Devotions

Over and over, the Psalmist asks, “Why is my soul cast down? I feel useless and forsaken. There’s such a restlessness inside me. Why, Lord? Why do I feel so helpless in my affliction?” (See Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5.) These questions speak for multitudes who have loved and served God.

Take godly Elijah, for example. We see him under a juniper tree, begging God to kill him. He’s so downcast that he’s at the point of giving up his own life. We also find righteous Jeremiah cast down in despair. The prophet cries, “Lord, you’ve deceived me. You told me to prophesy all these things, but none of them has come to pass. I’ve done nothing but seek you all my life. This is how I’m repaid? Now I’ll no longer mention your name.”

Each of these servants is under a temporary attack of unbelief, but the Lord understood their condition in times of confusion and doubt. After a period, he always pointed them to their way out. In the midst of their afflictions, the Holy Spirit turned on the light for them.

Consider Elijah’s testimony. “There he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (1 Kings 19:9, NKJV). This meeting sparked new life in him, something that Jeremiah also expressed. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts” (Jeremiah 15:16, NKJV). At some point, each of these servants remembered God’s Word, and it became the source of joy and rejoicing in their lives, pulling them out of the pit.

The truth is that the whole time these people were struggling, the Lord was sitting by, waiting. He heard their cries and anguish. After a certain time had passed, he told them, “You’ve had your time of grief and doubt. Now I want you to trust me. Will you go back to my Word? Will you lay hold of my promise to you? If you do, my Word will see you through.”

That promise and Word from the Lord will see us through every hard time and lift up our souls when we are cast down.

Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus brought the promise made in Genesis into a reality. He came to crush the head of the accuser.

Many of you right now are being accused. Do you ever wake up at 3:00 in the morning and feel the weight of that accusation? It’s the strangest thing. I wake up almost every night, but a lot of times when I wake up in the middle of the night, my mind is just kind of flooded with this free-floating anxiety, the sense of ‘Man, I think I did something wrong.’

Anybody else have that kind of anxiety or fear? That’s the accuser. The Bible calls it the accuser of the brethren, trying to say to you, “You’re no good. You’re worthless! You’re not keeping the law. You’re the least of the Christians in this place.” Now I used to live under such condemnation, guilt and shame, feeling like ‘I’m not obeying enough of the law.’

The Jewish people couldn’t keep all of God’s rules and regulations either, and it gave open access to the enemy and to their own consciences to weigh them down with this sense of guilt, shame, and fear. These people’s lives were falling apart and full of accusations, and all they heard was the religious leaders telling them to try harder and burdening them with shame and condemnation. Jesus came and brought an answer to this. You see it even in the working out of his ministry. He preached the Beatitudes and said to these broken and poor people, “Blessed are those of you who are broken.”

Jesus, when he came to the earth, came to open a new way of living where the Father does not judge us on the merit of our own performance. We are now judged through this lens of Jesus Christ who says to us, “Where are your accusers? Where is Satan? He’s gone! I have crushed his head under my feet. Where is that inner voice that accuses you? I have stopped the foul voice that’s coming against you.”

Where is the voice of the accuser against your friends, your family and others around you? It is gone. We have freedom in Christ!

During this season, we see so many people, young people especially, who have lost heart and lost hope. They don’t see any reason to go on living; they don’t see a purpose for the future, and it’s really one of the modern-day tragedies of our times.

If you turn to the gospel of Luke, it talks about how God came to each one of us. Angels announced Christ’s birth to shepherds, and then “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’” (Luke 2:13-14, NKJV). Think about this for a moment! The God who created us and the universe, who could destroy it all with a thought of his mind; but what does he do with all of his might, glory and righteousness? He comes down to earth, to a little town called Bethlehem, because he was not willing to destroy his creation.

Jesus himself stated this. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Who could deliver Paul from his body of death? Who could deliver Elijah from his despair and desire to die?

Sometimes we rush ahead, though; we don’t just take life day-by-day and ask for the strength to face this day. God, though, walks with those who walk with him. He gives strength and provision, and we become a new creation.

We don’t become religious; we become a new person. How many of you are a different person than you were even a year ago? You’re living in the miraculous now. I know I don’t stand here by any natural ability. I know I stand by something God gave to me when I chose to walk with him. There’s no limitation to what can be done or endured when God is at the very center of our lives.

This is not a season to be discouraged if you know God or even if you want to know God. This is a season of joy which no man can take from us if we entrust ourselves to Christ! That’s why the angels sang ‘Joy to the world!’ We have peace with God.

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

Sometimes the moments of our lives that seem like they should be our brightest can bring us the greatest tribulation and testing trials. Faith, especially at these times, is very demanding. It demands that once we hear God’s Word, we obey it. It doesn’t matter how big our obstacles may be, how impossible our circumstances. We’re to believe God’s Word and act on it. The Lord says, “My promise is all you need.”

Like every generation before us, we also wonder, “Lord, why am I faced with this test? It’s beyond my comprehension. You’ve allowed so many things in my life that don’t make sense. Why is there no explanation for what I’m going through? Why is my soul so troubled, so filled with great trials?”

How does the Lord answer our cries? He sends his Word, reminding us of his promises. He says, “Simply obey me. Trust my Word to you.”

Please don’t misunderstand me. Our God is a loving Father. He doesn’t allow his people to suffer indiscriminately. We know he has at his disposal all the power and willingness to make every problem and heartbreak go away. He can merely speak a word and rid us of every trial and struggle.

Yet, the fact is that God isn’t going to show us how or when he’ll fulfill his promises to us. Why? He doesn’t owe us any explanation when he has already given us the answer. He’s given us everything we need for life and godliness in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is all we need for every situation life throws at us, and God is going to stand on the Word he has already revealed.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus stood up before a synagogue and read from the book of Isaiah, “’The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ …And he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:18-19, 21).

We have that promise today. We have had healing for our broken hearts, liberty from our captivity and new sight given to us. We simply must hold to Jesus’ promise by faith.

When God says to humankind, “Believe,” he demands something that’s wholly beyond reason. Faith is totally illogical. Its very definition has to do with something unreasonable. Scripture tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV). We’re being told in short, “There is no tangible substance, no visible evidence.” Despite this, we’re asked to believe.

I’m addressing this subject for an important reason. Right now, all over the world, multitudes of believers are bowed low in discouragement. The fact is that we’re all going to continue facing discouragement in this life, yet I believe if we understand the illogical, unreasonable nature of faith, we’ll find the help we need to get through.

Consider the faith that was demanded of Simeon. “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:25-26, NKJV). The Messiah had been promised to God’s people since the beginning of Genesis, and the last record of God speaking to the prophets before Jesus’ birth was 400 years earlier.

Simeon was an old man by this time, and he must have struggled with whether he had heard God correctly. What God asks of you may sound unreasonable. He asks that we trust him when he gives no evidence of answering our prayer, when the situation seems hopeless and we are sure it is all over.

Simeon held on to faith, and when he held the infant Christ in his arms, God gave him another gift: a supernatural understanding of Jesus’ mission. “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

The Lord tells us, “Trust me.” Illogical? Yes, but for centuries the Lord has proven he is always on time. God always comes through in perfect Holy Ghost timing.