Have you ever noticed how the world is always lying to you? We always tend to hear how hopeless everything is. I’ll bet you constantly hear stories of how people (who are just like you) bit the dust and didn’t get up.
But don’t listen on that kind of thinking. More importantly, make sure you don’t ever speak like that!
Instead, say what God’s Word says:
A thousand may fall on one side of me and ten thousand on the other side, but it won’t come near me! My home may look like it’s falling in, but God’s Word says no evil shall come nigh me dwelling.
(author’s paraphrase; see Ps. 91:7,10)
In Luke 6, Jesus told about two kinds of houses: those built on the rock and those built on the sand (vv.46-49).
My house is built on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. But does that make me immune from life and its circumstances? No! God is saying, “The storms of life will beat vehemently against your house, Joe McGee, but it won’t fall.”
The Williams’ New Testament says:
Everyone who comes to me and continues to listen to my words and practices their teaching, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man who was building a house, who dug deep, and laid its foundation upon the rock; and when a flood came, the torrent burst upon that house but it could not shake it, because it was well built.
(Luke 6:47-48)
God never said the storms wouldn’t come. As He said through the prophet Isaiah:
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
(Isa. 43:2)
We may have tough experiences throughout our lives, but we can walk in victory and keep coming out on the other side like someone who has been raised from the dead.
An Open Door to Share Your Faith
People will look at us and, with their jaws dropping open, they will say, “How did they turn that situation around?”
We can tell them the answer, saying: “His name is Jesus! He turned that situation around in my life.”
You have to determine that you are going to say and do what the redeemed of the Lord says and does. If you are looking and feeling weak, you have to say to God: “I may look and feel like a dog that was run over and then backed over again, but I say I’m strong, Lord.”
God will respond, “That’s all I want you to say, son. You do your part and I will do My part.”
When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, Moses may have thought, “Oh we’re in trouble now!” But God said, “Hold up that stick, Moses, and I will part the water” (author’s paraphrase; see Ex. 14:16).
When God’s people came to the big walls of Jericho, God said to Joshua, “Have the men to walk around the city seven times, and I will Knock it down.” They did, and He did!
Even if You Don’t by John McGee.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Joe McGee, author, national conference speaker, father, and former school administrator, is the founder and director of Joe McGee Ministries, Inc. and Faith For Families Ministries.
Joe presents some of the most entertaining yet practical and insightful teaching on the family available today. Packing more into one sermon than anyone you've ever met, Joe's insights into relationships will open up scriptural secrets and common-sense applications which will powerfully change your marriage, your family and your life. He comes with years of experience and a humorous easy to listen to style that will help families become who God intended them to be.
A husband of more than 30 years and father of six children, Joe, along with his wife, Denise, has invested the past 20 years in family, marriage, and parenting issues.
Joe and his family currently make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.