Peggy Joyce Ruth Ministries Newsletter
Suffering Silently With Fear?
by Peggy Joyce Ruth on 07/26/18
This week, I had a young woman show up at my doorstep who was in a fear lockdown. As Laurie approached the porch, there was no moment of recognition; and though we knew each other, she walked as if she was led captive by some unseen hand. One of the girls from our college Bible study, who had been working with her, decided it was time to bring her over. I looked for the young woman I had once known. Now she had a deeply tormented stare that brought back memories to me…
She had all the emotions of a zombie and I directed her through the back into the front room. She sat on the couch, gnarled up like she was trying to disappear into the couch. Two of our college Bible students were in the room but no one said anything as I began to work with her. It’s hard to explain how a person can wear such torment on their body. It’s even harder to explain how their youthful countenance takes on added years, suddenly and instantly old.
I tried to get her to open up. There she sat locked in her world of pain, not moving, not responding. A pain no one else could feel but her, you could see the visual imprint it left on her entire being.
Without warning like the erupting of a volcano, she unleashed a torrent of emotion from her core. Cries of helplessness and anger from the core of herself, “I have been begging God to set me free. Why isn’t it working?” Over and over she repeated this mantra of torment. “God has left me. He isn’t helping me.” She whimpered that God had forsaken her and this hopeless state was proof of His departure. She said that her brain wouldn’t work, her thinking became erratic and she thought for sure she was losing her mind--and her job.
Years ago she had deliverance from a tormenting dream of suicide. Tormenting thoughts began to plague her in the day. When her brother came home one evening, she had a knife in her hand. He prayed for her until she was dramatically delivered. After that, her life filled with peace and I had watched her stay free for over 10 years. I knew she had experienced how much the Lord loved her by what He had done for her. She began regularly attending church, studied the Scriptures and loved serving God, yet, now you wouldn’t know it. Completely paralyzed with fear, she said she had been like this for a week. You would never have known that she had been a Bible-believing, peace-filled Christian who shared her faith regularly. After years of being free, something had snapped. She knew the Word but was petrified that it was not working. She was panicked that it had all come back and the torment was worse than before. It is our job to keep our deliverance, but now that was the task I had in front of me to help her do this.
Lately, she had begun to slip out of fellowship with believers and wasn’t actively involved in church and lost her joy. She had found no place where she gave of her talents or time. She pulled away from being involved in a new fellowship her brother had begun which previously had been exciting to her. At the same time she had been floundering in her spiritual life, she began risking some new things with her job situation, stretching out of her personal comfort zone.
Excited by a dramatic personal healing from something incurable, abruptly she made a renewed commitment to get involved in her brother’s new church and was making baby steps toward growing again—immediately the bottom fell out! Not aware of these new developments, I still wasn’t expecting her to be in this kind of a mental and emotional state.
Watching her pull at her hair, repeating again and again then she would beg God for hours and He did nothing to help her. I asked her to repeat after me, “God has not given me this spirit of fear.” (2 Timothy 1:7) I kept encouraging her to say it with me—“God has not given me this spirit of fear.” But, even though she was trying, she could not get those words out of her mouth. She was immobile except when she would have moments of burying her head and at best, a bare whisper came out.
I remembered back when I had been in that kind of torment. I had dealt with that same kind of fear and remembered how overpowering it felt. I had felt that nothing would lift it and that nothing ever could. I knew what she was going through.
I explained to her, “There is a difference between praying and using your authority. When you pray, you ask God for help, and the help He has given us is authority over fear. It must come out of your mouth.” This is a necessary part of “after” care after initially experiencing freedom and vital in our daily walk.
She was adamant that she didn’t have the strength or stamina to do it. I told her that instead of begging and pleading with God, I wanted her to open her mouth and repeat after me, “God has not given me a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind.” Every time she tried to say those words, she choked trying to get them to come out. She could say her protests but was clamped like a vice grip when it came to repeating the scripture.
And this is the place that most people lose the battle—right here at this juncture. They just don’t have the personal inner strength it takes to make the Word come out of their mouth. They are so wrapped up with what they are feeling when something comes against them, they don’t muster up what it takes to make the Word come out of their mouth. They feel overwhelmed, powerless, and confused with tormenting thoughts. I truly don’t know how I did this years ago in my 20s since I had no one to coach me, but I would make myself say what the Word said until the torment lifted. When I was so oppressed in that dark place, it finally dawned on me that I was going to have to speak what I believed. I remembered how hard it was to open my mouth and say it loud enough where my ears could hear it. I looked at the young woman in front of me and remembered when I was in that very same spot of continuous torment.
You have to have the will to do what the Scripture says to do even when you don’t feel like it—when it is the last thing in the world you want to do—even if it feels like it is pulling flesh off your bones to speak the Word and you have to do it until you finally succeed in exchanging out every tormenting thought for a promise from God’s Word.
“Since I can first remember, I have always had a sensation of not having a desire to live.“ Like a child pleading, but almost defiantly she continued, “This time, I’ve hurt myself and I’ve been in the ER” as she rolled up her sleeves to show me the marks, her voice breaking in sobs. She spoke it as if to make me let up and not make her speak the words, as if she was too bad a case and beyond God’s care. It wasn’t time to give up now, I pressed her forward: “A lot of people have… you have already asked the Lord to forgive you.” I called her name and just gently and consistently worked with her to get the words out. I knew she had to get the right words coming out of her own mouth in spite of the fact that heavy depression and torment does everything in his power to make it seem like an impossibility. Interestingly, more often than not, the same throat pours forth like a faucet turned wide open when spilling out misery. It is odd how torment causes us to not have the strength to speak when we ought, and yet gush out the anguish.
Those negative fear thoughts feel so overpowering and overwhelming that you don’t have the will to do what you have to do. You feel you can’t go on. That is exactly what the enemy wants. It is right here, where the secret lies, whether you get well or not. In Laurie’s case, it was life or death: she was giving in to letting go of the will to live, and moving toward more desperate actions.
I explained what I was doing, “God has done all that He is going to do for us to be free. He did it on the cross. When He said, “It is finished,” then the debt was paid. Now it is our turn. We have something to do!”
When I went through the sheer agony of debilitating waves and waves of negative thoughts, I had no one helping me. My thoughts were crazy and I knew it, but I didn’t know what to do. People have asked me and I have asked myself: what made me pull out of this spiraling down and down when I had no one coaching me—speaking truth to me, telling me what verse to quote… I remember being all by myself and I had had enough—enough years of torment to decide I could not go another day. What happens next is where most people fail: you have to find that switch, that will, that strength, that determination to quit feeling sorry for yourself, begging God to do it for you, and at the same time blaming Him for not doing it. When it feels like you can’t, you have to. The Word of God has to come out of your mouth.
It seemed like it took forever before the words barely started coming from her mouth, and as if this effort caused her great pain. But, when she began to come out of the fog over her brain, you could see a glimmer of the real person. And as she stumbled through each portion of the verse and her strength was returning, she used the strength to voice all the thoughts about the future which nagged on her. One at a time I worked to keep her staying focused.
“I am afraid he will come back!” I saw this one coming. “Oh, you can rest assured, he will come back and you will be ready for him. The day I got free was the day I realized I had to fight. God wasn’t going to do it for me. David had to kill Goliath. David didn’t pray and ask God to do it for him. God has done all He is going to do. When He said, It is finished, it was done.” I reminded her that now it was up to her to grab hold of her promises. This isn’t something God is going to do for you. You have to stick with the Word and center in on taking the fear out until you feel it leave. You cannot afford to let those fear thoughts take you on a detour. Her head was up. She was now listening. Laurie’s face showed her youth again.
Finally, after she began to repeat the verse, the power of the Word of God began to go inside where the torment was and drive it out. Fear was leaving, and power was going inside of her as she heard with her own ears—her mouth saying the Word of God rather than what she felt. The torment was leaving and the love of God was coming in and dealing with those crazy thoughts she had in her mind. And as her mouth repeated what God said in His Word about having a sound mind, she could feel strength coming into her mind and body with her own ears hearing the word. Laurie could feel authority suddenly in her that she had not known or utilized before.
Before it was over, her mind and strength were back. She looked like she had gone through the wringer but deep in her face, I could see the peace and strength had returned. What no man can do for us, the Word of God can.
What has to come out of you is a very bold confident declaration that God has not given me a spirit of fear. You will walk out of fear and mental torment—you will walk out of depression. Many have to do it over and over—don’t let fear debilitate you.
It took about an hour and a half before she was back to her right mind. There are so many treatments used on people in this state that Laurie was in. Costly, long-term, and many times just something so we are able to cope with the torment. Yet, it had honestly been so simple, when you think about it. God means it when He said he has delivered us from fear. Talk about the power of God’s Word—it took her repeating only one scripture to pull her out of this torment.
The highlight of this week was when I saw her two days later. It was to my great joy that she was excited to see me and that she had held the ground we gained that night with the Word of God. She quit begging and started using her authority. Peace looked so good on her! She later texted me, "I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm happier in the combat zone that in my comfort zone because I find my worth in Christ." Wow! Laurie had already shared her story with someone at work who appreciated how open she was about this. “Laurie, I have not been to church in years. I have a dark side that I feel like no one will talk to me about. Your story has really touched me. I think I will try church again.” Laurie’s joy was bubbling over and she wanted one of my books to give to her. Just two days ago, Laurie’s future seemed uncertain because the fear was escalating.
Fear is rampant in our society, affecting rich and poor, young and old. It took just one verse! And using the authority over fear we have been given as believers.
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Disappointments - Be Gone!
by Peggy Joyce Ruth on 05/11/18
I believe this concept that I'm going to be sharing has had by far the most life-changing effect on my Christian life next to Psalm 91. I'm convinced that this information out of the Word can make the difference between success and failure in the life of any Christian. This truth became the foundation of my personal faith and that of my family.
Quite a few years ago I awoke one morning and I was quoting "Those who trust the Lord will not be disappointed". I had never remembered reading that scripture in the Bible before. All day long I just kept finding myself quoting the phrase "Those who trust the Lord will not be disappointed".
And by afternoon I realized that something very unusual was happening. I finally realized that God was giving me something important that He wanted me to hear, so I began to search through the Bible and I found Those who trust the Lord shall not be disappointed in the New American Standard Bible. Over the next few days, the Lord began to show me that most Christians never go on to get the total victory simply because at some point in their life they get disappointed. They begin to meditate on that disappointment, then even though they may never realize it consciously or subconsciously they somehow take that disappointment and put it on God. Subconsciously they think that God didn't come through in some area of their life. As I searched through the Word of God I found this same truth paraphrased over and over in the Old and New Testament and several times it was a direct quote, Those who trust in the Lord shall not be disappointed. I remember thinking, "But Lord, I think I do trust you but there are times I get disappointed. Does that mean that I'm not trusting you?" And I began to almost argue with the Lord. "Lord, sometimes it does look like the Word's not working."
The Lord began to show me that trust and disappointment are exact opposites just like fear and faith are opposites and we can't operate in both of them at the same time. One of them cancels the other. If I'm disappointed I'm not trusting God. And as the scripture says, when I'm trusting God I won't be disappointed. By the same token I promise you, you're going to have plenty of opportunities to be disappointed, but when that happens the ball's in our court. The decision is ours and it's a choice. We have to decide, "Am I going to fall for that opportunity to be disappointed? Or am I going to determine in my heart—Lord, I'm trusting you and I don't care what the situation looks like now. I'm not going to be disappointed? I'm going to choose not to allow myself to wallow in disappointment because it is one of the biggest enemies of faith."
If I refuse to accept disappointment and continue to trust, God promises that he will intervene in the matter. And when God intervenes, then the time will come I'll see that He really did work it together to bring good. I thought, "Lord, I don't see how you can do that on some of the situations that I've faced, but I'm making the choice to trust You. Those who trust in the Lord shall not be disappointed—that's literal, but the trusting is the prerequisite before we see the outcome. It's a quality decision where we say, "I've made up my mind that from this day forth, this Word is going to be my final decision. I choose to be obedient, Lord, to anything that You tell me to do, therefore, as far as I'm concerned, the case is closed. It's in Your hands." When we do that then it is up to God. As simple as it sounds, you don't have to feel a thing. It's an act of Your will. It's not an act of your emotions. It's a decision, a choice to trust. The Lord gave me a simple little statement to say out loud every single time that I was faced with the opportunity to get disappointed. I want to share that with you. I was simply to say: Lord, in this particular situation, (name the situation out loud), I choose to trust you. I've probably quoted that statement thousands of times over the years. And it works. There's something about saying it out loud that releases our faith.
Let's go back to one of the many times we had to learn how to trust. We felt like the Lord was telling us to build a house in the country. We were to pay for it as we went and we were to look to Him to supply everything that we needed.That house became such a training ground for us in our spiritual walk that when it was over with, the house became a fringe benefit. What we learned was worth the problems that we went through.
This was a large house and it took about three and a half years to complete. We had dried in the house and we had all the windows installed, but we decided since we weren't ready to move in that we wouldn't put the screens on the windows. We would save the screens so they'd look new not realizing that it was going to be two and a half years before the house was finished. When we finally did put those screens on it was in the springtime and we were in the middle of a Texas drought. Within a month there were hordes of bugs flying around the lights in every room at night. I'm not talking about a few bugs. I'm talking about the rooms were full. We started looking and found that the screens had holes in them, some of the holes were as big as softballs where grasshoppers had chewed through the screens. It was shocking that grasshoppers had eaten their way into our new home. Everything in us was tempted to be disappointed because we had 32 windows. We had stored the screens for two and a half years and so we thought there's no way we can take them back. However, we felt impressed in our spirit that we were supposed to go back to the lumber yard. We had been quoting our scripture, Lord, we're trusting You and we're not going to be disappointed. When the manager at the lumber yard heard our story about storing the screens and then within a few weeks of installation that grasshoppers had eaten holes, he replied, "Well, you've had them for two and a half years”. I could tell that he wasn't the least bit interested but he went ahead and made a call to the company. He just very briefly told them the story about the grasshoppers, how many screens we had and the size. And then he added. “But they've had them for two and a half years.” And it was almost like he was saying, You know you really don't have to worry about this. They've had him plenty long. But he didn't bother to tell him that those screens had been stored. When he got off the phone he said, "I'm sorry that's all I can do".
I got the impression that the only reason he had made that phone call was just to appease us. For the next two weeks, we contended with bugs. Everything in us was tempted to be disappointed and we just kept quoting our scripture. "Father, we’re trusting You with our window screens; we’re not going to be disappointed." There was nothing whatsoever in the natural to give us any hope. But two weeks later the phone rang and the guy at the lumber yard just simply said: "I have your screens". They had made all new screens. This time they didn't make them out of plastic. They made them out of screen wire and shipped them free of charge. God had supernaturally intervened in that matter and given us something much better that could withstand Texas grasshopper appetites!
This trust versus disappointment reality so touched our family that we kept a record of many of the ways God intervened in situation after situation as this foundational principle was established in our lives. Many of these stories are included in the book I wrote on this subject. If trust is an area you want to grow in, I encourage you to search out these truths and use the phrase the Lord gave me. If you do, your faith and trust will surely grow and help you to develop a deeper love walk with God. Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord.
Are You Going Through The Motions Of Believing God?
by Peggy Joyce Ruth on 03/22/18
Don't Let the Enemy Scam You
by Peggy Joyce Ruth on 10/25/17
Don't Let the Enemy Scam You!
Healing is not ours until we receive it—Sickness is not ours until we receive it.
Danger awaits the unsuspecting buyer or seller who is unaware of the schemes on popular classified websites. Unwary users can end up victims, losing property or money if they go for the “too good to be true” deals. Scammer’s convincing tactics and unrealistic sense of urgency become recognizable once you are alerted to their predictable tactics. Many safe transactions occur on these sites when proven methods are put in place as a safeguard, however, the scammers seem to never tire of trying to find a victim. With this analogy, I want you to think of the enemy’s tactics toward your health and well-being.
I was out taking my walk when suddenly I heard the Lord clearly say, “Jesus took sickness and disease on His own body so that by His Stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) Jesus took the sickness so that we can take the healing and live in health.
As Spirit-filled Christians we have our healing Scriptures, such as 1 Peter 2:24, that tells us Jesus bore our sicknesses and diseases in His own body on the cross and Galatians 3:13 that tells us that we are redeemed from the curse which covers all types of sickness. But, let’s ask ourselves, do I really believe that?
Think with me here, when Jesus administered healing to a person while He walked on the earth, He didn’t ask if they were free of sin before they could receive the healing. After Jesus administered the healing in John 5:14, He said, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you”. But being without sin was not a criterion for receiving the healing available through Jesus. He dealt with both sin and sickness, and at the same time.
Jesus has already borne every sickness and disease on His own body for us. It is already accomplished. If we believe that, then we need to realize that SYMPTOMS that comes on our body are not ours until we receive them. Why, because Jesus has already borne it for us.
The important thing to remember is that we are not forced to accept what He has taken for us. It is a gift if we will receive it. The enemy would love to steal that gift from us. As long as we are living in this world the enemy will tempt us to ignore the gift of health from God. I want you to pay attention closely, he does that by putting symptoms on our body. The symptoms are real. They are not our imagination. We can feel the pain, the fever, the sore throat, or whatever the symptom might be, but, in spite of the symptoms, the sickness is not ours until we receive it. The symptoms are the bait.
Countless numbers of Christians receive sickness every moment of the day because they haven’t grasped the fullness of the Scripture promises and just don’t know better. Sadly, we don’t have to receive the sickness. It is not ours until we own it. I’m not saying that the enemy won’t put up a good fight and cause the symptoms to rage in our body in an all-out attempt to get us to accept it. I am also not saying that it is easy to ignore those symptoms and dogmatically stand our ground, saying, “Jesus bore that for me. I don’t have to bear it again.”
I’m also not saying that the enemy won’t eventually back off a little and then later come back ferociously tearing at our body in a secondary attack. Regardless, THE SICKNESS THE ENEMY IS PEDDLING IS NOT OURS UNTIL WE RECEIVE IT. It is also important to realize that there are many ways of receiving it. A person might frantically google the symptoms to see what it could be. Another might first run to the doctor or the medicine cabinet (2 Chronicles 16:12), but very few Christians will dig their heels in and say, “Jesus has already borne this for me. This is only the enemy trying to tempt me to receive it and I refuse to go there.” I admit that the symptoms might feel overwhelming, perhaps, for a good while. I admit that the enemy will most likely put thoughts in our head, “This is too serious to ignore. Time is of an essence. Don’t be a fool and let this thing get out of control.” I can almost promise you that the enemy will say all of those things, and more. Then, the ball is in our court and the decision is ours. If we are going to win that battle we have to dig in like a warrior.
We claim ownership to so many things: I have a new car; I have a new pair of shoes; I have a bad cold, on and on. Seldom do people say, “The enemy has put symptoms of such and such on my body to tempt me to take it, but it is not mine until I receive it and I refuse to receive it."
Now, this next reminder is very important: I am not saying that you are to do this for another person. Every person has to come to his or her own conviction of faith that God’s Word is true when God tells us that Jesus bore every sickness and disease for us. This is an individual revelation and can only be put to work by each person himself. The fact still remains that God has accomplished it and is offering the gift to all of His children who will believe it and dogmatically determine to stand to receive it.
I’m not saying don’t go see your doctor or not to take medication. Neither am I saying that we don't all personally struggle at times in some areas. But I am saying this revelation is very strong to me and I feel we must grab hold of these truths, learn to seek the Lord first, resist the devil and any symptoms he tries to bring and stand for our healing.
Don’t let the enemy scam you. Healing is a gift. Symptoms are a gift. We have a choice of whose gift are we going to receive.
Danger awaits the unsuspecting buyer or seller who is unaware of the schemes on popular classified websites. Unwary users can end up victims, losing property or money if they go for the “too good to be true” deals. Scammer’s convincing tactics and unrealistic sense of urgency become recognizable once you are alerted to their predictable tactics. Many safe transactions occur on these sites when proven methods are put in place as a safeguard, however, the scammers seem to never tire of trying to find a victim. With this analogy, I want you to think of the enemy’s tactics toward your health and well-being.
I was out taking my walk when suddenly I heard the Lord clearly say, “Jesus took sickness and disease on His own body so that by His Stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) Jesus took the sickness so that we can take the healing and live in health.
As Spirit-filled Christians we have our healing Scriptures, such as 1 Peter 2:24, that tells us Jesus bore our sicknesses and diseases in His own body on the cross and Galatians 3:13 that tells us that we are redeemed from the curse which covers all types of sickness. But, let’s ask ourselves, do I really believe that?
Think with me here, when Jesus administered healing to a person while He walked on the earth, He didn’t ask if they were free of sin before they could receive the healing. After Jesus administered the healing in John 5:14, He said, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you”. But being without sin was not a criterion for receiving the healing available through Jesus. He dealt with both sin and sickness, and at the same time.
Jesus has already borne every sickness and disease on His own body for us. It is already accomplished. If we believe that, then we need to realize that SYMPTOMS that comes on our body are not ours until we receive them. Why, because Jesus has already borne it for us.
The important thing to remember is that we are not forced to accept what He has taken for us. It is a gift if we will receive it. The enemy would love to steal that gift from us. As long as we are living in this world the enemy will tempt us to ignore the gift of health from God. I want you to pay attention closely, he does that by putting symptoms on our body. The symptoms are real. They are not our imagination. We can feel the pain, the fever, the sore throat, or whatever the symptom might be, but, in spite of the symptoms, the sickness is not ours until we receive it. The symptoms are the bait.
Countless numbers of Christians receive sickness every moment of the day because they haven’t grasped the fullness of the Scripture promises and just don’t know better. Sadly, we don’t have to receive the sickness. It is not ours until we own it. I’m not saying that the enemy won’t put up a good fight and cause the symptoms to rage in our body in an all-out attempt to get us to accept it. I am also not saying that it is easy to ignore those symptoms and dogmatically stand our ground, saying, “Jesus bore that for me. I don’t have to bear it again.”
I’m also not saying that the enemy won’t eventually back off a little and then later come back ferociously tearing at our body in a secondary attack. Regardless, THE SICKNESS THE ENEMY IS PEDDLING IS NOT OURS UNTIL WE RECEIVE IT. It is also important to realize that there are many ways of receiving it. A person might frantically google the symptoms to see what it could be. Another might first run to the doctor or the medicine cabinet (2 Chronicles 16:12), but very few Christians will dig their heels in and say, “Jesus has already borne this for me. This is only the enemy trying to tempt me to receive it and I refuse to go there.” I admit that the symptoms might feel overwhelming, perhaps, for a good while. I admit that the enemy will most likely put thoughts in our head, “This is too serious to ignore. Time is of an essence. Don’t be a fool and let this thing get out of control.” I can almost promise you that the enemy will say all of those things, and more. Then, the ball is in our court and the decision is ours. If we are going to win that battle we have to dig in like a warrior.
We claim ownership to so many things: I have a new car; I have a new pair of shoes; I have a bad cold, on and on. Seldom do people say, “The enemy has put symptoms of such and such on my body to tempt me to take it, but it is not mine until I receive it and I refuse to receive it."
Now, this next reminder is very important: I am not saying that you are to do this for another person. Every person has to come to his or her own conviction of faith that God’s Word is true when God tells us that Jesus bore every sickness and disease for us. This is an individual revelation and can only be put to work by each person himself. The fact still remains that God has accomplished it and is offering the gift to all of His children who will believe it and dogmatically determine to stand to receive it.
I’m not saying don’t go see your doctor or not to take medication. Neither am I saying that we don't all personally struggle at times in some areas. But I am saying this revelation is very strong to me and I feel we must grab hold of these truths, learn to seek the Lord first, resist the devil and any symptoms he tries to bring and stand for our healing.
Don’t let the enemy scam you. Healing is a gift. Symptoms are a gift. We have a choice of whose gift are we going to receive.
Want to trust the Lord but aren't sure how?
by Peggy Joyce Ruth on 10/25/17
TRUST is not an emotional choice. It’s a decision, not a feeling!
Trust, just like faith, starts by simply making an irrevocable decision to believe God’s Word and then leaving the rest to Him. 1 Peter 2:6 (NASB) tells us that those who trust in the Lord shall not be disappointed. What an incredible statement! Most Christians never get total victory in any area because at some point they get disappointed. And even though they may never consciously realize it, deep down most disappointments are in reality disappointments in God.
Any time disappointment is allowed in we get offended with someone or something and we begin to stumble. Matthew 11:6 (NASB, 1973) “Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.” It is choosing not to be disappointed that keeps us anchored in trust, and trust is the state of being that keeps us from stumbling. Trust and disappointment are direct opposites. And just as fear and faith are opposites and cannot operate at the same time, trust and disappointment cannot both operate at the same time.
Those who trust the Lord shall not be disappointed—literally.
But, trusting is the prerequisite before we see the outcome.
Disappointments Be Gone!
The Lord gave me a simple little statement to say out loud every time I am faced with an opportunity to be disappointed.
“Lord, in this particular situation (name the situation) I choose to trust You.”
I have repeated that one phrase literally thousands of times. There is something about saying it out loud that kicks the whole process into gear and releases the trust. When trusting becomes a way of life, your life will become the most thrilling and exhilarating existence in the world. There is nothing more exciting than to anticipate, in faith, how God is going to work out our impossible circumstances.
We invite you to watch the video of our friend, Charles Rose Jr. He shared his story with us of how the book “Those Who Trust the Lord Shall Not Be Disappointed” helped him attend the University in the U.S. by trusting God to come through with the finances. A native of the Bahamas, he was invited to the altar for prayer at his church along with the other six students who would be attending college in the Fall of 2010. The priest surprised them by asking the students to share their name and what college or university they would be attending. His heart was jumping out of his chest. He wanted to attend UNC Charlotte in the U.S. but his mind reminded him he didn’t have his school fees. Should he play it safe and say he was going to the College of the Bahamas where it would be easier to afford? He was last to speak and had some time to think. What would he say?
When it was his turn at the microphone, he made his declaration.