Devotions

We receive messages from Christians all over the world. Right now believers in various nations are writing the same thing: Fear is taking hold. As prophesied in Scripture, God is shaking everything that can be shaken and it's hard to fathom all the upheaval taking place.

In the midst of it all, anxiety is spreading and Christians are not immune. Many write about great storms in their lives: financial crises, family stress, depression, sorrow. Some are overwhelmed beyond belief — and the problems don't seem to stop coming.

Sometimes our greatest fears and distress come through the pain of those nearest and dearest to us. Many of God's people are crying, "Lord, enough! Your Word promises deliverance. You said you wouldn't let me endure more than I could bear without making a way of escape for me. But where is the escape now in the midst of my greatest trial?"

Whenever we face deep trials and difficulties, the devil moves in to take advantage. Scripture describes him as a flood of fear that dashes us with wave after wave. These demonic floods even have a voice: "O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves" (Psalm 93:3).

Have you noticed that troubles and afflictions often come in waves? Just as you battle through one problem, another follows in its wake. The apostle John speaks for many today who are being carried away in a state of stress: "The serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman [the Church], that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood" (Revelation 12:15).

But God answers the voice of every demonic flood: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea" (Psalm 93:4, my italics). Simply put, God's Word speaks louder than any flood we may face. His greatness overrides even our biggest trial.

When a man (or woman) of God is in the making, enemy forces will come at him with great fury.

Are you tasting a bitter cup of pain, enduring a terrifying hour of isolation and confusion? If so, I urge you to take a stand in faith: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Your soul may not be flooded with joy and peace at this moment. In fact, you may still have turmoil in your soul. If that is the case, stay rooted firmly in his Word and stop trying to think your way through it all.

I can assure you that God has not forgotten you. He bottles every tear you shed. One morning after I preached, I was approached by a dear sister in Christ. She told me, “Pastor, when I came to church this morning I was happy and carefree. But when you began talking about the cup of pain, I wept inside. I realized I was putting up a front. My husband has left me and my children are in turmoil. I’ve covered it up to hide my pain. But in reality, my soul is being flooded with sorrow and regret.” I prayed with her in that moment, asking God to make her faith strong in him. She left with true encouragement because she knows in whom she has believed.

Dear saint, in the midst of your battle, make Jesus the joy and hope of your life. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

God does his best work in us during trying times. Let him change your heart so that your conditions no longer overwhelm you. Then, whatever may come, you will remain above it all, seated with him in heavenly places. You are the object of his incredible love!

Jesus said at Gethsemane, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Can you imagine the Son of God enduring a night of confusion? Didn’t he know he was about to claim all victory over hell and death? Didn’t he have an innate sense of guidance and destiny, knowing the Father was with him?

It has been said by generations of Christians that the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. I want to add a word here that the night of confusion often comes just before the victory, right before the darkness breaks and light begins to dawn.

Just before the power of Satan is broken, you will face a devastating night of confusion. In that hour, it will seem to you as if all guidance is gone and purpose has disappeared. The sense of God’s Spirit you once relied on will seem to have evaporated. You can agree with Job when he said, “If the Lord is at work, I cannot perceive it” (see Job 23:8).

Many in Christ’s Body face moral issues similar to David’s. In their night of confusion they wonder, “God, why me? My heart was searching after you when my sin overwhelmed me. My soul is plagued by it all. I don’t understand.”

Don’t think for a moment that someone who has been used mightily by God has all the answers. I know what it is like to face that divine silence in a night of confusion. I know what it feels like to walk through a season of turmoil and bewilderment, with no apparent guidance. All my previous patterns of direction and discernment were useless. I simply could not see my way and I was reduced to this cry: “Lord, what has happened? I don’t know which way to go.”

We all will face that night. Yet, thank God, it is a season that will pass. The Lord desires to make our path clear. He has promised, “I will turn to you in tender loving mercies.” And so he will do with us, his children, extending to us his mercy in our times of isolation.

When the Spirit moves us to speak in love, we are to do so. Recently while having lunch with my wife, I felt impressed to tell one of the waiters in our area that Jesus loved him. He didn’t reply but later I saw him telling some other staff what I’d said, which elicited some curious glances our way. Then an interesting thing happened. As we were leaving, a different waiter stopped me and asked if I would pray with him!

That is an example of the difference between religion and Jesus’ love. Loving Jesus means sharing his witness even when it might make you seem a little crazy — and then seeing the power of God move.

Some think that becoming a Christian requires you to know spiritual laws or pray a certain prayer. But that’s not how Jesus explained faith to Nicodemus, a Jewish intellectual well-versed in religion. Nicodemus had a hard time understanding what Jesus meant by being “born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb?” (John 3:4).

Nicodemus was trying to grasp God’s ways through his intellect, but Jesus pointed out that God’s ways are never accomplished through our flesh: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:5-6).

Friend, we have been given something much better than religion. It’s time to rise up and follow Christ to higher ground. The heart of what James calls “pure religion and undefiled before God” (James 1:27, my emphasis) is to take the love we’ve known and share it freely with others. It removes any fear about what we’re to “do for the Lord,” and replaces it with a heart to receive and give his love. That is real, abundant life!

When God says, “I am going to use your life for my glory,” we often forget that a sword is not formed in a hammock, it is formed on an anvil. There is going to be heat, hammering, bending, reshaping. It is all necessary, and it is going to take time. Yet in the process, we cry out, “Lord, I thought you said you were going to use my life, but all I do is find myself going through the fire. Oh, Jesus, help me!”

The Lord replies to you, “I told you I was going to use your life for my glory! But I am not going to use you until you are ready.”

The prophet Habakkuk said, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3).

The things God has spoken to you will come to pass. If God said he is going to bring your family home, then he will bring your family home! If God said he is going to use your life, then he is going to use your life — but on his timetable, not yours.

Paul exhorted the Philippians: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).

At times God may appear to be silent, even though he has actually already sent the answer. However, it meets a form of resistance before it reaches us. This hindrance actually may be inside of us because we have listened to other voices that resist the voice of God. In today’s society, we have access to so many voices, and that can easily lead our thoughts astray. We must be very careful about who and what we are listening to.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.