Help for When I...
Feel like giving up:
"But You, O GOD the Lord, Deal with me for Your
name's sake; Because Your mercy is good, deliver me. For I am poor and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens; I
am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting, And my flesh is
feeble from lack of fatness. I also have become a reproach to them; When they
look at me, they shake their heads. Help me, O LORD my God! Oh, save me
according to Your mercy, That they may know that this is Your hand-That You,
LORD, have done it!" [Psalm 109:21-26]
THEN...
I know God has all power: "But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed--always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always
delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be
manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I
believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, knowing
that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will
present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having
spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God."
[2 Corinthians 4:7 - 15]
I can place my confidence in God: "And we have such
trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who
also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but
of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." [2 Corinthians
3:4 - 6]
I can ask God for what I need: "Let your
gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but
in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." [Philippians 4:5 - 7]
Feeling Hopeless and Helpless: "Have
mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD-how long? Return, O LORD,
deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies' sake!" [Psalm 6:2 - 4]
THEN...
I Turn to the Scriptures:
"For whatever things were written before were written for our
learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have
hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward
one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." [ Romans 15:4 - 6]
I rely upon God's power: "For this reason I bow my knees
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in
heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of
His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him
who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." [Ephesians 3:14 - 21]
I see the need to live by faith: "As His divine power has
given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge
of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us
exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust." [2 Peter 1:3, 4] "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you
have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." [Colossians 2:6, 7] "Let
us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful
that promised;)." [Hebrews 10:23]
All scripture is taken from the New King James Version
