The Key to Overcoming When All Hope Seems Lost - Day 174 Through the Bible

One of the few remaining swinging bridges over the South Toe River in Yancey County -near Mt. Celo Church

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

God in the Midst of the Impossible - 1 Chronicles 11 and 12 and Acts 6 - Even the New Testament reading today chronicles God's OT walk with His people.  Stephen, having been seized on false charges of blasphemy against the law of Moses and the temple, addresses the accusing council.  He begins with God's call to their father, Abraham, to leave Ur of the Chaldeans for a land that would be his descendants' possession.   The 400 years of exile of the people due to sin and the return to God are revealed to Abraham. We remember these stories we have studied, and Stephen reminds the council...of the covenant of circumcision..of the promised child Isaac...who is the father of Jacob...who is the father of the 12 patriarchs...one of whom is Joseph who is sold to the Egyptians because of the jealousy of the brothers...of his trials and triumphs through faith...how Egypt forgot the goodness of Joseph...persecuted his descendants...through genocide killed the male children...but Moses was saved that he might save his people for God.  The Chronicles tell of the valiant men that came to support David in his years of exile from Saul, as he is made king, and throughout his reign. God remembers the faithfulness of His people, of their valiant deeds through and for Him.

My Lessons and Applications - All of these were given gifts, training, life experiences (some very hard) that would prepare them for the mission God gave them.  We remember that Abraham was 99 and still childless when told by God he would have a son and be the father of a nation.  He waited 10 more years for the fulfillment of that promise. We recall the 40 years that Moses was raised in the courts of Pharaoh, which would be important when he was sent back to tell Pharaoh to let his people go...of Moses murdering the Egyptian to protect a fellow Israelite, who turned on him.  It was not his time, not in the power of God...of the 40 years Moses spent in the wilderness before the call of God...of the 40 years of leading a complaining, ungrateful people through the wilderness because of their sin...a people who so angered Moses they caused him to sin and lose the privilege of entering the promised land.  We know David was prepared as a young shepherd boy to shepherd his people Israel...how he waited 15-20 years to become king after being anointed by Samuel, spending those years in exile in fear of his life.  Joseph spent 11 years in Potiphar's house, 2 years in prison, 9 years as overseer before his brothers came to him, fulfilling his dream at age 17 that brought about their selling him into slavery.  Stephen now recounts the persecutions that Joseph endured and the greatness he achieved until his death at 110.  Stephen also becomes a great servant of God, but his persecution will lead to his death. The lives of the Biblical saints were never devoid of persecution, usually required many years of waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled, often were given missions that led to their deaths, occasionally sinned against God but whose lives were characterized by an obedient walk and prayer life with God.  Is this also the dominant trait of my life?  Am I trusting in God, waiting through the years for the fulfillment of His promise?  Do I recall the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 to lift up my heart in times of trial?

Key to Overcoming Tough Times - Charles Stanley says, "The key to surviving tough times is learning to live with the continuing awareness of the presence of God...you are always in the presence of Almighty God who is sovereign...loving...all-knowing....faithful." And I would add to this... providential.  Their trials/tragedies were used by / engineered by God in the fulfillment of His kingdom work. Look back at the lives of the saints mentioned above and in Hebrews 11.  There were choices made...a decision to trust God, despite the circumstance...to remain obedient to God, regardless of what others did to them...to keep the faith, even when God's promise was not seen by them on this earth...by faith they overcame.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.  Hebrews 12:1-3