Orange Moon "The Conflict"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

 

  "The Conflict" 

    

      Trouble never comes alone for the born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

     "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

      

     Of course, it often doesn't feel as if our Heavenly Father draws especially close when challenges arrive on our doorstep.  The same David who affirmed God's "very present help" also cried out, "Why hidest Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1).  The Psalmist believed and confessed his Lord's truth.  However, the pains and difficulties of life caused him to feel otherwise, leading him to ask the conflicting question.  The same dichotomy of  faith and feeling will frequently characterize our experience of walking with God through trouble.  "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17).  

   

    We must expect the internal challenge and be ready to "fight the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12).  Walking with God does not eradicate our human responses to  challenge.  The Lord Jesus Christ Himself "sweat... as it were, great drops of blood" when tempted in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44).  He trusted His Father, of course, but He felt the stress in His humanity.  The same path awaits us in our present earthly lifetime wherein spirit and flesh conflict means we must affirm the truth of God's living and enabling presence when our flesh feels as if He is nowhere near.  The path is very difficult, and as we have frequently suggested in these messages over the years, anyone who claims that living by faith is easy has not tried it.  "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

 

    God is a very present help in trouble, of whatever kind and measure.  This is truth.  This is reality.  This is "thus saith the Lord."  And this is where we make our stand, often in the face of extreme appearance and emotion to the contrary.  The Holy Spirit will enable us as we realize the inevitable conflict, determining to believe the Word of God no matter what.  We face no pain, obstacle, or difficult alone, and we can be sure the Apostle John proclaimed the truth when he declared…

 

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

(I John 5:4)

 

Weekly Memory Verse

    "But I trusted in Thee, o Lord.  I said, Thou art my God."

(Psalm 31:14)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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