The Exchange – There is More!

Contributed Weekly By Jake Bond

To start off this blog I must say that I am so thankful for my family, my friends, my church family and most importantly the never-ending love of our Savior!!!  It has definitely been a STRUGGLE the past few weeks trying to decide on what to blog about.  Then as I sat down on the couch, it hit me.  “I will write about struggles.”

Before I get started let me make something clear.  When I say struggles, I’m talking about suffering, hurting, persecution, lack of money, death, addiction, and lastly SIN.  That’s just a few on what seems to be a never-ending list of things to struggle with.  Something that I’ve noticed from people dealing with struggles, myself included, is how we deal with them.  When it comes down to it there are typically three things that people resort to in these times.  We resort to anger, depression, or we have faith and rely on God and recognize that He is in control.  It is so easy to get angry, especially when dealing with finances.

I got to spend some awesome time with Tim Bartlett this past week, and he had a pretty crazy story about dealing with finances.  Long story short he was in a financial jam and well, Tim said he may have gotten a little angry lol.  After he came to realize that his anger was not going to help him in this struggle He knew it was only going to be possible through God.  The funny thing is that literally within an hour of Tim handing it over to God, he got a phone call and well just say God took care of it!!  If you get a chance seriously go ask Tim about this!!!  It’s amazing how all of that worked out.

Don’t be mislead by this, sometimes God doesn’t immediately work things out quite that fast.  Stay faithful and it will be totally worth it!

Next comes depression.  This is when we are struggling and decide that its better to just lay down and give up rather than fight.  This will literally never solve anything.  One of my favorite passages is 1 Peter 5:8-11.  It says, “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  And the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

So basically stand firm, fight the fight and God is going to lift you up and make you strong.  I think I’m willing to suffer for a little bit in order to be made strong by the Creator of the universe!  If there’s one thing you take out of this blog let it be this final line.  Don’t tell God how big your struggle is, You tell that sissy little struggle how BIG YOUR GOD IS!!!

Just a few announcements!!!

I AM PUMPED!!!!

Terra Nova Worship will be leading worship TONIGHT at Malden First General Baptist Church at 7pm!!!

We are writing some new music!!!

GOD IS AWESOME!!!

This song talks about struggles and is one of my favorite songs at this time.  My favorite lines come from the bridge.  It says

And even amidst the struggle of finding the man

That you have called me to be

Your love reminds me

That though I am broken I am still standing

I am still screaming!

 

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