"Better To Be Needy" -Too

"Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock."
(Psalms 107:41)

 There is always a reason for the affliction that we face, but it never needs to cause us to be depressed or discouraged. The biggest tool that the devil has in his toolbox is discouragement, to cause us to feel as though God is upset with us and has left off caring for us; or even causing us to think that God no longer loves us. I heard a couple pastors speak about the devil yesterday; one said something about seeing the devil on the side of the road in a comic, he was crying and someone came by and asked him what was wrong, and he replied, "Everyone keeps blaming me for their sins." The other one was about the devil having a yard sale, with a table filled with all different kinds of sins, drunkenness, pornography, stealing, cheating, etc, etc; but against the wall he had one item not on display, and someone asked, "What is that item there, and how much do you want for it?" and he replied, "Oh, that one is not for sale; it is discouragement, and it is all I really need to take down any saint." One thing that I have learned over all these years, is that discouragement is of the devil; if we might be feeling discouraged about our relationship with God, then it that feeling needs to be rebuked and we need to start praising the Lord, even if we don't feel like praising Him, we need to just do it! As crazy as this might sound, God does not gasp at our sins and throw up His hands in astonishment; He knows everything about us, even the sins that we have not yet even thought of or imagined. If God has called you and chosen you as His child, you can be sure that nothing you have done He didn't all ready know about the moment that He called you to Himself. That is one more reason that we need to be needy! We are wretched and prone to sin, but He loves us just the same! We don't clean ourselves up, it is God that makes us clean; only God can make us holy and righteous. Even Abraham was not righteous, it was God that accounted righteousness to him because of his faith, not based upon all of his actions. Abraham did some stupid things, just like you and I; but it was God that accounted righteousness to his life, even though those things were done, they did not matter as far as God was concerned. As a matter of fact, every stupid things that Abraham did, God used it for His purposes. Go and figure that out! Even David, who did far worse than Abraham, what he did, God tuned it into something to show the world about His redemptive power and love; a sign, if you will, that God knows all that He is doing, even though the people He calls might not always do everything right; God is always right...

""He will protect his faithful ones, but the wicked will disappear in darkness. No one will succeed by strength alone. Those who fight against the LORD will be shattered. He thunders against them from heaven; the LORD judges throughout the earth. He gives power to his king; he increases the strength of his anointed one."" (1 Samuel 2:9-10) NLT