What Hope do we have if we Give up on God?
Last Friday’s devotional by Charles Stanley, From the Bottom Up, which one of the FAM members shared in printed form on the private site Friday morning, was perfectly timed in light of recent conversations with other FAM members.. And as God is always so faithful to do, it also perfectly tied in with recent discussion and posts on the private site about doubt and discouragement and truly trusting God.
Perhaps one of the most surprising discoveries I’ve made over the past few years in marriage restoration ministry is that Christian men and women are actually afraid to wholeheartedly put their trust in God because they are afraid of how they will react if He lets them down and they don’t see the manifestation of the restored marriages they are standing for. But as Dr. Stanley’s message points out, we will only be a lot worse off if we give up on God and resist putting our complete and unreserved faith and trust in Him, which only makes our situations a lot more hopeless and not in any way better. After all, if we give up on God, what hope of marriage restoration do we have? And I can certainly attest to the fact that based on what I have been blessed to witness in the restoration of dozens of marriages; those in our ministry who have been blessed with the manifestation of the power and promise of God’s Word in their lives and marriages have been those who refused to give up on Him and refused to believe what they saw and heard over what His Word declares. And it’s no wonder that the common denominator most apparent in the people who refuse to give up on God is the time spent in God’s Word and how much of it they have retained and buried deep down into their hearts, especially since Jesus promised in John 15:7…If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. And that just affirms the VITAL significance of what Romans 10:17 reveals…Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. So if we question the importance of faith as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, we must not understand what Jesus meant when He declared that it will be done to us according to our faith (Matthew 9:29)! But the high cost of not KNOWING and REMEMBERING the Word of God is that we are then fighting a losing battle because we won’t even recognize arguments and pretensions setting themselves up against the knowledge of God; much less be able to demolish the enemy’s strongholds by taking thoughts contrary to the Word of God captive and making them obedient to Jesus Christ/the Word (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 and John 1:14).
So the next time the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy our righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and the word of our testimony (John 10:10, Romans 14:17 and Revelation 12:10-11), and we’re tempted to give up on God, we really have to seriously consider what’s left because when we understand the cost of NOT fully trusting God and putting our faith and hope in Him to do ALL that His Word declares, we will realize that we have no other choice if we want to see His glory and His Word in all its power and promise manifested in our lives and marriages. Yet we will indeed be blessed and encouraged if we recognize that we are JUSTIFIED THROUGH FAITH, and thus CHOOSE to PERSEVERE and STAND in the GRACE of our Lord, as we put our HOPE IN HIM AND HIS WORD instead of giving up, because we will NOT BE DISAPPOINTED and we will experience PEACE and REJOICE as promised in Romans 5:1-5, which says…Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. And let us NEVER forget that God sent the Holy Spirit to SEAL the deal and to GUARANTEE our hope and inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:13-14), which we know is righteousness, peace, joy and abundant life!!! But if we don’t stand in FAITH and put our hope in the power and promise of God’s Word and His faithfulness and power to bring it ALL to pass (Numbers 23:19, Isaiah 46:10-11 and Isaiah 55:10-11), then we have NO guarantees and NOTHING left! So NEVER give up on God and get ready to be blessed and encouraged as you put your hope in Him!