What about the Struggle? The struggle is not the problem...but a part of the soulution!

 

Daniel 6:17

“A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed.”

Walking with God opens opportunities of struggle.

A Struggle is to to proceed with difficulty or with great effort. An example is to struggled through the high grass... when walking in high grass ones needs to pick up their feet and walk intentionally and with purpose.

In a recent issue of his One Minute Uplift newsletter, RickEzell writes: "The pages of history are lined with individuals encountering negative setbacks only to make something positive out of them. They are better for it. In many cases so are we.

"Thomas Edison, when a boy, received a blow on his ear which impaired his hearing. What a tragedy! Later he felt his deafness was a blessing, for it was a tool by which he was saved from distractions. This allowed him to concentrate on his work, and out of that concentration emerged some of the greatest inventions of all times.

"Victor Hugo, a literary genius of France, was exiled from his country by Napoleon. What a tragedy! Out of that period of exile arose some of his most creative works. When he later returned home in triumph, he asked, 'Why was I not exiled earlier?'

"Helen Keller, born blind and deaf, faced obstacle after obstacle in her life. However, on more that one occasion she confided, 'I thank God for my obstacles, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God.'

"George Frederick Handel was at a low point in his life. His money was gone, and his creditors hounded him, threatening him with imprisonment. His right side became paralyzed, and his health deteriorated. For a brief time he was tempted to give up. In the midst of the darkness he picked himself up and began to do the only thing he knew to do--write music. Out of that despair he wrote the oratorio known as The Messiah, which many consider the greatest piece of church music in history.

The thread tying Edison, Hugo, Keller and Handel together is that these people refused to be defeated by their problems. They saw their misfortunes and bad luck not as dilemmas to destroy them, but as opportunities to grow and develop in ways that otherwise would have been impossible.

Daniel could be added to our list. He faced struggles his entire life...yet he pushed on and even when it seemed God would not change the situation, Daniel remained faithful to God and did not waiver. He walked with God. Daniel realized the struggle was part of the solution and the struggle was not the problem.

Opportunities of struggle are a good thing....yes, a good thing.

What are you struggling with today?

 You know I love ya, Don

The Power of the Holy Spirit

James MacDonald states it this way in his book, Downpour, “The Holy Spirit want to be continually filling you, empowering you with all the intensity and life and joy that is His to Give. It’s like putting your hand under a stream of water rushing out of a faucet. We have to be willing to reach out and surrender our hands to the water.”

There is a story of a group of preachers that were looking to hold a preaching revival and they wanted to get the great revival preacher, D.L. Moody to come. One of the younger preachers stood up and said, “Why do we need to get Moody? Does Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” One of the other preachers, stood up and said, “I’ve seen and heard and even shared a meal with D.L. Moody. It is not that D.L. Moody has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on D.L. Moody.”

My friends, by surrendering our will to God is how we lean over talk with Jesus. In our surrender we share in the comfort, the promise, the assistance and the power of the Holy Spirit. You and I must surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to have a monopoly on our lives. It is through that release we will truly live.

Releasing to His Power,
Don