Standing When You Feel Like Falling

Hello my sisters,
I just spoke to a sister in Christ who is going through a tough time. I prayed and was led by the Holy Spirit to share an excerpt from my book: The Cry of a Woman's Heart: Healing the Pain of the Past, Traveling the Road to Victorious Living.

Standing When You Feel Like Falling

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand.
Ephesians 6:13

What do you do when your whole life seems to be falling apart around you? Your husband or your boyfriend breaks up with you when you thought that everything was fine. You got laid off from your job. You don't have enough money to pay your bills. Your teen-age son was just picked up with drugs in his possession. You just found out that your fifteen-year-old daughter is pregnant and has dropped out of high school. Your sister can't stand you. Your brother is in Iraq fighting in a war where people are being killed every day. Your doctor has given you a bad report and to top it all off, you have just buried a loved one.

You may be standing right now at a point where you don't think that you can make it. The devil is a liar! You can make it! Stay with me, I want to share a testimony with you.

A Personal Testimony
I have had many seasons in my life that are very similar to the ones that I talked about in the previous section. If I can be totally transparent with you. I must tell you that there have been times in my life, even in my Christian life, when I felt like just throwing up my hands in frustration and quitting.

During one of these times, I had just found out that my daughter had been cutting school and was pregnant with her third baby. My rent on my apartment was past due, my sister hated my guts, and I still had a lot of emotional issues that I was dealing with. I remember standing in the hallway of my small apartment wondering what I was going to do. I had just started going to church and I actually remember saying to one of my friends that my life was better before I got saved then it was now that I was saved. I told him that it would have been better if I had never gotten involved in all of this Jesus stuff. He mentioned something about a spiritual attack and the enemy. But in my young spiritual mind, I couldn't understand how I was supposed to be saved and still be going thorugh more hell than I ever had in my life. At least that's the way it seemed. It seemed like all of a sudden, I was under this immense attack from some unseen forces. I mean, really, can you relate to this at all?

Were Things Better Before?
I am confident that someone out there can definitely relate to feeling like it would have been better to stay on the barstool, drinking until everything was numb. Someone is alone tonight, again. And you are feeling like it would have been better for you if you had stayed in that adulterous relationship. At least you had him some of the time. And after all, isn't half a man better than none at all?

Someone is feeling like you should have stayed in that relationship where you knew that he was just using you to satisfy his sexual needs. After all, it wasn't all bad and at least you got to feel the comfort of a man's arms around you sometimes. Some of you are feeling like you should have kept on cheating on your taxes. You didn't have to pay so much when you lied a little bit and sometimes you even got a refund.

Someone else is feeling like maybe it would have been better to keep doing drugs. At least when you were high, you didn't have to deal with the frustration of trying to cope with this thing called life.

Thinking About Turning Back
Have you ever been there? I have and I must admit, just like the people of Israel in the Bible, I thought that it might have been better had I stayed in Egypt. Even though the people were slaves in Egypt. And even though they were mistreated and misused and abused, once they crossed the Red Sea, they looked back and grumbled that maybe they just should have stayed where they were (Exodus 16). At least life was predictable then. Although the Egyptians treated them badly, at least they got to eat some of their choice foods. And they didn't have the responsibility of worrying about taking care of themselves or dealing with the issues of life that were threatening to overwhelm them. Oh yeah, I felt just like the Israelites, and I even grumbled that maybe, just maybe, I should have stayed. I'm telling you. I was having a hard time coping and I wanted to QUIT.

The Keeping Power of The Holy Spirit
But God, in His infinite wisdom, by the divine intervention of His Holy Spirit, kept prompting me to go on. The Word of the Lord kept encouraging me not to grow weary in doing good. For in due season, if I didn't give up, I was going to reap my reward for staying faithful (Galatians 6:9) God reminded me in His Word that He was with me and that I was never alone (Hebrews 13:5)

He assured me that I didn't have to worry about how my everyday, basic needs would be met. He showed me the lilies of the fields and told me that He would provide for me better than He had the lilies of the field and that He cared much more about me than He cared about the birds in the air. (Matthew 6:26,28-31)

He told me not to worry about my problems, but that I should bring all of my concerns to Him in prayer. (Phil. 4:6)

He told me not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow has enough worries of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

As for my daughter, God showed me that she belonged to Him too. Because my Bible tells me that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and everybody on earth belongs to Him too. (Psalms 24:1)

So I was comforted in knowing that He was going to take care of her and those babies too.

Apply the Promises of God
Oh yes, I'm talking about standing when you feel like falling. If you're at a point in your walk with God where you're getting a little discouraged, apply all of these promises to your own life. God has given us His Word to be a lamp unto our feet. His Word is to guide us and to remind us of His great love for us. God is not a man that He should lie. In other words, He is not like all of the other men in your life who have lied to you and let you down. God will never let you down. He is right there in the middle of your dilemma with you. He knows that you are thinking about giving up and going back to your old friends and your old habits. It's only natural that you would be tempted to go back. Just like the people of Israel, we will always be more comfortable with the familiar as opposed to the unfamiliar. We know what we left behind and we only have promises of what's ahead of us.

The Israelites had the promise of freedom from their bondage. They had the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey to look forward to, but the journey was becoming too much for them. They were tired of being in the dry place, and they wanted to hurry up and have the life that God had promised them. Just like the people of Israel, we get tired of being in the dry places. We don't want to take a journey and walk with God until we get to where he's leading us. We want to skip all of the hardships and tests and get right to the good stuff, right? I know I'm right because I was there. But I am so happy that I didn't go back. I am happy that I kept going to the chapel and getting prayed for because I wasn't mature enough to pray for myself.

Encouragement for Your Dry Place
I want to encourage you, my sister. I know that you're in a dry place right now. I know that it's also a hard place and you can't see how you're going to get through it. But the great thing about God's grace and His mercy is that we don't have to know how God is going to bring us through it. All we have to do is trust God and believe that He will do it! Trust God.

Although you feel like falling or you feel like you might go under, stand firm on the promises in His Word and He will bring you through victorious. You see, there is no weapon that can come against you that can prosper or take you out. (Isaiah 54:17)

You Will Not be Defeated
Although you are pressed down on every side, you will not be defeated, unless you allow yourself to be. Although your mother and father let you down, that's okay because God will never leave you, or forsake you. Your husband may have walked out on you, but you're going to be okay because God's Word says that He will not allow you to go through any more than you can handle. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Girl, God's got your back.

Stand on His Promises
"Well, Sister Rebecca," you may say, "that's all well and fine. But how do I stand on God's Word when I feel like falling?" In response I say to you, my sister, that you can do all things because it is Christ who strengthens you. I say that if you will humble yourself and pray, the Lord will hear you and He will heal your situation and your home and your body. I say that if you just believe, God will give you the grace to make it through this time in your life. I say, it may not seem possible for you, but with God all things are possible. I'm saying lift up your eyes to the hills. In other words, take your eyes off of your situation and lift your eyes towards heaven. Pray and praise the Lord for what He's going to do. He has already assured you that the fervent prayers of the righteous reach His ears and make a difference. (James 5:16). Pray, praise, believe God and worship Him with your whole heart and your whole life. Know His Word and stand on His promises. I guarantee you that the Lord will bring you through!

Just stand! God will bring you through!

My Prayer for you and A Word from the Lord

Click on the audiolink below to hear the prayer and the Word from the Lord

Excerpted from The Cry of a Woman's Heart:Healing the Pain of the Past, Traveling the Road to Victorious Living by author Rebecca Simmons, for more information on this book, go to www.DPC-Books.com