Soul Food

Surviving Life's Storms

Rain falls on the just and the unjust according the Scriptures. Everyone living will encounter setbacks, trauma, and even crisis and personal disasters. This comes with the territory while we are living in a fallen world. After all, we have an enemy who prowls throughout this world seeking to rob, pillage and destroy. In so doing, he makes it his mission to accuse us and, to accuse our God, in order to convince us to that we have been abandoned by our God. The subtle inference is that God is unfaithful and that His love is fickle. He attempts to convince us that God purposely caused this difficult thing to happen to us because He is a harsh taskmaster.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! The enemy is, above all else a liar. His threats are not to be believed.

God does not orchestrate these painful events to take place to harm us or to cause us great pain. He doesn't need to do that because the enemy of our soul continually schemes to bring us down; that is the nature of evil.

God does, at times, allow the enemy to succeed in some of these plans, at least, in a limited degree.

God's kind and faithful nature always has a plan for our restoration when He has allowed such a trial and He promises to strengthen us in that trial so that we will not only survive but to emerge victoriously with an incredible testimony of His goodness when it is all said and done. That is the heritage of the children of God.

It is by trusting in this faithful nature of God and expecting blessing to be the final result of the testing that we are enabled to dance in the rain of life's storms.

Knowing the Heart of the Holy Spirit Enables us to Dance

Here is what the Holy Spirit says about Himself.

I am the Holy Spirit and I have taken up residence within you. I am not some inanimate thing; I am a Person and a Personality. I have thoughts and feelings, and I have chosen to be with you. I am here to help you and to strengthen you, as well as to change you and to transform you to be more like Myself.

I am love and encouragement, and I choose to pour out My love upon you over and over again, regardless of whether or not you respond to Me the way that I want you to.

I am faithful and I will not abandon you, no matter how poorly you behave, or how unwise of a choice that you make.

I am your teacher, and even when you are not paying attention to Me, I will find a way to teach you, to train you, to equip you and to help you grow in maturity and in the stature of Christ. I am faithful and I will not forsake you. I have chosen to be with you from the first moment that you believed in Jesus until the instant that We take you home to be with Us in glory.

I am all powerful, and I am your constant helper, friend, teacher and guide. I desire to have personal relationship and communion with you during our time together.

You may not realize this, but I have made Myself vulnerable to you. Yes, dear one, I have given you power to effect My feelings. You can hurt Me and grieve Me by ignoring My leading, or by choosing sin or unrighteousness.

You can also grieve Me by choosing to believe the lies and accusations of the enemy against you and by choosing to disqualify yourself from the destiny that We have so carefully chosen for you. Likewise, you can cause Me great pleasure by choosing to submit to Me, by listening to My voice and following My guiding.

There will be times when I must bring you on roads that are difficult to walk, because I am working to mature your character or to build faith. It causes Me pleasure when you chose to walk there with Me, when you do not resist or draw back.

It causes Me pleasure when you put your trust in your God, knowing that We are faithful and We will not let you down. I am the Holy Spirit, and I am your God. I will be with you through thick and thin. Your Lord Jesus sent Me to you when you became His, but I have come willingly.

I love you and I will not forsake you. I am constantly at work in you to teach you, to guide you, to help you and to fill you with the peace that passes all understanding.

If you will choose to cooperate with Me, I will transform you into a vessel of glory and into a person of great faith and maturity.

According to the Scriptures, Satan actually approached the throne of God and asked permission to come against Job because Job was faithful to God and he believed that by tormenting Job, the man of God would curse God and turn his back on God.

Strangely enough, God granted the evil one permission because He knew that Job would remain faithful. God planned to restore to Job everything that he would lose in this onslaught, which included his health, his wealth and his family. In fact, God planned to give Job far more than what the enemy was allowed to steal.

This story of pillaging and glorious restoration was recorded so that we would know what the true nature of our Creator is that we may be increased in faith when we are in difficult circumstances.

God never abandons us during life's storms. He is always waiting within the circumstances to reveal His goodness and kindness to us. If we have faith to believe we can learn to dance in the rain. If we lack faith we need only to ask the One who Faithful for the faith required. He will never say no to that request.

Dance on, beloved!

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