The Lord is with us

We're surrounded by bad news. 

But the Lord is with us.

The enemy is near. 

But the Lord is with us.

We've grown weary in the fight. 

But the Lord is with us. 

No matter the battle.

No matter the news.

No matter the circumstance.

The Lord is with us.

When the night grows dark. 

When our faith has diminished.

When our tears keep falling. 

The Lord is there.

Fulfilling His promise.

Offering us hope.

There will be moments when it seems we should give up. 

When everything seems pointless.

When all seems lost. 

But life is never what it seems. 

And the Lord is never more than a breath away. 

The news may sound bad. 

The enemy may have surrounded. 

The darkness may feel like it will never end. 

But the Lord will overcome it all.

No matter how hard. 

No matter how long. 

No matter what we face.

We can't give up.

We can't give in. 

We can't lose hope.

The world will try to defeat us.

That's a guarantee.

But our trust should not be in this world. 

And so, on our knees, we seek God out.

On our knees, we change our perspective. 

On our knees, we build up our faith. 

With our tears and with our prayers, we give it all to Him.

We are in a battle. We know it.

And we are weary of the fight. 

But God does not grow weary.

God does not give up.

God does not give in.

He stands ready.

To defend.

To protect.

To comfort.

The enemy has been trying to distract us. 

To get us to turn our backs on God. 

But we see it now. We've caught on.

We were fooled for a minute, but not anymore. 

Our faith is tired, Lord, it's so very tired. 

And we can't do this alone. 

So we look to you. 

We're standing on your Word.

We're asking you to save us. 

And we believe this one thing. 

The world has tried to destroy us, it has done its very best, 

but you Lord are still with us,

and you will carry us through. 

 

when you're tired of holding on

hold on. 

there's so much wrapped up in those two words.

but how do you hold on when you're tired?

how do you hold on when you're slipping?

how do you hold on when you just want the relief of letting go?

and so you let go.

you stop holding and you let yourself fall.

sometimes we're so worried about falling we don't realize our holding on is the problem.

we've held tight for so long we believe it's all we can do.

that it's all we should do.

that if we FALL we've FAILED.

we have this crazy belief that nothing good can ever come from a fall.

but we've forgotten that falling teaches us.

falling helps us.

falling pushes us to stretch. to reach for help. 

to trust that God has something bigger. that God has something better.

we have to remind ourselves of that.

like a baby learning to walk, we were born with an innate desire to get up.

to keep trying.

to keep reaching.

to FALL and to TRY again.

think on that. we were born with a natural inclination to never stop trying. and yet as we grow older, the world and all its obstacles, all its distractions, all its troubles...trick us into believing that it's no use to try.

that it's no use to have faith.

that we're never going to stand.

but that's a lie from the pit of hell. because satan wants nothing more than for us to give up. he wants nothing more than for us to believe that God has forgotten us. 

he wants nothing more than for us to let this world and not God's Word become our focus.

Micah 7:8 tells us "Though I fall, I will rise again."

there's our focus. there's our promise.

there's our WORD.

we don't need to worry about falling. God's already there. 

and He's promised we will rise again.

so today we let go. and we look up. and we reach out.

and we let God's Word...and not this world...be the source of what we're holding on to!!!