be encouraged

Great word of encouragement from John Paul Jackson...


Welcome, King of Peace
By John Paul Jackson

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;
For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.—Psalm 9:10

Trust is an act of worship, one that can be incredibly difficult because to fully trust God, you have to embrace a virtue no one enjoys very much: patience in the midst of trial. Over and over again, the Bible highly suggests we trust God in all things—especially when life seems more "prunish" than peachy. The inference is that when we trust Him, our issues will fall into place. We will have some semblance of order (wouldn't it be nice to have that again?), and we will know the peace of God. In other words, life will be good.

Obviously, that doesn't mean everything we're struggling with will suddenly correct itself and we won't have tension anymore. Not at all. All of us have seen life be uncommonly hard and dirty and sweaty and difficult. All of us have bled all over the place and have been wounded and are still being wounded. However, when our priorities are straight, we see with the eyes of God. Do we see everything? Again, not at all. But when our priorities are straight—meaning, God is God in our lives, and we know it and let Him be—we see what He sees, at least in part. We know suddenly that He is completely, absolutely, and irrevocably in control—and because that's so, we have nothing to fear.

At one of the early churches I pastored, I learned an important lesson about letting God be in control of my problems. I had some elders get upset with me, and for one night I thought they might be right in what they said. But that night, the Lord came to me in a dream and spoke to me. "Do I know everything about the future?"

"Yes, Sir, you do," I replied.

"Did I know you would do what you did?"

"Yes, Sir, you did."

"And I knew that, and I still called you to be the pastor at this church?"

"Well, yeah . . . Are You sure you wanted me to do that?" But I knew He did. I knew that I knew that I knew. "Yes," I finally said, "You did."

What He said next I will never forget. "Therefore, if I knew what you were going to do, and I still chose you, then they have not come against you, but they have come against Me, and I will deal with it." So I backed off, and God dealt with it.

So what does all of this mean? It means that what you are going through right now is led by One and One alone. Does He know your future? Yes. Did He know you would do what you did to get yourself into the mess you're in now? Yes. And—even though He had plenty of opportunity to rat you out and write you off as a failure—did He still choose you to be where you are and do what He's called you to do? Yes. You have nothing to fear. God is perfectly able to keep your head above water, even if the mess you find yourself in was entirely your fault. He can keep your checkbook in the black, your name on His roster, your hand in His. Never let the enemy convince you otherwise. Your destiny is worth far more than that.

Copyright © 2006 John Paul Jackson, Streams Ministries International. All rights reserved. ",1]