Abide In The One Who Has Overcome

So many times we find ourselves bombarded with challenges in life that hit us all at once and we begin to feel overwhelmed with it all. If we are not careful, we can become burdened down with it and lose our focus that we should have each day: to keep our eyes on the Lord and our nose in the Book and our mouth speaking the Word of God over every situation.

This is where I have found myself these past couple months, burdened down, and starting to lose focus on the things that I had set out to do. But thank God for His Word that continually tugs at my heart because it abides in me. And thank God for the people that He sends my way to push me and to encourage me to keep pressing on.

He loves us that much to not just sit by and let us wander too far without His intervening. He is there the minute our eyes begin to leave His. He knows our heart better than we do and He knows what we need and what will help bring us back into focus.

We all know that we WILL have trials come our way. Jesus speaks of this in John 16:33, "In this world you will have troubles", but He also leaves us a message of hope, telling us to "Take heart for I have overcome the world."

The trials that come our way, draw us to the Lord where He can help teach us lessons in life and make us stronger, but there are some who let these challenges draw them away from God and things just get more difficult for them. So what I would like to just leave with you today is....

When the challenges of life do seem to be bombarding you all at once and it's causing you to start to lose focus, CONTINUE TO ABIDE IN THE ONE WHO HAS OVERCOME, and He will help you through all of it. As a friend just reminded me recently, without challenges in our life, we would not have a testimony. Well, I'm about to have a great one.

So my friends, STAY IN THE WORD, keep peering through that Window of Hope, Listen to His Voice daily, and you will always be prepared for what is to come and come out victorious!

Remember: "Apart from me, you can do nothing". (John 15:5)

Love you all,
Connie

Behind Closed Doors

I found myself behind a door once, almost tempted to keep it locked and never letting anyone in ever again, but instead I used that time behind the door to seek God for help and comfort so that I could be healed and willing to open the door for others who may need my help someday.

Behind Closed Doors

John 20:19 ~~ Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, peace be unto you.

Acts 1:4 ~~ And, being assembled together with them, Jesus commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Acts 1:12,14 ~~ Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath days journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter, and James, and John and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, with his brethren.

Closed doors. They can do one of two things: They can imprison us or they can deliver us. In John 20, the disciples imprisoned themselves behind closed doors. It was their fear that hid them behind their locked doors: Fear of the Jews. They had just suffered heartbreaking disappointment. Their hope had just been crucified. Their hope had just suffered what seemed like severe defeat. They shut themselves away behind closed and locked doors to grieve. They were grieving because their hope had died. Yet, the risen, resurrected Savior slipped behind their closed and locked doors to bring them fresh hope.

Thomas refused to believe in or accept this hope for he had not seen it for him self. He refused to believe the words of hope the others tried to instill within him. Maybe he feared getting his hopes up only to have them dashed again.

Fear is the greatest chain that binds us. It imprisons us and locks us behind doors that only the Master himself can slip through. Thomas was focused upon his own grief; upon his own hurts and wounds and disappointments. When the risen, resurrected Savior slipped through the closed, locked doors of Thomas heart, Jesus said to him, ...behold my hands.... Jesus sought to have Thomas remove his eyes from his own wounds, and to focus upon the wounds inflicted upon the body of the Lord; wounds that were inflicted upon Jesus for our own healing and restoration. Thomas responded with the words, My Lord, and my God!

When we take our hurts and wounds, and our grief and disappointments, to the Lord, and place them in his wounded hands, we remove the focus from ourselves, and place our focus upon Him who is able to restore hope to us.

In Acts 1:4 Jesus commands the disciples to return to Jerusalem, and wait for the promise from him to be fulfilled. The disciples once again shut themselves behind closed doors. But it was different this time. The Lord had commanded them to do so. There is a big difference between locking ourselves behind closed and locked doors to focus upon ourselves, and locking ourselves behind closed doors to shut ourselves in with the Master. The disciples and many others remained behind those closed doors until they had an experience with the Master that would literally erupt them from that upper room, and turn the world upside down.

When we shut ourselves behind closed doors to be alone with the Savior, and tarry behind those doors until we have a life changing, world shattering, experience with Him, we emerge from those shut doors, with the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon our lives. That power is able to minister and transform the lives of all we come in contact with.

There are times we lock ourselves behind closed doors because of fear or hopelessness or despair or grief. These times are not of God, nor are they His will for us. During those times of enforced imprisonment, Jesus softly slips through our locked doors, and asks us to look upon his hands. He then gives us the keys with which to free ourselves from our self-imposed prison. There are other times Jesus commands us to go behind closed doors to meet with Him and to receive a greater anointing upon our lives from Him. When we obey Him, we emerge from behind the closed doors of our prayer closet with joy and with the power of the Holy Ghost resting upon us. And it will be like a burning, consuming fire shut up within us.

Which door are you behind today?

Connie J. Schmoll