FollowingJesusUS.com

By George Whitten and Family

 “Outnumbered, exhausted, but still in pursuit!

Judges 8:4-6 When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit. Then he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. “And the leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”

Judges 6:12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

“Exhausted but still in pursuit…” Well, now we know why the angel of YHVH addressed Gideon the way he did. With his small three hundred man army he had just decimated the army of Midian — but the victory wasn’t complete, and so the Jewish general and his small, exhausted, hungry, band were determined to cross the Jordan and take care of 15,000 additional Midianite enemies and their leaders, Zebah and Zalmunna.

Once chosen and appointed to his task, Gideon didn’t settle for the slaughter of 120,000 Midianites. He might have reasoned that, having driven the remaining enemy force across the Jordan River, a natural barrier, Israel was now safe. After all, he and his men were exhausted and hungry. But this victory was insufficient, especially because the Midianite leaders were still alive. Instead, Gideon continued to press on, refusing to settle until the job was completely done. His refusal to allow serious physical discomfort to compromise his objective is apparently one of the things that qualified Gideon as a “mighty man” of God. No settling into a comfort zone for him.

My Friends, are you moving toward victory, but exhausted and hungry? Be careful now. Comfort could be your greatest enemy. And your so-called friends may not be standing there to give you a hand, but rather, watching skeptically from the sidelines to see whether or not you’ll make it through your “heroic effort”. Now is not the time for self-pity, fleshly resentment, or mediocrity. “The comfort zone is for those who are exempt from pain but denied progress; protected from failure but held in the grip of mediocrity.” Keep your focus and spiritual passion for victory, and finish the job appointed to you — because God has too much invested to settle for mediocrity!”

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”-Revelations 22:17

Clearly the “Spirit” is the Holy Spirit, but who is the “bride”?  The “bride” is us, all those who truly believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior.

Revelations has confused many through the years, but this part is clear.  It’s simply an Invitation to all who have not yet truly accepted Jesus as their Savior. “Come”

That we live in difficult times is also clear, but Christians will not remain here forever.  Below is an excerpt from Revelations 22, what a beautiful word-picture of our lives to come:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”-Revelations 22:1-5

And all we have to do to get there, is accept Christ’s Invitation ?

Thank you?  With Covid 19- Round 2 starting and the events that are happening in both our country and around the world, it’s hard to be grateful.  Or is it?

Jesus IS still coming back.

We are still going to Heaven ?

Many Christians around the world are still alive.

Thanks to the courage and service of millions of caring medical personnel, millions have survived Covid 19.

Thanks to courageous and selfless public and private intervention, many Christians in Afghanistan are safe.  Is it enough?  No.  But it is better and more than it could be and we can be very grateful for every life spared.

Those that serve in the military and their families have sacrificed so much, but they continue to serve anyway.

We still have our humanity and love each other.

We still have our Faith.

Our Father still loves us and hears our prayers?

Jesus is still our Savior 🙂

The Holy Spirit still lives in us ?

Truly, the list is endless!  Clearly, in spite of many media headlines, we are Blessed!

It comes from Truly Accepting God’s Will for our lives. 

And what does that mean exactly?

Let’s take one example.  Someone we love is dieing.  We pray for them constantly to live-but they go to Heaven anyway.  God says No.  What then?

We accept that this is God’s Will.

When we Truly accept God’s Will, then we also accept any hurt and pain that comes our way.  When some one dies we, of course, miss them and grieve their loss.  But we are not afraid, because we know that God loves us and loves them.  And we know that if God took them to Heaven, it was for a good reason.  We may not know that reason now, but we TRUST that it was a good reason born out of God’s great love for us.

Sometimes a hardship happens to us that is truly unjust.  We can either choose to be angry or we can choose to see the good that God creates out of it. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”- Romans 8:28

What is happening in our country is also a good example.  There can be no doubt that in our current society, “evil appears good and good evil”.  Many question what good could possibly come of this?  But the truth is, great good may come of this as more people turn to God and Faith.  And those with Faith, will find their faith deepens.

The Truth is: Once we accept God’s Will, God’s Joy & Peace will follow.

In every situation, God gives us a choice.  We can look for Him-or not.  That is real freedom-given to us by God Himself ?

^“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit”-Psalm 51:12

That we live in difficult times is clear.  That times are going to get more difficult is true.  But though there will be times of worry and fear, there will also be times of great joy-if we ask God for them ?

Praying Psalm 51:12 everyday can only help us.  Notice how it says “free spirit”.  God believes in freedom, and He gave us freedom!  No one can take that freedom, because that freedom is in our hearts and souls, given to us by God Himself 🙂

Fear and worry will never consume us if we allow God to consume us instead.  If we shift our entire focus to Him, He will answer!  Always ?

From time to time, we all suffer with doubts, but we do not have to entertain them.  Nor do we have to focus them.

We have a choice.  We can choose to ask God for help and we can choose to think about something else.   Before we are Saved, doubts are simply evil’s way of trying to prevent us from going to Heaven!  Once we have  been saved, doubts are simply evil’s way of trying to get us back.  Don’t let evil win!

There is another way the evil one uses doubts.  he tries to instill as much fear and worry as possible in us and to create chaos all around us (sound familiar?).  In that way, he tries to chip a way at our faith, but we do not have to let evil win.

We can shift our focus and think of how wonderful Heaven will be instead of how hard life can be ?.  God put us in charge of our minds; we do not have to let our minds dwell on thoughts that disturb us.  It’s our choice, given to us by God Himself ?

And it’s okay to Pray, even when we have doubts!  And we can tell God about our struggles, believe me, He will be glad we brought our doubts to Him! And we will be glad we did, because God can’t help us if we don’t ask!  And when we have doubts, we can call on the Holy Spirit to Help us Pray and ask God to Protect us.  

And God Will ?

Are current events keeping us from focusing on God? They can certainly fill us with fear and worry…

Are we so busy worrying about what is going on in this world, that we are not focusing enough on the next?

There is a good way to fix that. We can simply change our focus! We can read the Bible. Pray. Picture Heaven. Or picture Jesus walking right beside of us :). Or rest in His Hand. Whatever we do, focusing our our faith instead of the current events of this world, will lighten our load and make our path a bit easier.

Don’t wait! Because Jesus is waiting for you now 🙂

Which is why I wanted to share with you, my friends, what I pray for every single day. We live in difficult times, but God will hold our hand through it all – if we let Him 🙂

First and foremost, I pray daily to stay in God’s Will.  God’s Will is the real and only Safe Place.  No matter what we face, no matter what comes, if we stay in God’s Will-He will give us everything we need to meet the challenges we face.  God Promised, and God always keeps His Promises.

Second, I pray daily for God to hold onto me, even if I can’t hold on to Him.  Kind of like an insurance policy.  I pray now, while I can, for what I may face later. And while I hope that I will always choose God first, I know that as a human being I can be weak, and so I pray for God’s Help in advance 🙂

And third, I pray for my faith to grow.  Faith stamps out fear and worry; faith brings love and hope in difficult times. We can’t focus on both our Lord and our Fears at the same time! It’s just not possible! And so, growing in Faith lightens the loads we carry in this life 🙂

And I ask Mary to pray for me every day. Asking Mary to pray for me daily has made a very real difference in my life, and can in yours as well. My faith in our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit has grown so much and I know Mary’s Prayers have helped my Faith to grow 🙂

God is always Faithful!  Always!  And when I am afraid, I remember Psalm 56: “When I am afraid, I will trust in you. “ God’s Peace comes when we Focus on God and our Future in Heaven. 

Are there consequences for our choices?  Yes.  There are consequences both for a nation and to individuals. 

In Ezekiel 33:17-20, we read about the Fairness of God.  And God is Fair.  Because God, and only God knows the heart of men (and women ?).  But we also read in many places in the Bible of nations being “punished” for their poor behavior.  In fact, we read of nations facing consequences in Isaiah 33 & 34

And yet we also read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Our Father destroyed both cities for their sinful actions, but God saved Lot (Genesis 19), who was righteous.

And therein lies our hope.  Our nation has made some truly sinful choices, but that does not necessarily mean that God will not save the righteous.  He has before and He will again.

Like Abraham, we need to pray for one another.  We need to ask God for His Great Mercy, both for ourselves and for each other.  Just as we need to ask God for His courage and strength for the days ahead.  For as long as we stay in His Will; He will answer ?

For His Will-it is the Safe Place and we need to stay there ?