Hang In There...

I know that people from all over the world are stopping by and some are even staying and reading for a while. It is a huge encouragement to me to know that, and I pray that some are being touched and finding hope or a reason for why they might be going through stuff. 
I want to remind you that God has not forgotten you. Remember all those promises. Remember all the times He spoke to your heart or had someone give you a message about your future. Promises of blessing... promises of hope, wholeness and healing... promises of power and anointing... promises of joy and well being... promises that through YOU He would touch your world... AND THEN...
Then it seemed as though your life went in the opposite direction... God has not forgotten you! 
Have you lost your job?... God has not forgotten you!
Has your spouse left you?... God has not forgotten you!
Has your joy left you and you feel swallowed up by depression and defeat?... God has not forgotten you!
Has the bank foreclosed?... God has not forgotten you!
Have your friends rejected you?... God has not forgotten you!
Do you feel like Job, sitting on the ashes of what was once your life?... God has not forgotten you!!!
REMEMBER THE PROMISES!!... He's taking you there... and when you get there it will all be yours... Because it says in the Bible that God WILL NOT... NO, NOT EVER... go back on His Word. It says that He holds His word above His own Name, because there is nothing higher than His Name, that He can swear by.
Remember, Shammah. He was the guy that stood in the middle of a patch of peas and defeated the Philistines.
I'm going to take some artistic license and tell Shammah's story... at least the way I see it... then I'll confirm the principal with some Bible, ok.
Throughout the time of King Saul and much of King David's reign there was war with the Philistines. There was no welfare system like we have today in the western world. Philistine raiders and armies would move in around harvest time and destroy the harvest before it could be taken in, in an effort to cripple the nation of Israel's will to fight. People suffered and starvation was a constant foe. 
I see Shammah, a husband, a father, a farmer, working out in his field with a hoe in his hands. By the sweat of his brow, the strength in his back and the blisters on his hands he raised crops to feed his family and pay his bills. Yet, for how many years in a row, now, did he see the raiders come. How many times did he see the amber fields of hope laid black and low as the clods of the soil. How many times did he walk home with hot tears streaking through the ash on his face not sure if he could find the strength to look into the hungry faces of his children and say there would be not crops again this year.
"I'm just a farmer", he would say, "all I have is this hoe in my hands".
"God, why wont You do something!"
"Don't You see how we're suffering!"
"Don't You even care!"
Yet, another year comes and Shammah struggles to trust a hope. Green gives way to amber in his fields... then... over the bluff the raiders come. There, to the west, where the dust and smoke are rising. A larger party then the years before, and his friends begin to mutter. 
"A few hundred more, I would say", he said and turns to see his friends sprinting for the cover of the rocks.
He runs three full strides of his own before a picture in his mind stops him in his tracks. A picture of his wife, who has stood by him, and their children, who have trusted him with their lives. A still, small voice thunders in his chest," STAND... FIGHT!"
With a sense of God's Presence, he turns to face his attackers and raises his hoe to the ready. The Philistine warriors are baring down and Shammah begins to swing his hoe with all his might. The soldiers begin to fall. It could have been moments or maybe days. Time just stood still. When all fell silent, save for the beating of his heart in his ears, the enemy lay there in heaps on the ground.
.... only a farmer.... only a hoe... we remember him today for the deed he did that day and all shame is gone from him, forever.
In Exodus 4:2 the Lord asks Moses," What is that in your hand?"
"a shepherd's staff," Moses replied.
With that shepherd's staff God lead Moses to confront Pharaoh. When he laid it on the ground it became a snake. When he touched it to the water of the Nile the water became blood. When he held it over the sea it parted and let the people of God cross on dry ground.
Just a farmer...
Just a shepherd...
Just a hoe...
Just a stick...
Who are you and what has God put in your hands?
Don't underestimate who you are. Don't despise what God has put in your hands. Though, today it may seem unbecoming, awkward and out of place "a moment" is coming that will make all that He's invested in you and all that you've endured have meaning and all this shame will be gone from you forever.
He's there, right beside you. No matter what you may be going through. Remember His promises... He's taking you there.