2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

Oftentimes we find ourselves troubled on every side. Many times we are perplexed. Many of us have been persecuted, perhaps not in the sense of living in a hostile country, but maybe within the confines of our own families. We have been thrown down and trampled on . Often dying it seems by our many troubles. All of these things and more are the things that would destroy most, but in you they have caused the life of Christ to spring up from the darkness of your situations. An abundance of grace has been poured out upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children. He established you and gave you grace and purpose before time began.

When we have been troubled on every side we can testify that we have been rescued from distress. When we have been weighed down with the perplexities of life, the Lord Himself pulls us up from the valleys of despair.In the midst of our persecutions and feelings of isolation we have discovered that we are not alone. When we have been thrown down and trampled on, the Lord Himself has saved us from being destroyed.

In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may be in the process of perishing but our inner man is renewed daily by the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world. The world sees that out of the darkness of our situations that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. You may not be able to fully articulate the Roman road to salvation but the world does see that out of you, out of your many trials, your sorrows, your afflictions and your infirmities, there shines forth the light of Christ Himself. Be encouraged saints, you are a mighty witness for Christ.

Perhaps the world will never know your story, but the Lord knows and the mouths of the principalities and powers are closed by the testimony of God in you, your hope and your glory. God spoke into Gideon’s life and He called him a mighty man of valor, although at the point of which He spoke it to him nothing could be further from the truth. Yet the key was “God spoke.’ And even although Gideon would complain that he was the weakest man from the weakest clan in all the land, that meant nothing to God. You see, its never the man or the woman, its always God. If He is with you brothers and sister, then He can achieve whatever He desire through you , not because of you, but because of Him, the one who speaks and the one who calls. He equips the ones He calls. Your job is to keep on standing, keep on moving, one step at a time, one day at a time, getting up and then getting up again and again and again. And even in this, He empowers us to rise up when we decide to get up. Rise up today brothers and sisters and put one foot in front of the other.