The Unfolding By Betty Crabtree

December 15, 2024

Did you ever feel as if you weren’t as close to God as you’d like to be? I have, but Proverbs 8;17 is and was comforting. Proverbs 8;17 says, “I love those who love Me and those who seek Me diligently will find Me.” So go after God, for He is faithful and true to His Word. When in frustrating times, struggles within ones self, the following verse is a rock to stand on. I Corinthians 10;13, (Let me say first that the word temptation can also mean trial or test and so on with the verse.)

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” I emphasize “but God is faithful”, who will not allow you to be tempted, tested or tried beyond what you are able. I mentioned in a previous article that nearly all of Paul’s letters and Peter’s letters to the church always begin with ‘grace and peace unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’. And in Jude the blessing and greeting begins with ‘mercy, peace and love’. II John begins with ‘grace, mercy and peace..’ So, when troubled, frustrated and perhaps struggling with something, go to the Father and Jesus and ask, plead if necessary, for grace or mercy or peace.

And in the book of James, he addresses the various trials. He said to count it all joy, why? Testing your faith produces as patience an to let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (Ever had your patience tried?) V.5 He says if you lack wisdom, ask God and God gives it liberally, but you must ask in faith with no doubting, for a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. V.12 says “blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Then he goes on further in V.19, “my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” I’m skipping some verses hoping you will read for yourself, but V.22 tells us to be doers of the Word, and hearers only. And here is my final word, II Peter 3;9, “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Not slack concerning His promise! Remember I Corinthians 10;13, “but God is faithful”!