and then end up giving up. But
if you let the Holy Spirit(God's spirit) to take charge, you will
be amazed. The Holy Spirit empowers you naturally to do
good. When you are faced with a serious problem such as
one of the above mentioned, don't run away from God;
instead run to God. God does not condemn anyone; He is
instead your source of joy. Present your problem to God and
sincerely say "Father, I know you can hear me. Please help
me to get rid of this problem. I know you can and I trust in
you, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen". The moment you say that
from the bottom of your heart, God has already started
performing His miracle in your life.
be amazed. The Holy Spirit empowers you naturally to do
good. When you are faced with a serious problem such as
one of the above mentioned, don't run away from God;
instead run to God. God does not condemn anyone; He is
instead your source of joy. Present your problem to God and
sincerely say "Father, I know you can hear me. Please help
me to get rid of this problem. I know you can and I trust in
you, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen". The moment you say that
from the bottom of your heart, God has already started
performing His miracle in your life.
Let us take a look at our present day situation. Let us
assume a father loves his son so much and the father would
do anything for his son to be happy. The son also knows how
much his father loves him. Now, if the son is in trouble or
much his father loves him. Now, if the son is in trouble or
has done something bad, would he honestly run away from
his father for fear of condemnation? Would the son escape
from the father's house because he thinks that the father
would punish him? My guess is 'no'. Any son in his right mind,
who understands how much the father loves him would run to
daddy when in any trouble, right? In the same way, if we
understand that God loved us so much by sacrificing His only
begotten son(Jesus) for us, then we should understand that
He would never condemn us; but would rather help us. We all
know that God loves us so much that he sacrificed his only
begotten son for our sake(see Jn 3:16). Now, why
would a King sacrifice his only son if he didn't love us so
much? Think about it. Why would a man do that and then
condemn us again? God is full of love and mercy, not
condemnation. That explains why God's word is called 'Good
news' not 'condemnation news'. So, if you are suffering from
drug or alcohol addiction, or from anger and depression,
present your problem to him and sincerely ask him to help
you. God is willing to help only if we allow him to. Recall that
God doesn't force anyone to come to him. The father is free
and if we are made in his image, we too are free. So, God
has given us a freedom of choice but he is hoping that we
would use our freedom to choose him, not the devil.
Therefore, I challenge you not to give up on God because his
Grace(love and mercy) is more than sufficient.
* Grace = Jesus *
The adulterous woman.
Let me use a good example is the bible to explain to
you that God does not condemn but rather loves and forgives.
In other words, this will show you how grace(Jesus) has
delivered and will continue to deliver you from trouble.
In other words, this will show you how grace(Jesus) has
delivered and will continue to deliver you from trouble.
In Jn 8:2-11, we learn of a woman who committed adultery
and was caught. Now, God's law commanded that this
woman be stoned to death. So, the teachers of the law and
the pharisees brought this woman to Jesus to see whether
Jesus will follow the law. First of all, Jesus was the only holy
man among all of them because he had never sinned or done
any wrong thing. Therefore, Jesus was the only person
qualified to judge this woman by stoning her to death but he
chose not to. Jesus, so full of Grace(love and mercy) decided
not to follow the law. The pharisees asked him "the law of
Moses commanded us to stone such women, now what do
you say?" He responded with a very intelligent statement
which was "…let anyone of you who is without sin be the first
to throw a stone at her"(Jn 8:7). They all felt guilty and threw
their stones away. Jesus walked up to the woman and asked
"woman, where are they. Has no one condemned you"? And
she responded "no one sir''. Then Jesus said "neither do I
condemn you; go and sin no more"(Jn 8:11).
not to follow the law. The pharisees asked him "the law of
Moses commanded us to stone such women, now what do
you say?" He responded with a very intelligent statement
which was "…let anyone of you who is without sin be the first
to throw a stone at her"(Jn 8:7). They all felt guilty and threw
their stones away. Jesus walked up to the woman and asked
"woman, where are they. Has no one condemned you"? And
she responded "no one sir''. Then Jesus said "neither do I
condemn you; go and sin no more"(Jn 8:11).
As you can see, Jesus(God the son) does not condemn
any one. Why then should we condemn ourselves and run
away from him? When you find yourself in a serious mess,
what he told this woman "neither do I condemn you, go and
sin no more". This implies that Jesus(Grace) does not
condemn anyone but forgives easily and helps us out of
trouble with an inexplicable supernatural power.
Grace in the home.
Someone once asked this question over TBN channel and
I quote "when our children behave poorly, should we just seat
back and pray for grace to take charge"? This is quite a good
question and here is the answer: pray for grace to take
charge but set some ground rules. What happens is that
grace will give you the wisdom to better handle your kids.
There is no better way of handling your kids besides the
grace of God(Jesus). So yes, Grace took over the situation
and is now working through you to bring up your kids in the
fear of the Lord.
Now, the law said "whoever spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him"(prov 13:24).
But remember, we are not under any laws what soever but
strictly grace(see Rom 6:14). So we don't have to follow this
particular law of sparing the rod. However, Grace(Jesus) that
lives inside of you might tell you not to spare the rod and
spoil child. The reason I said might is because Grace has so
many wise ways of doing things but the law has one
particular way of doing something. The law will tell you to be
stern and strict with your child in order to discipline him but
Grace might tell you to be stern and strict with your child(but
not necessarily). Remember, Grace is wisdom from God. So
Grace might say "go ahead and let him stay in jail for a short
while so he can feel the other side of life" or Grace might say
"no he has suffered enough and he has already learned a
lesson, bail him out". That is how the power of Grace
operates. It always works out for good and does it with mercy.
Remember, Grace is a person; that person is Jesus. And as
you know, Jesus is full of love, mercy, and wisdom.
My personal situation:
There is something bad I used to do my entire life(I'm sorry I
can't tell you what it was. LOL). I tried really hard to stop doing
this 'thing' but I couldn't. On October 5 2013, when I surrendered
my heart to Jesus(i.e became saved), I thought this terrible act was
going to stop but I kept doing it over and over. In fact, I was
addicted to it. I kept saying "Acha you can do this, Acha you can
this"; instead of saying "Jesus you can do this". And every time I
did this thing, I felt really guilty and condemned(because of God's
law). Three months later, on January 1 2014, I went down on my
knees and said "Lord Jesus, please help me. I have tried to stop this
'thing' but I just can't. I know I am already holy in you BUT please
help me to stop doing this 'thing' which constantly makes me
guilty. In your holy name I pray". Believe me when I say that ever
since then, I stopped doing that particular 'thing' and it happened
naturally.
The two mistakes I did were: first, I never presented this
particular problem to Jesus in prayer. Secondly, I was trying on my
own(self-effort) instead of depending on God(Grace-effort).
Thirdly, I wasn't supposed to feel guilty or condemned(see Rom
8:1) because when you are in Christ, you are not under any
law(and I'm not encouraging anyone to do bad).
stern and strict with your child in order to discipline him but
Grace might tell you to be stern and strict with your child(but
not necessarily). Remember, Grace is wisdom from God. So
Grace might say "go ahead and let him stay in jail for a short
while so he can feel the other side of life" or Grace might say
"no he has suffered enough and he has already learned a
lesson, bail him out". That is how the power of Grace
operates. It always works out for good and does it with mercy.
Remember, Grace is a person; that person is Jesus. And as
you know, Jesus is full of love, mercy, and wisdom.
My personal situation:
There is something bad I used to do my entire life(I'm sorry I
can't tell you what it was. LOL). I tried really hard to stop doing
this 'thing' but I couldn't. On October 5 2013, when I surrendered
my heart to Jesus(i.e became saved), I thought this terrible act was
going to stop but I kept doing it over and over. In fact, I was
addicted to it. I kept saying "Acha you can do this, Acha you can
this"; instead of saying "Jesus you can do this". And every time I
did this thing, I felt really guilty and condemned(because of God's
law). Three months later, on January 1 2014, I went down on my
knees and said "Lord Jesus, please help me. I have tried to stop this
'thing' but I just can't. I know I am already holy in you BUT please
help me to stop doing this 'thing' which constantly makes me
guilty. In your holy name I pray". Believe me when I say that ever
since then, I stopped doing that particular 'thing' and it happened
naturally.
The two mistakes I did were: first, I never presented this
particular problem to Jesus in prayer. Secondly, I was trying on my
own(self-effort) instead of depending on God(Grace-effort).
Thirdly, I wasn't supposed to feel guilty or condemned(see Rom
8:1) because when you are in Christ, you are not under any
law(and I'm not encouraging anyone to do bad).
So here is my conclusion to the story: when you try so hard to
stop sinning, stop trying and let Jesus in. In other words, let go and
let God. No one has the right to condemn you. One surprising day,
you will find yourself not doing that particular sin anymore;
naturally. No one would have to tell you to stop. It will happen
naturally. That is the power of Grace(Jesus).
Therefore, stop saying "I can do this". Instead say "by God's
Grace(Jesus), I can do this". We should understand that there is a
difference between self confidence and Grace(Christ) confidence.
Self confidence comes as a result of our self effort or self will to
do something but Grace confidence is the confidence from God
which makes you bold enough. So, true boldness comes from
Christ confidence, not self confidence. I am a living testimony to
that. I was a very shy person from birth. In fact, I must admit that I
am very weak person by nature(those who know me really well
can testify). But here is the thing: with Jesus, that weak spot in me
is not even noticed; not anymore. And one of the bible verses that
really inspired me in this aspect was 2Cor 12:9 which says that
God said "...for my power is made perfect in weakness". Wow! I
thought God worked well only with strong people. But this verse is
telling us that even those of us who are weak, God's power is made
perfect in them. Therefore, it is okay to be weak but don't use your
weakness as an excuse not to carry out God's wonderful mission.
With Him, all things are possible(Matt 19:26). God's Grace will
deliver you from trouble especially when you are weak. Amen!
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