Gain through Loss!
Verse for Today: Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Psalms 91:3 – It is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.
God’s children are a constant target for the enemy of our soul. He uses the world system and our own flesh to trap us to fall a prey to sin. He also uses people of the world to trap us at our various situations. We are often caught in the web of doubts, misinterpretations and misrepresentations of various kinds in our daily walk. He uses his agents as false witnesses against us. Our coworkers and bosses often become such a net to trap us. Often such situations cause us a lot of heartache and loss of face. We sometimes lose our testimony when we are lied about. Our motives may be questioned and we may find it difficult to prove our innocence. The enemy even uses God’s people to trap us unaware to give unintended meanings to our words and actions which were not even dreamed by us. Thus God’s people are often tossed around from post to pillar and left in deep frustration and despair. We might reach a stage of wanting to run away as we are caught in a web. We wonder whether God is watching these or not and why He is not interfering in our affairs. Surely we have the promise from the Lord that He will deliver us from the snares of the trappers. But it is a greater opportunity for us to learn to keep trusting the Lord and increase our faith. We are also taught to suffer loss of job, advancement, finance, reputation and peace of mind through such scenarios. We need to learn the hard way to allow ourselves to be losers in this world for the glory of God. At the cost of something that is dear to us, we are taught to give up what we will eventually lose any way. When we are unfairly treated, we are only bearing witness to the fact that we walk the pathway of the cross where our Lord was willing to lose everything. If we can lose all that we have for the sake of righteousness and for the sake of the Lord, it makes us worthy of the call with which we are called to follow the Lord who was deprived of everything in this world for our sake.
Dear friend, have you been trapped by the enemy of your soul lately? Has he even used your close associates who would have been beneficiaries of your acts of magnanimity? But it is an opportunity for you to praise God for the losses in this life for taking a stand for His sake. Then we experience deliverance from the alarming and contagious depression because of our loss. He keeps us holding on to Him even in such difficult situations. Instead of getting uptight about what is happening to us, it is best to ask the Lord to teach you some new lessons in faith and trust during such difficult experiences. In answer to our prayer to help us, the Lord will teach us to trust Him more and more when adversities become our share in life. Our loss proves that nothing in this changing world is permanent. The world enjoys making us losers, but all that ends up in our gain eventually. Job lost everything, but he saw the glory of the Lord in a magnificent way and finally got back several fold. Joseph tasted the Lord when he lost everything including twice His cloth. But the Lord was preparing the new cloth of the ruler of Egypt for him. Mordecai lost everything for a time, but got the splendor of the favor of the king back. Even though David had to run and hide in caves, we see him sitting on the throne of Israel in Jerusalem. Ruth lost everything and was a gleaning girl, but soon she became the great grandmother of Jesus Christ. For a short while, we might be suffering loss of dignity and belongings, but something greater is on our way from the Lord if we put our trust in Him. Today let us put our total trust in our Lord whose promise of deliverance is on our way for His glory and our joy.
2 Samuel 22:20 – He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
Thought for Today
When the world takes away that which is dear to our hearts, our Lord comes to us to teach us the joy of giving up the temporary to gain the eternal.
