"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." -I Cor 10:13 (NIV)
I have to admit it is somewhat of a relief to know that the things that I struggle with, the things that seem to hold me back at times, the sin that so easily entangles me, is not unique to only me. Not like I smile at the struggles of others but there is something refreshing about knowing that I am not in this fight alone. That there are people out there just like me that are going through the same stuff, struggling to be honoring to God and obedient in the same areas. Since moving to Mississippi in August I have been blown away at how the problems in peoples lives are exactly the same as the problems in peoples lives in South Florida. Everybody asked me why I would leave a metropolis like South Florida with so many hurting people and so many people who don't know Christ to move to the Bible Belt and minister to a "bunch of people who already know Jesus", who go to church as part of their culture and who are separated from the "serious" problems that the people of "major" cities deal with. Well with just 7 month experience here I have realized that the struggles of people here are the same as the struggles of people in Miami. Students rebel, have social pressures, use drugs, drink under age, kids die in a car accidents, students run away from home, parents get divorced, families crumble, couples are unfaithful, racism is alive and active, popularity and acceptance pressure people to do things they don't want to do so they can be somebody that somebody else wants them to be, people fake it at church, people speed, people steal, people lie, people kill..... The same traps, the same lies, the same deceptions, the same lustful cravings that are used by Satan to destroy lives in Mississippi are used on a daily basis in South Florida. Satan is not creative at all....He doesn't have to be. We keep falling for the same stuff over and over again. The good news is that there is nothing that you are experiencing and battling that somebody else hasn't struggled with before. Every single thing that you battle has been battled before....and has been defeated! You see though we are all tempted and led astray by the same enemy, we are also promised a way out, a shelter and victory from those temptations by the same God! Praise be to God! The same God who promised relief and shelter and victory to Corinth in the first century offers it to you and me today in Central Mississippi, in South Florida, and anywhere else you might be reading this from.
2 comments:
I sometimes think the struggles in the Bible belt can be so challenging ... people just shrug their shoulders and say "Yeah, yeah ... I know about Jesus" ... because they have heard ... but so many are cold and numb, unmoved by the Spirit of the living God. And the bottom line is that knowing about Jesus doesn't make one a disciple of Jesus and that divide is the difference in eternity. A drug addicted prostitute is as far from God as a person who attends church every Sunday with a cold heart who has never known the life changing rebirth of a relationship with the One True God through His Son! And God loves them both, praise His Name!
awesome thoughts...you are so right. Awesome time tonight! I appreciate you and your willingness to be there tonight even in the midst of the craziness!!!
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