Beauty for ashes: receiving emotional healing (26 page)

Jesus warned His followers:

take care not to do your good deeds publiclyorbefore men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward [reserved for and awaiting you] withandfrom your Father Who is in heaven. Thus, whenever you give to the poor, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets like to do, that they may be recognizedandhonoredandpraised by men. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full already. (Matthew 6:1-2)

If we do things to get attention from people, then the public attention we receive from others is our reward, and there will be no further reward from God. Do not trade God's reward for people's reward. Wait for what God can give you, because it is going to be much better than the reward that people can give you.

Jesus went on to say, "But when you give to charity, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that

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your deeds of charity may be in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward youopenly"(Matthew 6:3-4).In other words, do good works with pure motives, but do not boast about them. What you are able to do secretly, God will reward you for openly. Jesus even told us to pray privately, saying, "But when you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you inthe open"(Matthew 6:6).

You may feel that you have a thankless job. Maybe you have worked in the church nursery for ten years, and the only feedback you ever get is from a few parents who complain about the way you take care of their kids. Or maybe you have been ushering at the church for five years, and nobody has ever said thank you for your faithfulness. Or maybe you are an intercessor, and nobody even knows that you are praying for them. But you are motivated to do what you do "as unto the Lord."

Do not become discouraged in doing good, for God sees everything you are doing for others on His behalf. Not one good work that you do with the right motive has gone unnoticed by Him. God sees every person you help, every person you are kind to; He knows every time you show somebody a little bit of mercy, every time you show someone forgiveness; and He will reward you for it. If you are looking forward to God's reward, you will continue to do things with the right motive.

What to Do When Trouble Comes

Sooner or later we all have some trouble in life. We all have some trials and some tribulations. Everybody goes through times of testing. And not every storm shows up in the forecast.

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Some days we can wake up and think everything is going to be great. Before that day is over, we may be tested by all kinds of trouble that we were not expecting.Trouble is part of life, so we simply have to be ready for it. We need to have a planned response to trouble, because it is more difficult to get strong after trouble comes. It is better to be prepared by staying strong.

The first thing you need to do when trouble comes is pray,God, help me stay emotionally stable.Do not let your emotions overwhelm you. The next thing you need to do is trust God. The instant that fear rises up, pray.

Stay emotionally stable, trust God, and pray. Then while you are waiting for God to answer, simply keep doing good. Keep your commitments. Do not stop serving the Lord just because you have a problem. The greatest time in the world to keep your commitments to God is in the midst of difficulty and adversity. When the devil sees that trials and tribulations won't stop you, he will stop troubling you for a while.

"And let us not lose heartandgrow wearyandfaint in acting noblyanddoing right, for in due timeandat the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosenandrelax our courageandfaint" (Galatians 6:9).

So there are four things to do when trouble and trials come to you: Stay emotionally stable; trust God; pray immediately to avoid getting into fear; and keep doing good. The fifth thing to do isexpect a reward.

We seldom even do one of these things when trouble comes, but that may be from not having a plan. I believe we need to stay strong by practicing these steps even when we are not in trouble.

To be prepared for the next time you find yourself in a difficult situation, practice saying, "I am going to be faithful to God, and God is going to give me double for my trouble. Satan, you thought you were going to hurt me, but I am going

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to get a double blessing, because I am one who diligently seeks the Lord."God's Will for You

This is the will of God concerning you: Double blessings are in store for you, because you believe that "He is the rewarder of those who earnestlyanddiligently seek Him [out]" (Hebrews 11:6).

As you can see, there is a condition-and that is to believe. Where there is a privilege, there is also a responsibility. If you do your part, God will never fail to do His part.

You will have trouble, but what matters is how you respond to it. Do not get discouraged, disappointed, depressed, negative, or hopeless when trials come. Instead, just shake them off and keep on going. There is an upside to trouble. When you have trouble, you experience the comfort of God.

Jesus said, "Blessedandenviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!" (Matthew 5:4).

If we really understand how awesome the comfort of God is, it is almost worth it to have a problem just to experience His marvelous comfort. The Bible says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of troubleordistress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with

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which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).God comforts us so we can comfort others.

Enjoy God's Favor

Something else we need to confess every day of our life is, "I have favor with God, and God gives me favor with man. I walk in the favor of God." When you have God's favor, people like you and want to do things for you, and they don't even know why. There is no natural reason, but they are drawn to you and want to be good to you; they just want to be a blessing to you.

God's favor is wonderful. People who have been abused need to learn to shake off their offenses and just enjoy this free gift of grace from God. Those who humble themselves enjoy more and more favor in their lives.

Peter was someone who was easily offended but who learned to humble himself and enjoy God's favor in His life.

God's Blessings Are Bigger Than You Can Imagine

If I had not learned to cast my cares on the Lord, and let Him strengthen and settle me, I would not be enjoying the double blessings through which we now minister. When God called us to go on television, the Spirit of God visited Dave one morning as he was combing his hair. He said to Dave, "I have prepared you and Joyce all this time to go on television."

We didn't know that we were in a time of preparation during all those years when we were faithful to travel anywhere to hold meetings for fifty to a hundred people; to sleep in

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McDonald's parking lots when we didn't have the money to stay in hotels, because we were willing to preach for little to nothing; to withstand judgment and criticism, and endure rejection from our home church. It was all preparation for a greater work.We knew to stay faithful, but we never dreamed God's reward would be this big. We now enjoy preaching the Word to audiences of several thousand people at a time who are hungry to know God more intimately. OurLife In The Wordtelecast is aired daily over 400 television stations, with a potential audience of 2.5 billion people in nearly two-thirds of the world. Since 1988, we have released more than fifty books, thirty-six of which have been translated into forty-five languages, and have distributed over 3 million copies. I boast only of the Lord; God had a reward in mind for us, and His blessings upon us continue to expand each year.

I didn't know this is what God had in mind when He was telling me, "Just hang on, Joyce, I am going to give you double for your trouble. What the devil meant for evil against you, I am turning for good so that you will be in a position to help many people."

God has the same message for everybody We must endure times of preparation, but we can be "assuredandknow that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work togetherand axe[fitting into a plan] for good toandfor those who love God and are called according to [His] designandpurpose" (Romans 8:28).

So the next time you face trouble, shake it off. If you are loving God and walking in His will for your life to the best of your ability, then you can be assured that everything is going to work out for your good. We serve a good God Who takes bad things and works them out for good.

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God's Great ExchangeGod is in the exchange business; He takes all the junk that we do not want and exchanges it for all the good that He has in store for us.

For example, when I married Dave, I did not have any money. I did not have a car but Dave had a car. When we got married, suddenly I had a car and money, because when Dave and I were married, everything he had suddenly became mine too.

It is the same way when we commit to Jesus. He is the Bridegroom, and we are His bride. We do not become heirs to His promise by simplydatingHim, but by fully committing ourselves to Him as in a marriage. A lot of people want to just "date" Jesus, hoping they will still get the double blessings.

The power that is in the name of Jesus is enjoyed only by those whobelongto Him. I did not get Dave's name until I married him. When you come to the Lord and commit everything in your life to Him, complete with its pain and injustices, God promises to take everything that is wrong in it and exchange it for what is right.

Jesus said:

If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands" (John 14:15). Those who love Him and obey Him will receive His great exchange described in Isaiah 61:7: "Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonorandreproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs."

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Shake It OffThere will always be new opportunities to apply the principles of letting go of the past and pressing on for God's prize that we have discussed in this book. Someone who matters to you will inevitably do something to hurt you. When that happens, you will have to choose again to receive God's love, forgive the one who hurt you, pray for him, bless him, believe that God will turn the situation around for your good, and then wait for the prize of His reward.

To encourage your faith to press on to the higher prize of freedom from emotional pain, God has included many stories of victory in the Bible to remind you of people who learned to shake off offenses and remain faithful to the Lord. In fact, the Bible is full of stories of those who received double blessings for being faithful.

Joseph went from the pit to the palace. Daniel went from the lions' den to a place of promotion.

Ruth started out eating scraps in a field, because she was faithful to a mother-in-law who was going to be alone without her. Their husbands were dead, and Ruth could have gone

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back to the security of her own people. Her mother-in-law told her, "Just go back." But she said, "No, I'm staying with you, and your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God" (see Ruth 1:16). Then God gave her favor, and Ruth ended up marrying Boaz, who just happened to be the richest man in the country.Esther started out as a frightened young maiden, who was not really happy about the position she was offered. But she was obedient to what God was leading her to do, and she went from being an orphan to a queen who saved a whole nation of people.

And then, of course, there is the story of Job.

The amazing thing about Job is that God allowed him to go through the painful experiences he suffered because God knew he would make it through them successfully. He knew Job was a man He could trust. If you have never read the entire book of Job, I encourage you to do so.

The devil thought that Job was faithful to God only because God protected him. So God said to Satan, "Okay then, we will remove some of that protection, and you will find that he will still stay faithful to me" (see Job 1:12). So God allowed Satan to attack and destroy every good thing that Job possessed. He tookeverythingaway from him except his life, but Job still would not deny his allegiance to the Lord.

As a result of Job's faithfulness, "the Lord turned the captivity of Jobandrestored his fortunes, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10). It is important to note that the Lord turned Job's captivity and restored his fortuneswhenhe prayed for his friends. These were the same "friends" who had severely disappointed him, who had not been there for him, and who had judged and criticized him. But the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before, because he was faithful to continue doing the right thing even though it was painful.