Plain and Simple.
THIS is the cross that the Lord wants me to pick up daily - Trust. Trust that He is good.
Religion teaches me all the reasons I am not, and all the things I should be doing to get good enough for God.
This goes through my soul so completely I cannot explain it.
ROD AND STAFF OF COMFORT
God, therefore, has a metaphorical ?rod and staff? whereby He ?comforts? and protects us as we daily surrender to Him. I say this because His protection and deliverance for us who are His children is conditioned on our surrender to His Lordship of our lives ? that is, if we surrender, then we will indeed experience His blessing, but if we choose to do things ?our way,? versus following and obeying Him in faith, then we will in turn experience the consequences of our disbelief, which is motivated and coerced by the ?fear? that Satan spiritually, mentally, and emotionally assaults us with. That fear is constantly saying, ?God cannot help us in this situation,? and, as pointed out above, that is the testing time for us to either believe and trust God to do what He says He will do, or to flail around in fear like a drowning man in the ocean without a life vest.
However, the life vest of God is immediately at hand for us as His children through holding onto the promises of His Word, and we do that by surrendering ?daily? to His Lordship over our lives: ?And He was saying to them all, ?If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 ?For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it? (Luke 9:23-24). Therefore, to ?lose our life for Jesus? sake? is to say, ?Yes, O Lord, I believe and trust your Word in this situation, and I am going to believe and follow what you say, versus be led by my emotions which are motivated by the fear that You will not keep Your Word, and I in turn need to act independently of You if I am going to survive this situation.? God gives us a choice, and He also enables us to believe and obey Him, but we must make that choice to say, ?Yes, O Lord, I choose to believe and trust You?: ?But what does it say? ?The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart? ? that is, the word of faith which we are preaching? (Romans 10:8).
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