Saturday, September 26, 2015

How to Resist Temptation in the Midst of a Trial



Christian Recovery - Faith at Work


Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that God is involved in your life when your needs and desires are put on hold. It seems like God doesn’t hear when you pray for relief from financial stress, or are fighting the urge to use drugs or alcohol. Yet, the opposite is true.
     It’s because God cares that He often allows you to suffer longer than you think you can. Read the book of James. It begins with a discussion on perseverance and patience. It talks about hope being the end result. He wants to teach us to understand the difference between our ways and His ways. For those who consistently self-medicate and interrupt the process God has them in, God’s ways don’t make sense at all. And they never work because addicts never complete the process. They never endure to the end. They lose faith.
     One definition of faith is “An unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.” If that’s the accepted definition of the word, then you have no right to ask God to prove He is answering your prayers. Instead, you have to live your life knowing that He is. This is nearly impossible unless you worship God at His throne and learn how to praise through your problems. When you visit the throne, you realize that God is God and you are not.
There is a time and place for crying out to God in your distress. In fact, it’s Biblical to yell, “Help!” But you can’t spend your entire Christian life as a chronic crier. If you read the book of Psalms, you’ll see that David wasn’t afraid to tell God his feelings. David consistently thanked God for coming to his rescue and saving him – well before it had actually happened.
David had intimacy with his Creator and was a perfect example of pure trust in God. The reason David could praise and worship God in the midst of being tested was because his love and trust for God overpowered his fears and sin nature.
If you want to love God like David did, you will have to enter a deeper dimension of prayer, praise, and worship. Only then can you make the great exchange from fear to faith.
It’s possible to have a sense of impending blessing in the midst of a disaster. You just have to remember that God’s intended end for you is always good, even when things look bad. And, you will have life-changing prophetic revelation in times of need, rather than fear the future as it appears to be unfolding.
Quit turning to drugs and alcohol for relief. You won’t find it in the glass, the pill, the smoke, or the needle. You’ll find your relief in Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the One who died so that you could overcome your issues of life and live in victory.
To learn more about how to overcome addictions, visit www.thesolidrockroad.com. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.