Encouraged by God's Word

Posts Tagged ‘tribulation’

Hello Family,

There was a movie that came out in 1979 and it was about a gang called “The Warriors”. In the beginning of the movie the Warriors were accused of killing Cyrus, the leader of the Gramercy Riffs during a truce in Central Park, NY.

As the Warriors fought their way back home to Coney Island, they came up against other gangs that were trying to kill them. They faced all types of adversity; some brawls, police pursuits, lives were lost and there were other struggles and tribulations.

When the Warriors finally made it back to their home turf, there was one last rival gang waiting for them called the Rogues. When Luther, the leader of the Rogues, saw the Warriors he started chanting, “Warriors, come out to play-yay.” in a creaky, demented voice. Now he really didn’t want to play, he and the Rogues wanted to kill the Warriors.

When the Warriors were facing the Rogues in the last battle, the truth was made known, they were found innocent and the Warriors were vindicated. The Warriors came out victorious!

A Warrior is defined as a man (or woman) engaged or experienced in warfare. A person engaged in some struggle or conflict.

Psalm 50:15 says Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

As you go through your troubled days, are you acting like a warrior or a wimp? Are you fighting or are you giving up? 

The Lord wants us to call on Him when we are in trouble because He will deliver us from whatever we face. And all He asked is that we glorify Him. Give Him the credit that is due and realize that He is in control and He has our back.

And how do we call on Him? We PRAY!

The battle we fight is not a physical battle so physical weapons are no good. The knives, guns, broken bottles and pipes used by gang members are worthless. We must enter into the spiritual realm and use our spiritual weapons to defeat the enemy.

Are you a warrior who is fighting and doing all you can do to win? Are you a warrior who won’t back down from a brawl? Are you a warrior who is strong in the Lord?

When the enemy comes your way to fight, I don’t want you to think about the saying from the movie, “Warriors, come out to play-yay”. I want you to turn it around and shout, “Warriors, Come Out and Pray-yay!” and pray your way to VICTORY!

Be Encouraged and Have a Prayerful Weekend!

Hello Friends,

Have you ever had a person go out of their way to try to get you upset? Those of us who work with kids see it a lot. Every now and then they do things that they assume will make us mad.

For instance, if I tell someone that their behavior is unacceptable and could get them in trouble, they intentionally misbehave just to get me upset. But what they don’t realize is I DON’T CARE.

Now I really do care about all of the youth I work with and I do care about their well being but they can’t make me upset because they don’t want to do what they’re supposed to do. They think they’re hurting me by being disobedient. It’s not hurting me, it’s hurting them and they don’t fully understand that.

When I go to sleep at night I’m not stressed over the fact that a young person is not working hard to better themselves. I really don’t loose any sleep over it because if I took on that position, all of my nights would be sleepless because there is always someone out there not doing what they’re supposed to do.

The peace I have at night is not contingent upon those around me. I don’t have peace based on what people say or do to me or how they treat me.

The source of my peace is much deeper than that.

John 16:33 says These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

In life you will experience a lot of suffering, pain and stress. People and things of the world are non reliable and can cause us tribulations. But in God you can experience peace amongst all the turmoil.

God wants us to know that no matter how bad things are, if we abide in Him, He will provide us the peace to make it through. We may still need to go through the tribulation but instead of us losing our minds, acting like fools and being defeated we will come through as conquerors.

We will conquer oppressive thoughts, fears and emotions. We will conquer bad habits. We will conquer destructive behaviors.

So whenever you experience some tribulation in your life, cheer up and know that God has overcome the world for you and if you trust in Him, you will become a over comer as well.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!