Stay in the race !

The ordeal you are going through at this moment may include physical suffering, unemployment, rebellious children, friends who do not have faith, mental suffering, agitation or pain. As you endure these things day after day, Satan whispers to you the same things as Job : "The righteous does not suffer. If God had heard you - if He saved you and His promises are true - you should be rescued immediately. Where is your God ? Is that what faith gives you ?"

Beloved, do not set your faith aside ! Satan is a liar. You endure difficulties because God loves you, because He cares about you. Think about it : you asked the Lord to make you more like Him. He alone knows what that implies. He knows your suffering and He will not let you be destroyed by it. In fact, He knows exactly when and how He will deliver you. He will not act until this time, foreseen in advance, and "with temptation will also prepare the way out of it, that ye may bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Rest assured that God has everything under His control. Suffering, prolonged illness, prayers that seem unanswered - He knows everything about them. And He knows why He has not yet lifted your trial. Like Paul, He uses "the thorn in the flesh" to work for your blessing. Indeed, the thing you want so much - the answer you think is so necessary - might well be something that God knows is not so good for you. If he finally said : "No," you know that He preserves your soul and answers you in the best way.

In all this, the great cloud of witnesses presses you : "Continue to fight battle with faith. Stay in the race !"

Consider this powerful saying of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews : "Do not give up your assurance, to which is attached a great remuneration. For you need perseverance, that after you have fulfilled the will of God, you will obtain what is promised to you. Still a little, a little while : the one who is to come will come, and it will not be long" (Hebrews 10: 35-37).

David Wilkerson