Don’t ask, Why me, Lord? Why me?.
Praise the Lord. The country is calling on its reserves to protect the whole land in this perilous time. Lord, let us be found in your presence when trouble happens. Let us be connected to you. This is not the time to pretend or to impress somebody, or the time to dance around or to be famous; this is the time for you and I to look into the mirror and say, Lord, am I upright with you?. I desire to be completely yours without any reservation.
I do not come here so that the Lord can bless me. I came here because I know what the Lord has done in my life. Halleluyah. He has done so exceedingly well in my whole life, which is why I will never reject him. I will never abandon him. Praise the Lord.
This is a personal choice you need to make. A report had it that man makes more than a million choices in a day. But above all your choices, you need to submit your will to Christ.
Do you remember the last time you experienced a difficult challenge in a difficult time? Probably, you are in the middle of that challenge right now, and you are thinking, Where is my help going to come from? Sometimes, when you do not have enough to send down to your relatives, you are worried and preoccupied. The Lord is saying, Depend on me. But, instead, when trouble comes, we sometimes ask, Why is this happening?. You remember, Jesus was asked the same question: Why was this person born blind or why was this person born deaf? Was it because his parents sinned, or was it because of his own sin? What did Jesus reply? He said it was so from the beginning, so that the work of God could be glorified through Him. You are to say, Lord, if it pleases you that I drink this cup, let your will be done.
Sometimes, you have a personalized problem. You say, Lord, why me? Why this? Why that? I remembered the last time I was in Karisca. I just came back from Africa, straight to Karisca. I was sick, and for 7 days they did not know what was wrong with me. They collected my blood over and over for investigation, and yet they could not identify what the problem was. Then I said, Lord, is there going to be any blood left in me?. Do you know that the Lord was aware of this? Yes, and He sent me help. I was made whole.
If one realizes that God exists when he has been pushed to the corner and that there is no one else to help but Him, Emmanuel, God with us, and our present help in trouble, he will surely come out of it.
You don’t need to understand why.
Brothers and sisters, let us walk in love and make a deliberate decision to follow Christ. There are no two ways about this. There are only two kings that you can serve, and one is the king of darkness and the other is the king of light. You cannot be hot and cold at the same time. Either you are cold or you are hot.
Make your relationship with God a number-one priority.
I gave you my testimony about how an agent of darkness fired me, and when I noticed this, I started dancing and praising God, and right there, the person who fired me started confessing.
Do you know that this God cannot fail? And even if the flesh is destroyed, they cannot destroy the inner man, the inner spirit. Praise the Lord. They cannot destroy it. Many times things happen that we simply do not understand, but that is okay. I was in that hotel, and I did not understand how it happened. Sometimes you may be in a situation where you do not understand anything. Thank God; let his glory be fulfilled in whatever circumstances we are in. So it is okay not to understand everything because, in life, sometimes you say, Why is it happening? I need to know; I need to find out the cause of this so that I can solve it. You are putting yourself before God. I need to earn so much money so that I can solve this problem. I need to save so much money so that I can travel to a place. Apostle Paul put it this way: what I like to do, what I do not do, and things I do not want to do are the things I see myself doing, day and night. Praise the Lord. It is good not to understand, but to put your trust in God. Praise the Lord. Why is it happening only to me? Put your trust in God. So it is okay if you do not understand. He wants us to look up to Him and say, God, I have no idea what I am going to do; I surrender to your will.
But sometimes you want to feel smart that you have a plan and that it is going to be done in a particular way. And you think you are wise. God is saying, My son, my daughter, humble yourself and know that I am God. Praise the Lord.
The truth is, when we are facing difficult situations that we do not understand, one of the best things we can do is just trust in Him. You may say, Lord, I am praying for a better job, but I do not understand why I am doing this job, but I still trust in you.
Praise the Lord. Sometimes, it is not as rosy as you think. Was it rosy for Paul to be lucked up in prison? Was it rosy for Paul, who had all the power to become almost like the King Herod of that time? To become the ruler and governor of the Roman Empire. But he said, No, no, no, I have decided that this Jesus is real, and I will follow Him. After accepting the conviction of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus, he went through trials and tribulations. Brothers and sisters, tribulation will surely come. But where does your faith stand in the midst of all these tribulations?
I do not know what is happening, but I will trust you, Lord. Come what may, I am all yours. I will not compromise. Some people want to take a short cut to get to where they are going. Do not do it; do not ever take a short cut. Do not ever outsmart the will of God.
You are more than a Conqueror
I thought to myself, What if that day was my last day on this earth? What would you say about your brother? What would you have been saying today in this service? Praise the Lord. Do not be scared of death; it is just a challenge that we will all go through. We are here just as visitors. Our parmanent resident, our citizenship that is eternal and permanent, is in the Kingdom of God. But for you to be able to enjoy the reward—the inheritance of that kingdom—you must make your relationship with God closer and stronger. Get closer to him and strengthen your relationship with him.
Let’s go to Romans 8:28. Praise the Lord. Sometimes the Lord will take you to places where you do not even want to be, and you will be wondering why I am here and why this or that is happening. Just trust in him. Alleluyah. In Romans 8:28, the bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Praise the Lord. We love God, we are called to His purpose, we have been called according to His purpose, and since we love Him and we have been called to His purpose, what kind of challenge can destroy us? Not at all, because He will always rise up to defend us. Praise the Lord.
I have seen His hand working in my life. He has saved me from one challenge to the next. But what He is asking you to do now is to trust in Him, continue to trust in Him, hold on to Him, do not doubt yet, do not have any doubt; He is there with you.
And if you jump to 35, the same chapter says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword separate us from the love of Christ?” It cannot. It will never happen. Praise the Lord. And if it is written for your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered sheep to be slaughtered. hallelujah.
Verse 37 says, “In all these things, we are more than conquerors.” Do you know what a conqueror does? Praise the Lord. I will give you an example of a conqueror.
Someone who conquers something is a conqueror. Praise the Lord. You know the whole nation was running and hiding from that Goliath. Imagine the whole nation. Then David said, I will destroy him. They looked at him and laughed. But in the end, he became a conqueror. Hallelujah. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, in all things through him who loves us. And verse 38 said, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angel nor demon, nor the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So all we can do is surrender, submit ourselves to Him, and let His will prevail over our lives.
Remember what Jesus said? “If this is your will, let it be done. He said if it is up to me to drink this cup, let me drink it; let your will be done. Is that your prayer today?. Are you passing through a health challenge, and you are thinking, Lord, why me? Are you passing through a financial challenge, and you are asking God, Why me? Are you passing through a career challenge, and you are asking God, Why me? Your prayer from today on should be, Lord, if this is your will, I will conquer; if this is your will, I will try it; if this is your will, I will be victorious. Praise the Lord.