That which God promises us is infinitely better that that which He asks of us.
When the Lord chooses a person, it is not because of his capacities; He sees the heart of the person and the capacity. He remains in a heart that gives itself for Him and stays with that person. He remakes him through the action of His Spirit.
The true power of God is the Holy Spirit, that is His love.
One is to be a person remade in the Holy Spirit. And the person thus is like the light that one lights at an entrance, because as one enters, God enters too. This is so simple, it is for those that want God in their lives.
In the same way that God calls one day and His grace manifests itself in your life, in that moment, the oppositor, he that is against God, also puts himself in attack against you.
The first attack of evil is to bring you to discouragement. Discouragement signifies removing the soul of the person, the person becomes spiritually sterile: The evil one wants to discourage you and uses all his strength to do this. He tries to discourage those of God. The only goal that he has is to make you discouraged and make you turn from God. You not being with God is good for him, because that which he wants is to take us from God.
Do not allow discouragement to enter your heart. Get up from lying on the floor and take your life in your hands saying: My life is done with desperation. I do not want to be a slave of discouragement because of the things that happen to me. Before you are two roads, life and death the word of God says choose life!
The second thing that the evil one wants is to make it that you becomes a source of scandal, because when a person chooses to follow God, if the evil one detours him, not only does the person fall, but others fall with him/her.
We are are constantly being proved and put in combat and we cannot be motives of scandal. You that are walking with the Lord need to understand one thing. Do not put your focus on persons, because they are broken and they fall like you. Put your focus on God.
We that are in service to God should know that people see us and many times they don’t know the difference-and if we fall to temptation we can become a motive of scandal which can separate others from God. Therefore, the word says: “My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.” (Sirach 2:1-2ff) because the evil one wants to make you a source of scandal.
We that are of Christ have to follow the footsteps of Him. The word of God shows us what we should do before temptation. “Remain strong in justice and in the fear of the Lord.” That is to remain firm in doing good, principly for those that are against us. And three things are fundamental for preparing our soul: be humble, hope with patience and suffer the demands of God without complaining, knowing that God is for you.
Márcio Mendes