Prayer Request

To a distant and rebellious people, God said, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10. How patiently and without condemnation does He bring us along!

And, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. In Isaiah 41, God told Israel that it was a "worm" that He would make into a "new threshing sledge" with "double edges". In Hebrews 4:12, you, Butters, are given the double edged sword that cuts through the thoughts that you have and puts your inner man at the point of Truth. Though you were dead, He died for you and places into you His sword of the Spirit as you seek Him. He made you alive and He now now makes you to stand.

How frustrated you feel! How at the end of yourself! How close you feel to just giving up! Brother, I think you are in that holy place where God takes your unbelief and in His way, helps you through a minefield of blows and doubts. Only continue to seek Him! Do not give up, please. He is faithful. I pray you soon have a Lazarus moment when the bondages of your death are unraveled and your eyes of faith see Him who has raised you. I pray that the preciousness of that moment stays with you, and you cling to His promise in the next round of troubles, knowing that somehow He is not inly going to come through, but that you know He is with you all along.

Butters, HeyDave lives in the UK, too. I love his heart and trust his prayers. I agree to hold you up in prayer. I ask that Dave will, too. And that you also pray with commitment and a persistence that betrays your own feelings.

A three fold cord is not easily broken.

To the one who is tempted to give up on God:

The Lord calls to you in His word. He stretches His arm to you to rescue you. Even though you lack faith and you believe He is just not going to hear you or respond to you, He reaches out to you anyway. He is not offended by your doubts. He understands your doubts.

Elijah was given to doubt and was a man with a nature no different than yours. If you stood up today in your doubts and loudly yelled out to the people around you, "God is faithful!” they might not believe you. They might look at you and size you up as someone who has no right to say such a thing since you are suffering from such deep doubts. You might even agree with them about yourself; you might say of yourself, "I am God’s worst representative”. Elijah had given up on God and wanted to die. Yet, it was Elijah’s God-given prophetic voice that God chose as the spirit and example of the announcement of the arrival of His kingdom.

There’s something that God has placed in you, brother doubter, that God wants to use for the glory of His Kingdom. Just as God chose John the Baptist (Luke 1:17) to fulfill that function as the one in the voice and spirit of Elijah (Malachi 4:5) to prepare a people for the kingdom’s arrival, a herald of that kingdom, God has chosen you for His own glory and His own purposes. Revelation 4:11, Acts 17:26. Down to the time and place of your life, He has ordained you. And, He has ordained you to be conformed to the image of Jesus, who suffered and learned obedience through His suffering.

John the Baptist doubted, asking "Are you Him, or do we look for another?” Jesus told John’s disciples, "You go tell him” all the works Jesus was doing. Jesus words and works testified to God’s anointing of Jesus, God the Son, as the Messiah. His words and works testify to your choice by Him "in the beloved”, as one who has believed on the testimony of the apostles by the word of those whom God sent with the good news of Jesus Christ. You know He is the One.

And, to them that believed, he gave the power/right to become the sons of God. John 1:12. You are empowered and filled with the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. And, even in your doubts, God stands ready to assure you although you may struggle for some time to understand and be comforted by Him.

Isaiah 40:27-31 says,

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Your ways are not hidden from the Lord, and your right and power to become like Jesus is not disregarded. He knows you and He knows your doubts and He still stands ready and present pouring Himself to you. He does not faint, does not grow weary, and His understanding of you is insearchable. He gives power to … the faint. He gives strength to … the weak. He causes you to be able to soar with Him in His strength, His endurance.

I don't know if you are male or female but if you could create a new email and post it on your account for the brothers to contact you. That could help you too.

God bless

I will be praying for you, Butters. In the meanwhile, here is some good news:

God wants you even more than you want Him.

He wants to know you more than you have ever wanted to know Him. Our faith can falter, but His cannot. If you draw near to Him, He will not turn you away no matter what your mind might think. It may be difficult to "feel" this way, but trust that God is right there with you -- always longing to be with you.

I would appreciate your prayers at the moment. My devotional life (actually my whole Christian walk) is hugely difficult because I have developed a very negative image of God in my mind. I can’t help but think that he is a strict task master who is rather unloving and unforgiving. I have great difficultly believing that he has actually forgiven me.

When I read a challenging scripture (or a challenging article on this this site) I tend to feel utterly condemned and cut off from God for this reason.

I believe, that even those who are born-again, when they fall into sin then God may allow them to fall into the depths of sorrow and they cry out from the depths like David in Psalm 130, "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"
(Psalms 130:1-3)

It is good that we come under deep conviction of sin but if we just remain in this frame of mind, we will likely come to hard thoughts about God and become tired of waiting on Him. A thorough repentance and brokenness is good but let it lead you to His embrace. David did not stay in the depths, the very next verses read, " But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope."
(Psalms 130:4-5)

If you will wait for God patiently with expectation of forgiveness, you will discover it, praise God!

In Christ,

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans8:1
Question: "What does it mean that there is no condemnation in Christ ?"

Answer: "No condemnation” can be defined in courtroom language. To have "no condemnation” declared means to be found innocent of the accusation, to have no sentence inflicted and no guilty verdict found. By the grace of God, believers in Jesus Christ will not face the condemnation of God. "We have passed from death to life” (1 John 3:14).

The Bible teaches that every human being will be brought before the judgment throne of God for an ultimate and decisive judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10), and Christ Himself will be the judge (John 5:27). We are all naturally under the condemnation of God: "Whoever does not believe stands condemned already” (John 3:18b). But Christians will not be found guilty on Judgment Day (John 3:18a; Matthew 25:33”“34).

However, the "no condemnation” involves more than acquittal on Judgment Day. In Romans 8:1 the apostle Paul speaks in the present tense, as evidenced by the word now. Also, notice the word therefore, which points the reader to the previous passage of Romans 7:21-25. In Romans 7 Paul describes his struggle against the sinful nature””a struggle that every believer experiences. Paul writes, "Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21) and, "What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 7:24). Paul is expressing his hatred for the sinful nature which continues to war against his new nature in Christ””Paul hates the sin he commits, but he is also thankful because he has been set free from slavery to sin. He now has the ability to do what is good because Christ has delivered him (Romans 7:25).

Paul takes this a step further in Romans 8 when he teaches believers are not only free from bondage to sin, they are free from the inner emotions and thoughts that tend to bring feelings of condemnation to the Christian when he does commit sin (Romans 8:2). Christians are free from the "law of sin and death,” which means, although they will commit sin, the Law no longer has the power to condemn them. We are not under the Law’s condemnation because Jesus fulfilled ("filled-up, completed”) the expectations of the Law perfectly, and believers are "in Christ” (Romans 8:3). Because believers are in Christ, they have the joy of being counted as righteous, simply because Christ is righteous (Philippians 3:9). Paul also points out that genuine Christians, although they struggle, will not live "according to the flesh”; that is, they will not persist in a constant state of sinful living (Romans 8:5).

Paul encourages us that we need not fear condemnation because we can come to God as our loving, forgiving Father (Romans 8:15”“16). Christians who live in shame and guilt over past failures are needlessly condemning themselves when they ought to be "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13). Fear can be paralyzing, "but perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). As Christians, we must understand that our justification is found in Christ alone””in His finished work on the cross””not in what we do or don’t do (Romans 3:28). Believers can find solace in the assurance that we have been adopted into God’s own family and have been made heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Nothing can separate us "from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39).

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