Living With Total Confidence In Romans 8:28
How awesome it is to NEVER cease being amazed by God’s INFINITE, NEVER FAILING love and faithfulness, especially as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, answering God’s call to unconditionally love even those who don’t demonstrate such love for us! And how wonderful it is to have God’s assurance that when we’re committed to doing things HIS way and when we put our trust in Him, HE will make our righteousness shine like the dawn and the justice of our cause like the noon day sun, as Psalm 37:5-6 promises, Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. And how comforting it is to rest in the absolute knowledge that God is our vindicator when others hurt or wrong us, as His word promises in Psalm 135:14, which says For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. And how encouraging it is to have TOTAL confidence in the Lord’s promise that NO wisdom, NO insight, and NO plan will ever succeed against Him, as we see in Proverbs 21:30, which says There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. And what blessed assurance it is for us to know that the gates of hell can not prevail against us or our marriages when we acknowledge that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the Living God, as He promised in Matthew 16:18, which says And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The Lord really blessed me with a totally new and very rewarding experience last night, because I get a lot of phone calls from FAM members, and it usually just takes a few seconds to know by their tone of voice whether I’m about to hear a good report or a bad report. But that’s something I never really thought about on a conscious level until last night when I received a call from one of the FAM members who is probably dealing with one of the most challenging and difficult of all situations, which is living in the home with a very angry and adulterous husband. I knew she had an important event taking place this weekend and was eager to hear from her to find out how everything went, and as soon as I heard her voice, I was excited, because I was sure it was a good report, based on her tone of voice. But it wasn’t. At least on the surface, it doesn’t look that way, but she was experiencing total peace and had refused to let the events of the last two days steal her joy and confidence in the Lord. I told her she’s really come a LONG way and how impressed I was, and that I have never had a call from someone with a bad report who sounded so good, which we had quite a laugh about! Now that’s an AWESOME praise report, and something we all need to strive for in our own lives. And being SO true to His infinite and unfailing faithfulness to confirm his word and way to us, both Charles Stanley’s and Joel Osteen’s TV messages this morning dealt with the exact same thing!
Dr. Stanley’s message, Facing The Unknown With Confidence, uses one of my favorite passages of scripture, Romans 8, and he does a great job of explaining how AWESOME verse 28 really is. He also used Psalm 139, which is another great passage of scripture. When finding a place of peace and resting in the confidence that God has EVERYTHING under control and that He WILL work it ALL out for good is still something we struggle with, this is a very important and helpful message.
And there’s no way it’s a coincidence that the following TV messages from Joyce Meyer’s broadcasts from last week were on a similar topic. I meant to provide links to these messages before now, but obviously God had other plans! So don’t miss Aggravated and Frustrated No More – Part I, or Aggravated and Frustrated No More – Part II, and I Shall Not Be Moved!.
And Joel Osteen’s message, Controlling Your Moods, is available at this link. And it’s a great message about controlling our emotions and feelings and being more consistent in our confidence that God is in control and that He will work EVERYTHING out for our good, when we love Him and live according to His purpose.
The following verses are also very helpful when we struggle with remembering that God is in control of everything and that He will work it all out for our good and meet EVERY need:
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Psalm 55:22
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.
1 Peter 5:6-7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Matthew 6:32-34
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.