Paul said, “I have learned to abase and to abound and to therewith be content.”1 The Lord’s care doesn’t mean that you’re always abounding or that everything is always smooth sailing. It means that as you look to Him, He’ll help you to be content, trusting that He will keep you and care for you no matter what.
He values all that you’ve given of yourself and your life and time in service to Him. Sometimes He’ll give you comfort and abundance, but sometimes getting to those abundant times may mean passing through struggles. The Lord uses battles to accomplish many things. As you fight the battle, your fighting style is strengthened, or you use spiritual weapons that you haven’t used as much before. You get desperate with the Lord and develop a clean heart and spirit. You become more humble and dependent on His power. You appreciate each blessing all the more.
Even though each battle is different, the one thing that is always the same and that you can always count on is God’s love for you. You can count on Him, and He will never disappoint you.
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The Enemy always fights the Word. He will probably fight your faith in the Lord’s promises and try to cast doubt on them. But that doesn’t discredit the veracity of God’s vows to us. Certainly it takes patience to trust in His assurances, because sometimes they aren’t fulfilled as quickly or in the way that we think they should be. We can’t presume to have the wisdom of God, to know the full picture like He does and to know how He should answer our prayers and fulfill His Word. But, like generations of Christians before us, we can still put our full weight down on the oath that He has sworn to us, that what He has pledged to us in His Word cannot fail, and that it will be fulfilled in His time, in His way, as we do our part; and that it will accomplish what He knows is best.
Part of the walk of faith is trusting in God’s wisdom. Just because you go through tough times or have battles and trials—even very deep battles, through the valley of the shadow of death, figuratively or literally—this isn’t an indication that God is failing to keep His Word. There are many reasons that God allows difficulties and adversity. If you ask Him to show you the reasons in your particular situation, He will. Problems and yet-to-be-fulfilled pledges do not mean God is failing or is incapable.
Life on earth has many obstacles, and that’s why we need the Lord and why we need to hold on to our faith regardless of what is going on around us. The Lord’s promises are guarantees, His words of honor, and you can count on them! However, it’s still up to you to choose to believe. You choose to believe not because you see facts, but because you have faith. God never fails His children, and you can stake your life on His Word and that it will always, eventually, prove as true as He is.
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The future can look daunting, scary, and like any number of negative things. It can have that appearance because so much of the future is unknown. However, think about how the Lord has always taken care of you and know that He always will. The Lord hasn’t always supplied in the same ways, but He has always supplied, hasn’t He?
Continue to look to the Lord. Don’t let your faith be swayed by circumstances, but rather let His Word and your close connection with Jesus give you the faith you need for any situation. The Lord will always guide and provide for you no matter what. Whatever situation you’re in, you’re never alone. You have Jesus—and you’re surrounded by people who need His love.
As you continue to give to Him and others through your witness, it will come back to you in blessings. Keep trusting in the one who loves you above all, and who has pledged to take care of you and yours.
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Jesus said He will not leave you comfortless.2 When do you need to be comforted? When things don’t go the way you’d hoped. But He always has a greater good in mind for you, and the comfort of His love and protection will carry you through the hard times so that you value and cherish that comfort even when everything is again going well.
Whatever He chooses for you, it’s not the physical circumstances that are the source of true comfort; it’s knowing that He is right there and that He’s not going to leave you, forsake you, or forget you. You’re in His hands in a more secure way than ever.
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What is trusting God alone? Isn’t that what we do when we decide to follow what He shows us to do, no matter how different or how much the same it is, how new or how old, how unusual or not?
God’s best for you is whatever He shows you is best for you.
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God’s promises are just as good as they ever were. God’s pledges of protection and supply do not have expiration dates or age limits on them; they are valid forever. As you claim these promises and seek to live your life according to His words and His teachings and His plan for you for today, you will find them to be solid and reliable.
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You always have a job with Jesus. He will always care for you and provide for you, no matter what, and regardless of how. He’s the one who has kept you through everything all these years. Let Him show you His plan now.
He’s promised to be your comfort and to care for you. I know that He always will. You can put your full weight down on this and know that He will fulfill His promises because you have known for so long the one who has been “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”3 You can depend on the fact that He will be those things for you until the time you enter your heavenly home, where He will continue to be all that you need eternally in a beautiful world free from the troubles and struggles of life on earth.
Originally published March 2010. Updated and republished March 2012.
1 Philippians 4:11–12.
2 John 14:18.
3 Psalm 46:1.
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