Food for the Spirit: Struggle

Main Course
“Do some people struggle more than others? I would love to hear that it is okay for me to be struggling. There seems to be spiritual warfare going on in my life.” So read an email I received recently from a young woman. As I responded to her, I couldn’t get out of my mind the fact that she is not the only one with that question and those feelings. There are many of us going through, right now. For some of us, it’s been so deep for too many months—or so it seems.

As I meditated and asked the Lord for a right-now Word for us, these are the verses that the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance.

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31-32, New International Version).

So we can replace Simon’s name with our own. ______, _______, Satan ASKED… He has to request permission because God is Sovereign. So it was then, my friend. And so it is, now!

We, like Simon at various times in our lives are sifted as wheat. But, Jesus, says, “I have prayed for you, _______, that your faith may not fail.” What makes His Word wonderfully personal and powerful is that Jesus tells us that He foresees that we will we will make it through—Him being our helper. Jesus says, “and when you have turned back…” not IF…but WHEN.

Therefore, there must be purpose in it all and through it all. God’s perfect purpose—personal TESTIMONIES—that will “strengthen your brothers.”

Yes, through it all, we gain testimonies that far outweigh the temporal emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual struggles we may have to endure. We gain testimonies that lead to freedom—our own and others. We gain testimonies drenched in the torrential downpour of God’s love, forgiveness, and favor. We achieve testimonies empowered with a Holy Ghost potency that would not be possible without the struggle.

Perhaps, my brothers and sisters, it is possible that the greater the suffering the greater the impact of our ministries.

Dessert:
Revelation 12:11 “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker and Author

www.stanice.com

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