PERSEVERE IN GOD
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
ZECHARIAH 4:10
Perhaps you are at the very beginning and are just starting to reclaim your freedom. Maybe you've been fighting for a while and are already pretty discouraged. In both cases I want to tell you: "Don't despise these small beginnings".
"Here I am depressed and downcast. Yet I will still remember you as I ponder the place where your glory streams down from the mighty mountaintops, lofty and majestic—the mountains of your awesome presence."
PSALM 42:6 (TPT)
Persevering in God is one of the main disciplines of our lives. Everything around you will discourage you from completely relying on God. Even Christians will come and recommend that you somehow set out on your own and help yourself. Along the lines of the saying: "Help yourself, then God will help you". But that is not our promise. The promise of God is:
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence."
JEREMIAH 17:7
"Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes."
PSALM 37:5-7
No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced,but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord. The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray."
PSALM 25:3-8
"Put your hope in the Lord. Travel steadily along his path. He will honor you by giving you the land. You will see the wicked destroyed."
PSALM 37:34
Hallelujah! When your godless thinking and your old man are wiped out, you will watch and shout for joy. For God will give you the land of your sexuality again!
Isn't that wonderful? Say the following sentences out loud:
"I wait for the LORD, and therefore I will not be ashamed. No matter how deeply I am entangled in my addiction and how long I've been trapped. God will raise me up to possess the land of my sexuality. Then I will be allowed to reap all the good fruits from it. Why do you grieve me - my soul? Have confidence in God, for you will yet praise Him. Guide me in your truth LORD and instruct me in your way. Because you are gracious and because you are a God of mercy, I will be saved".
Think of David as he confronts Goliath and says:
"You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
PSALM 37:34
Now face your own Goliath. Face your addiction, your fears and the powers of darkness that hold you captive and say:
"You come against me with fear and oppression. But I come against you in the name of the LORD of almighty, the God of Israel's armies, whom you have mocked.
This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will cut off your head. And all the earth will know that there is a God.
My church, my family and my friends will know that the LORD does not save by the sword or by the spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into my hand".
Well, how did that feel? Did it feel good? Don't speak these lines with a timid voice, but with authority and power. You are a warrior of God. You have received from Jesus all authority over the powers of darkness. Stand up to them. But not out of your own power. Your power has not gotten you any further all these years. But face them with God's word. Like the Israelites at the Red Sea:
But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”
EXODUS 14:13-14
As God drowned the Egyptians in the red sea, so He will also save you. Is this hard for you to believe? Then put the word of God in your mouth and speak out loud:
"So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help."
ISAIAH 30:18
"He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."
ISAIAH 40:29-31
So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
HEBREWS 10:35-39
This is exactly our faith. This is our hope. We hold fast to it. We will not withdraw and return to our worries and think things like this:
"I will never be free."
"I am a lost sinner."
"I'll never make it."
We have died to this thinking! For we confidence in our God who said:
"So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free."
JOHN 8:36
Besides, there is no condemnation for those who wait for God because:
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus."
ROMANS 8:1
No matter whether you are still regularly living in impurity or you keep trying to fight yourself free on your own strength. You are already redeemed. Free yourself from the rod of the opressor on your back (Isaiah 9,4) that tells you to be faster or better. No! God will give you the land to own if you wait for him. Focus all your strength on letting the Word of God and its promises determine your thinking. When you fall, stand up and proclaim with joy:
"There is no condemnation for me! Jesus forgave me! I hold fast to this way of living and thinking. I count myself dead and accept God's word as the truth over my life".
Begin to educate your soul spiritually. Our souls are often like disobedient children and run through the world disoriented. No wonder they fall for such things as pornography. We must begin to give them guidelines through the Word of God. But not like laws they have to obey. Because that would be again out of our own strength and therefore sin. But by believing the Word more than anything else (including our own needs), the power of the Word itself will change our actions.
"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."
PHILIPPIANS 2:13
Persevere in him. Take some of these verses that stuck out to you now and speak them out loud into your situation. Or pick out your core verses, memorize them and repeat them all day long. I had to do this to steer my thinking in the right direction. Maybe everything in you will stand up and resist the Word of God. Then persist and persevere! Because when you go into battle, then you have to count with resistance and where the resistance is the strongest, you know you are exactly at the right spot.
Proclaim:
"Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you."
PSALM 37:5
"But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever."
PSALM 146:5-6