IN THE MIDST OF YOUR TROUBLE

 Written by Audrey E. Charles

You're in the midst of a tumultuous situation and you need relief fast! You pray and pray for God to send an answer to your dilemma so that you could go back to "normal" life. But very often the solution seems to be delayed. The Lord has other plans. His aim is to get you to come after Him first.

The Father is more interested in developing your character in Him than in filling your needs. This does not mean that He is unconcerned about your welfare. He cares about the sparrows that fall, and knows every single hair on your head. However, His purpose for you is to bring you back to your original glory – to be His manifested image here on the earth.

The only way that you can accomplish that is to know the One in whose image you were created; not knowing Him for what He does, but knowing Him for Who He is, how He thinks.

Do not be tempted to pray to God just to relieve you of the stresses that challenge you. This is what the Israelites did under Moses’ leadership in the desert. They felt uncomfortable in their bodies and souls and they cried out for relief. God answered always, but not with Himself. They received the things that He had  - food from heaven, water from rocks and so on - without ever receiving the Person that He is. As a result the children of Israel for the most part never really got to know the God of their salvation. They wandered unnecessarily in the desert, circulating for years and years.

Moses, however, came to know God personally. He had an intimate relationship with the Lord, and spent much time with Him. Scripture tells us that after spending 40 days and nights in the presence of the Lord he returned to his people and his face shone with the glory of God, so much so that he had to put a veil over it.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the Testimony in his hand, he did not know that the skin of his face shone and sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with the Lord. Exodus 34:29
 
Moses experienced first-hand all the miracles that God did for the Israelites, but he got so much more....he got to know His God!

God will have no other gods before Him, and that includes your challenging situation. Don't allow your trouble to so consume you that it is the first thing you think about upon awakening, the last thing you think about before falling asleep and it crops up in your mind throughout the day. It could become a god, erecting an altar or worry, fear and unbelief in your mind....and it brings you no closer to the One who is the Answer.

Don’t circulate in your frustration, crying out to the LORD for His acts, while ignoring Him. Lay the challenge aside and go after Him for who He is. Then watch Him show you Himself in all His glory. Watch Him lovingly impart more of Himself to you. Watch Him give you the understanding and the knowledge of how to handle that dilemma you are faced with.