“WHEN PRESSURES OF LIFE GET ‘TOO HEAVY’ AND DON’T SEEM TO LET UP, EVEN WITH PRAYER, WE GO INTO SURVIVAL MODE, AND ESCAPE INTO THE FANTASY OF THINKING ON THOSE WORLDLY THINGS THAT WE USED TO LOVE.
Now, let me say, not all those natural, of this world’s pleasures, are sin. However, even any good thing that distracts from all our worthy goals and purposes, or replaces God in our faith, devotion, and love for Him becomes sin.
READ: DOES YOUR HEART LONG FOR JESUS?
If what gives you pleasure dishonors God, then put it aside. Abandon it, give it up, The stress of sin mounts up, stronger and stronger, and will let up only as you repent of that trespass.
(Isaiah 5:18) “What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them. with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart”.
Of course, any lust after illicit sex, the pride of life, power, or control is always sin.
It can never be consecrated and be made holy, decent, or constructive. If you try, you are only deceiving yourself.
What of this world did you use to love, and may still love, even after you got saved?
Do you love to cultivate flowers, or make a good vegetable garden? Do you love to hunt, or fish, find exotic recipes, and cook?
Do you love wildlife? Do you like to have a dog, or cat as a pet? Do you love to exercise, sow, knit, sing, or play an instrument?
All of these can be good and a blessing to you. Many times these become an escape from pressures rising up on our left hand and on the right.
They can become an escape from overwhelming problems coming from seemingly every direction, and if indulged in modestly, can be restful and healing.
We can get the best advice of all, however, from Jesus Himself. Listen to what He told His disciples.
(Mark 6:31) “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” They were being overwhelmed, and needed to come apart, ‘BEFORE THEY CAME APART’, or fell apart.
Now, this overwhelming pressure was not caused by Satan, but people coming and going, hungry for God and truth.
Their rest, in this case was cut short, because the people located them and had nothing to eat, so Jesus had compassion on them and miraculously fed the five thousand. (Matthew 14;13-21)
READ: DON’T WE ALL NEED TO BE REVIVED? BE REFRESHED
Our ultimate goal must always be to please and obey God, yet even in the work of the Lord, there must be a time of rest.
If a hobby, or something you love to do (isn’t a sin in itself), and doesn’t distract and replace your love and service for God, and it gives you a little rest and relief, fine. Go for it.
But also, and most of all, rest in the Lord. Meditate on such scriptures as, (Isa. 40:31) “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”.
If you wait upon the Lord, while others don’t, or won’t they will become overwhelmed with their constant un-ending problems, ‘BUT NOT YOU’.
If you wait upon the Lord expecting God to come on the scene, and give you strength, when you are weak. He will, while others will become weaker under their stress.
If you wait upon the Lord, trusting him to come through for you, He certainly will.
He will come through with the very thing that you need so very much, while others all others around you in their overwhelming struggle will utterly collapse.
You were headed for a nervous breakdown but you are waiting upon the Lord, with trust and great expectancy, and you are being renewed, refreshed, marvelously revived, lifted up and restored. GLORY, GLORY, GLORY TO GOD.
PRAISE GOD, MY FRIEND, BECAUSE HE HASN’T ABANDONED YOU, HE HASN’T FORSAKEN YOU.
Give Him All The Glory.
Rejoice because He is making a way for you where there hasn’t seemed to be a way before. JESUS IS A WAY-MAKER!
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