Trench Encouragement
I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately.
Sad. Discouraged. Depressed. Angry.
“God, where are you? Why can’t I see You, feel You? Have I done something wrong?”
“What was your last assignment?”
“Write the book for women?”
“Yes.. If you stay doing what I tell you to do, you will feel my Presence. I stayed on the path. You are the one who left it.”
“I will return to it.”
Yesterday I opened my computer. Anti-virus was expired, so I downloaded one I’d used before.
I opened up my book files, and to my dismay, everything had been converted to Wordpad from Word! What happened to my files?
I looked on my list of programs, and Microsoft Office wasn’t there? I then went and double checked that my subscription hadn’t expired. Nope.
I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to download it again.
And I waited. And waited. For a total of 7 hours!!
No download.
I looked for solutions in the Microsoft community. I tried everything they suggested.
In the meantime, I had a conversation with God.
“Why is everything so hard? If you want me to write this book, why aren’t you helping me?” The conversation was much more whiney on my end. You get the picture. I was having a full-blown pity party.
This morning, as I scrolled through Facebook, I found a Steven Furtick clip.
“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” Job 1:8, 11-12 NIV http://bible.com/111/job.1.8,11-12.niv
Steven Furtick made the connection that maybe the battle is hard because we are being challenged to continue with God in SPITE OF the things Satan throws at us. Maybe God is bragging about us. Maybe He’s proud of us because we’ve been tried and still walk with Him. Maybe in our battles, we are proving God right. We are His. We are faithful. We do persevere.
So I went to a popular coffee shop and tried to download the program again using my phone’s hotspot. Didn’t work after a 2 hour chat with tech support.
On the way home, to take lunch to my husband, I considered what Steven Furtick said. Maybe all these issues were due to the enemy putting roadblocks in my way.
“God, I’m not giving up. I’ll get this fixed. And if it can’t be fixed, I’ll write the book by hand.”
In essence, I said, “Not today, Satan!”
This afternoon, I tried another coffee shop with good WiFi. After only ONE hour, the program was successfully downloaded and my computer was fixed!!
That perseverance thing works. Allow your faith to be tested (like Job) so you can be mature and complete. Joy!!!
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:2-5 NIV http://bible.com/111/jas.1.2-5.niv