IT WAS IN THE HARD PLACE, THAT…

  • Moses Learned God could Open The Red Sea for him as he chose to act upon His Word…
  • Paul learned when God did not remove the painful “thorn,” He imparted “Sufficient Grace,” to empower and sustain him.
  • Job would testify,”Though He slay me yet will I trust Him”-{Job 13:15}
  • Jesus learned when the Father did not “remove this cup” from Him, that Good would come out of the cross…as He promised

And as we read of how HE WAS FAITHFUL to them in the Hard Place, He will be to you also. Whether that means delivering you from the Hard place or sustaining you with His Grace in the Hard Place, know He is the LORD of the hard place as well as the Pleasant places in your life…

He will honor His Word, Empower His servant and we know God works all things for good…” note the promise is.” to those who love God and are the called….”-{Rom 8:28} His Good ultimately to make us more like His Son, in our thinking, and actions…

God is working in the Hard place, not with vindictiveness but with loving purpose for your ultimate good in developing you and displaying Himself to you and through you .. “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.“-{2 Cor 3:2}.

In the fiery furnace the strongest steel is often forged!

In the hard Place, Moses, and the people, Paul, Job, our Lord Jesus all learned of Him in different ways and their lives testify to us from the pages of Scripture and you too in your Hard Place are a Testimony to His deliverance, Sustaining Grace, Good that comes forth not just for you but your life benefiting others as Moses who chose to obey God’s Word benefited multitudes, Paul who showed that God sometimes does not deliver from the hard place but always provides sufficient empowering grace to strengthen us, and our lives can benefit others from that place, even the hard place. Jesus did not come to serve but to serve and give His life a ransom…. in the hardest of all places, abandoned by His father on the cross… His life benefited multitudes including you and me and potentially more through us as we share our lives in and from… the Hard Place.

1.- WHAT TO DO IN THE HARD PLACE?

So, dear beloved, “….And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.”-{Heb 12;1-3 NLT}

The temptation in the hard Place is to become weary, emotionally and physically exhausted, and the remedy is to Consider…. take long look at Jesus. Trust yourself to Him in The Hard Place.

“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good”-{1 Peter 4:19} Note in the hard place entrust yourself to Him, deposit yourself to Him and notice secondly what to do in the Hard Place? “Continue to do good!”

2.- NEVER ALONE IN THE HARD PLACE;

As Messahach, Shadrach, Abednego were not alone in the fiery furnace- the Hard Place-{Daniel 3:16-28}… in The Hard place, they knew and testified God could deliver them but if He chose not to they would not submit to idolatry and God did not save them from the fire, But in the fiery furnace in the HARD PLACE... He Testified to Himself to such an end it spoke to the king… sometime you are in the HARD PLACE For others benefit.

3.- IN THE HARD PLACE FOR OTHERS BENEFIT

Paul said regards his imprisonment,

” I Paul the prisoner of Christ FOR the sake of YOU, Gentiles!” in the Hard Place for others benefit as when he and Silas were in prison and an earthquake came. God did not keep them, SAVE THEM, FROM the earthquake but Sustained them IN the earthquake that the suicidal jailor and his family would be saved as a result of them being… in the HARD PLACE!

You are never alone In The Hard Place! Because Jesus was abandoned on that cross, so that you and I would never be abandoned.. not even in the Hard place. “…God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”-{Hebrews 13:5}

4.- THE HARD PLACE CANNOT SEPARATE YOU FROM THE GOD WHO LOVES YOU!

The Hard place cannot separate you from the Love of God. because God is for you!

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”-{Romans 8:31-39}

The Hard Place is… HARD… but you are never alone, nor without His Word, nor without His Presence, Nor without His Promises, Nor without His Grace… Nor without His Love… for you! And sometimes because you are in the HARD PLACE OR HAVE BEEN IN A HARD PLACE… you can compassionately comfort others in their hard place-{Read 2 Cor 1;3-4;} and be a means to comfort them when they are depressed {Read 2 Cor 7;6} and be the means to share the good news that they come to know and worship the LORD Jesus Christ.

Too often we look at the Hard Place and what it means to Us rather what it means to Him and Others. ISN’T THE FIRST AND GREATEST COMMANDMENT TO LOVE GOD… AND LOVE OTHERS …

I love Phil 1:12 and 1:16 Paul said “I want you to know brothers and sisters that my CIRCUMSTANCES have worked out for the furtherance of the Gospel.’ Though he was shut in, he was not shut out from praying or reaching out to evangelize -{Phil 1:13} or Encourage God’s people to speak the Word of God without fear.. and this he says they did “because of my imprisonment”-{Read Phil 1:14}… His being in the hard place benefited OTHERS… in verse 16 he says he is “appointed for the defense of the Gospel…” The word “Appointed” was used of a soldier strategically placed with a specific assignment. Paul knew that in his circumstances, his HARD PLACE he was Divinely APPOINTED, strategically placed by the LORD, with a specific assignment for the Gospel sake…. as are you and I …in the Hard PLACE! Here for His sake and for Others sake!

The HARD PLACE is not random but under His Control and Has Purpose;

  • The Hard Place cannot separate you from the God who is for you and Loves you!
  • The Hard Place is an opportunity to Know Him Better
  • The Hard Place is an opportunity to Apply His Promises
  • The Hard Place is an opportunity to Testify to Others
  • The Hard Place is an opportunity for Him to display Himself to You and Through you to Others
  • The Hard Place, Sometimes He delivers you from, Sometimes He sustains you in with His Sufficient Grace

May we have a new perspective in and of THE HARD PLACE…”…ourselves your servants FOR Jesus SAKE ” -{2 Cor 4:5}.

God will bring “good” and accomplishes His purposes from The Hard Place, you find yourself in!

Take courage, comfort, In the Hard Place...Jesus is LORD!