Our Difficulties Are But GOD'S Challenges!

2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
     
How did God bring about the miracle of the Red Sea?

By shutting His people in on every side, so that there was no way out but the divine way.

The Egyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains were on every side of them.

There was no escape but from above.
     
Some one has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us over.

We can always get out at the top.

Our difficulties are but God's challenges, and He makes them so hard, often, that we must go under or get above them.
     
In such an hour, if there is a divine element, it brings out the highest possibilities of faith and we are pushed by the very emergency into God's best.
     
Beloved, this is God's hour.

If you will rise to meet it you will get such a hold upon Him that you will never be in extremities again, or if you are, you will learn to call them not extremities, but opportunities...

And like Jacob, you will go forth from that night at Peniel, no longer Jacob, but victorious Israel.

Let us bring to Him our need and prove Him true.

~A. B. Simpson~

Is Jesus Your Only Life?

Yes, He wants disciples to whom He is the only life, not just life and something else. 

There are whole multitudes of disciples who want Christ and something else, to whom Christ is not all-sufficient, the only life...

And the Lord is going to sift out this large body who carry the name of 'disciples'. 

He has always done it.

He did it in New Testament times. 

The mighty persecutions which came upon the early Church were His means of sifting out...

And through the ages He has done this thing by many means. 

He is doing it in the world today. 

Oh, what a tremendous sifting is going on amongst Christians! 

It is already beginning in the east and is going to develop in the west...

The western world is not going to escape this. 

The great multitudes who may call themselves by the name of Christ's disciples are going to be found out. 

Let us be quite clear and certain on this point. 

If Christ is not our only life we are going out...

For sooner or later we shall not be able to stand up to the test.
 
~ T. Austin Sparks ~

A Man Without Fear

Exodus 3:12  And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

Of course, if the LORD sent Moses on an errand, He would not let him go alone. 

The tremendous risk which it would involve and the great power it would require would render it ridiculous for God to send a poor lone Hebrew to confront the mightiest king in all the world and then leave him to himself.

It could not be imagined that a wise God would match poor Moses with Pharaoh and the enormous forces of Egypt. 

Hence He says, "Certainly I will be with thee," as if it were out of the question that He would send him alone.

In my case, also, the same rule will hold good. 

If I go upon the LORD's errand with a simple reliance upon His power and a single eye to His glory, it is certain that He will be with me. 

His sending me binds Him to back me up. 

Is not this enough? 

What more can I want? 

If all the angels and arch- angels were with me. I might fail; but if He is with me, I must succeed. 

Only let me take care that I act worthily toward this promise. 

Let me not go timidly, halfheartedly, carelessly, presumptuously. 

What manner of person ought he to be who has God with him! 

In such company it behoveth me to play the man and, like Moses, go in unto Pharaoh without fear.

~Charles Spurgeon~

A Wonderful Guarantee

Isa 41:10  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
 
When called to serve or to suffer, we take stock of our strength, and we find it to be less than we thought and less than we need. 

But let not our heart sink within us while we have such a word as this to fall back upon, for it guarantees us all that we can possibly need. 

God has strength omnipotent; that strength He can communicate to us; and His promise is that He will do so. 

He will be the food of our souls and the health of our hearts; and thus He will give us strength. 

There is no telling how much power God can put into a man. 

When divine strength comes, human weakness is no more a hindrance.
 
Do we not remember seasons of labor and trial in which we received such special strength that we wondered at ourselves?

In the midst of danger we were calm

Under bereavement we were resigned...

In slander we were self-contained...

And in sickness we were patient. 

The fact is that God gives unexpected strength when unusual trials come upon us, We rise out of our feeble selves. 

Cowards play the man...

Foolish ones have wisdom given them...

And the silent receive in the self-same hour what they shall speak.

My own weakness makes me shrink, but God's promise makes me brave.

LORD, strengthen me "according to thy word."

~Charles Spurgeon~