{"id":1608,"date":"2012-08-15T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2012-08-13T16:42:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T20:42:07","slug":"the-wearing-down-of-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html","title":{"rendered":"The Wearing Down Of The Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever felt so sick and tired of being sick and tired, that you just wanted to give up?\u00a0 When one has been a Christian for a long time, the enemy of our souls knows a frontal attack will not work.\u00a0 So, to discourage and defeat us the devil must become more creative in his ways to torment us.\u00a0 For some the trials will be family relationships or financial situations.\u00a0 For others it may be a combination of physical problems.\u00a0 When the attack come from several directions at the same time it can be nearly impossible to withstand the pressure.<\/p>\n<p>But this I know, I serve a God of the impossible.\u00a0 In Matthew 19:26, it says, &#8220;With men it is impossible; but with God all things are possible.&#8221;\u00a0 I serve a God of faithfulness, in Hebrews 13:5 it says, &#8220;I will never leave thee or forsake thee.\u00a0 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His grace is sufficient for me and His strength is made perfect in weakness.(II Cor.12:9)\u00a0 In II Cor.4:7-9, Paul tells us, &#8220;But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.\u00a0 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;\u00a0 we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We serve an awesome God!\u00a0 There is none like Him in the universe.\u00a0 He is our rock, our high tower, our rear guard, our ever present help in time of trouble.\u00a0 He is good\u00a0 ALL THE TIME!\u00a0 His love is everlasting and unconditional.\u00a0 I often hold on to a quote by Corrie ten Boom while she was in a Nazi war camp.\u00a0 &#8220;There is no pit so deep, that His love is not deeper still.&#8221;\u00a0 When one thinks of what these people endured and still held to their faith,\u00a0 our trials somehow don&#8217;t seem so big anymore.<\/p>\n<p>The only way to prevent the devil from hounding us is to do nothing for Jesus.\u00a0 As long as we just sit on a pew and sing a few songs, he doesn&#8217;t really mind.\u00a0 As long as we don&#8217;t care for others or seek a deeper walk with God, he can concentrate on someone else.\u00a0 But, when we are operating in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, ministering to the poor, praying for the sick, and worshipping our God with high praises; we can expect to come under attack.\u00a0 In fact we must prepare for it by putting on the whole armor of God.<\/p>\n<p>We all face seasons of our life when we feel overwhelmed with our temporal circumstances.\u00a0 But, we know how to fight the good fight and in Ephesians 6:13b we are told, &#8216;&#8230;having done all, to stand.&#8221;\u00a0 When we have done all we know to do in regards to the enemy&#8217;s attacks, then we must stand in simple faith, that God has it all in His control.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever felt so sick and tired of being sick and tired, that you just wanted to give up?\u00a0 When one has been a Christian for a long time, the enemy of our souls knows a frontal attack will not work.\u00a0 So, to discourage and defeat us the devil must become more creative in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,3,14],"tags":[84,19,85],"class_list":["post-1608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-attacks-of-the-enemy","tag-faith","tag-growing-weary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Wearing Down Of The Saints - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wearing Down Of The Saints - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever felt so sick and tired of being sick and tired, that you just wanted to give up?\u00a0 When one has been a Christian for a long time, the enemy of our souls knows a frontal attack will not work.\u00a0 So, to discourage and defeat us the devil must become more creative in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-15T23:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-13T20:42:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Wearing Down Of The Saints - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Wearing Down Of The Saints - Small Town America","og_description":"Have you ever felt so sick and tired of being sick and tired, that you just wanted to give up?\u00a0 When one has been a Christian for a long time, the enemy of our souls knows a frontal attack will not work.\u00a0 So, to discourage and defeat us the devil must become more creative in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html","og_site_name":"Small Town America","article_published_time":"2012-08-15T23:00:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-08-13T20:42:07+00:00","author":"dhanny","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html","name":"The Wearing Down Of The Saints - Small Town America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-15T23:00:02+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-13T20:42:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/#\/schema\/person\/8903397417d1ce94982f0403797aedbe"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/the-wearing-down-of-the-saints.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Wearing Down Of The Saints"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/","name":"Small Town America","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Diane Hanny","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/#\/schema\/person\/8903397417d1ce94982f0403797aedbe","name":"dhanny","description":"john3:16","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/author\/dhanny"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}