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Luís Alberto Alves
* Luís Alberto Alves
I chatted with God. I remembered my childhood, when I came to this world in the atmosphere of great misery, with many betting that it would not be more than two life, because of the poverty of my parents.
I remembered the beautiful and wonderful wife that God put beside me. At last of my family, with a stepdaughter whom I consider as my daughter, of my blood. Of the immense joys provided by God in almost 58 years of life, 22 of them in the Lord.
My mind brought up the big companies where I worked, from the reports I wrote that changed projects from ruin to victory, like that of a marketer who would mock in jail because of a judicial error. But my story reversed that picture.
I leaned my head against the wheel and said I was ready for a final outcome. The Lord could take me away. I would not complain about anything. He had gone too far already. I wanted to feel, at that moment, the icy kiss of death.
Mind
We returned to the house and in my mind the Lord was going to pick me up soon. I spent a few days in this expectation: to die! I did not remember that a few months ago a work friend had asked me to do a graphic project.
I called him a few times, but he never got a positive response. I set it aside. Already accustomed to receiving negative feedback. It seems like the days have gone idle. In the services in the church where we congregate, it was inert.
I brought some words, but I felt my feet and hands tied. Not the same resourcefulness as other cults. It was as if he were running with rings on his feet. But I was in church.
In these last months I have heard several prophecies about great miracles that God would accomplish in me and my family. However, focused on the struggle, it did not give due importance. My desire was to return to the job market even at the age of 57.
Money
A few days after the beginning of this month of May, I called my friend who had done a graphic project. He said that my case was serious and for the first time I decided to give up my job of writing reports.
He said he would take any job, even a doorman or a driver. After all, she needed money to help with her living. At last the gale was very strong. I spoke with a pastor about my drama, and he told me that I would find work in my profession!
Already discouraged, for not even God allowed death to come to meet me, I receive a message to attend a job interview. The third in five months! After sending 80 CVs and numerous contacts.
I was aware that God is of the impossible. In a quick, ten-minute dialogue, I received the news that I had returned to the job market. The fight had come to an end. In this period I never complained about God. I just asked Him to do the best for me. Do not be discouraged!
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
In my case it was like this. My friends and business colleagues have disappeared from me. I lost count of the few made and little return I obtained. He spent most of his time reading, cleaning his house, including washing clothes, and taking care of food.
Sometimes I asked God, why this war. In a particular service, as I prayed to the Lord I heard an answer that left my spirit shaken: "You will look for many, but none of them will help you. Only I will help you "!
I came home thoughtful. I understood that all my contacts would be fruitless. My mind was confused. I kept praying. But no company had any interest in my professional experience of about 33 years of road.
One afternoon, while taking my wife to the beauty salon, I waited in the car. I meditated on everything. My marriage, profession, family, projects, finally on various subjects. I remembered where Jesus took me 22 years ago.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
But no one is adolescent or young forever. It's adulthood. Time to put your hands in the dough. To face the world without looking for escape route. Christ did not call anyone just to be a hearer of the Word, but to put his teachings into practice.
Many with more than 40 years of church are still in spiritual adolescence. They say that involvement with the work brings the wrath of darkness. So they prefer to be quiet in the corner. They imagine that the devil will not feel anger at them.
With God's permission, the fight will knock on your door, sooner or later. And when this day comes, it's no use running. It is the face to face with the Lord. Read the story of Job, a righteous and God-fearing man. The end of his life was better than the beginning.
In this war, the Lord will touch the callus that only you know where it hurts. On your Achilles heel. To make you dependent on the power of Jesus Christ. He will not leave your friends close to you, so as not to hinder the process.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
Notice that in childhood and even in adolescence, people only look to the good side of things. Few think of the maid's son, who wears clothes that others gave, study in books donated by someone.
Some teenagers (not all) make their parents a slave. They only ask and when not satisfied, they criticize. They imagine that life is like this. There are only victories, without ever feeling the bitter taste of defeat. It is the ideal world. The same woman without a PMS crisis.
Bringing in spirituality, millions of Christians fit this profile. They are still teenagers in Christ. They only ask and never offer anything to God. They do not even earn a soul on the street where they live or at the school where they study or even at work.
They pray little. They seldom fast and are afraid to intercede for their neighbor. Reading the Bible is rare. Most of the time is spent on the dishes offered by the world, in the form of entertainment offered by the television, internet or world music shows.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
The struggle causes the Christian to be humble, to lower his crest, to leave his pride aside, the arrogance. Unfortunately, many find themselves the best in the world. They imagine that without them, the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be paralyzed. Mistake! It will continue in activity.
God allows us to go through bad days to shape our character. Most Christians live like babies, who without their pacifiers irritate their mothers with crying. We complain a lot about God. We only open our mouths to ask, never to compliment your power.
As we pray, we begin by wanting the Lord to give us money, a new car, a new house, a young husband, a young wife, a job to earn high wages, and a soft life. They do not even sing praises to Jesus Christ. It's as if the Master were our employee.
But the evil day comes to carve a character pleasing to God, not arrogant and overbearing. Even to correct certain wrong postures inside our home with our children, wives or husbands. Nothing better than allowing the fight.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
The Christian feels that he is rotten. Nothing works, even the obvious. Even in this mud, the important thing is to continue praying, seeking God. Filling the spirit of the manna of the Lord. Ignore the contrary advice.
I went through something similar to losing my job at the end of 2017. After paying some debts and those monthly, the money gradually is over. Part of his friends disappeared. Even people whom I helped in the past when it was bad.
The business was so critical that soon enough money was not enough to go to church on every day of worship. To complicate matters, my car almost had the engine blown. He was facing a heavy storm with only his body clothes.
My wife, great woman of God and warrior, always encouraged me. I was trying to throw my morale up. I found cults to go. She would not let him stand still, staring at the effects of the war. For every negative job response, she had something good.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
It is this kind of attitude that God expects of his servants when they are faced with struggles. Jesus does not want you crying, complaining, discouraged and without any attitude. On the contrary, the Lord intends to see him with high morals.
When you get discouraged, nobody gets anywhere. It's the same car in neutral. As much as it accelerates, it will never go forward. But how many Christians act this way? Few! Most run after prophecies pleasing to your eyes.
Do not bend your knees to pray and ask the Lord for discernment. They get nervous, criticizing God, saying that they were abandoned inside the arena with the lions. Feel even the envy of the wicked. They believe they are happy.
The height of the struggle is when we feel that weakness has dominated our body. Even getting out of bed is easy. If no one does not cheer us up, we sleep through the day. Until you stop bathing some people leave.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
*Luís Alberto Alves
Even so, keep praying. It seems masochistic attitude, not looking for suffering but finding pleasure in it. Try to read the Bible a lot, especially Psalms and Proverbs without neglecting the book of Job.
Some will say you've gone crazy. Because he began to pray a lot, attend several vigils, go to the hill frequently, evangelize in the streets and of course, he does not miss a church service, even those where few are present.
By acting in this way, you turned your gaze to God, casting aside the suffering of the struggle. He stopped listening to the indecent proposals of darkness, ignored the past, but focused on the future, knowing that the Lord will bring you the best.
It's just like the driver whose car fell in the quagmire. He sought help and pushed the car, even muddy, out of the place. He was not crying, if he thought he was the worst of people and afraid to stain his muddy clothes.
*Luís Alberto Alves é pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
It's not easy. It is the phase of looking at photographs. Meditate on every moment. The mood of nostalgia invades his reason. Everything is motive to try to show that at that time, far from Christ, the problems were easily solved.
Some people used by the enemy appear to say that not everything Jesus solves. There are things we ourselves have to do. Of course, the possible; now the only God impossible to solve. You keep being thrown everywhere.
For some time, we come to believe that the past was actually better than the present, which we are immersed in the war. The next day is always source of something better or even worse, depending on what we are waiting for.
At this stage, few friends are by your side. It's no use calling the cell phone that soon falls into the mailbox or the message left in WhatsApp will never be read. Even part of the family will go out of your way to make it worse.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
At this stage, your mind goes screw. Imagine someone in a marriage that is on the verge of death, hearing that it is best to look for someone else, ignoring children, heritage built together, finally a life.
Even slangs are used in this hour, like "the line walks," "stop working in cold iron," etc. The process seems to show that God has forgotten you. When watching television programs, the reports show that it is best to give up.
His insistence, for some people, will pass the image of stupidity or fanaticism. Instead of hearing words of encouragement, only jets of cold water appear. Everything, during this process, will walk to this side.
Soon depression and apathy cling to you. Nothing looks good. Not even the beautiful sunny days. Everything is darkness. The enemy, at this stage, seek to pull you into the past, with the lie that there happiness existed.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
The main item to win fights is to acknowledge our inability and let Jesus take command of the boat. Give up stubbornness. Stop being rebellious. Recognize that in the spiritual world, only the Lord has dominion.
Make it clear when you pray that that problem is for Jesus to solve. Do not be proud, trying to give a brave, that is able to turn around without help from Christ. If you keep thinking this way, you'll soon break your face.
It's hard to throw in the towel. Our carnality is against this kind of attitude. We think we can do it all. To complicate matters, the enemy will tell you that God has abandoned you and does not hear any of your requests and suggests that you leave the church.
At this hour, the evil one will use people, even of his conviviality, to say that it is best to change plans. If you have no job, they will tell you to change jobs. The advice, always, is to throw you down, never up.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
The secret is to pray without ceasing. But how to act like this when trouble presses us on the wall at all times? When do we feel that we are useless, since we do not even have the means to work? Words rise from the lips because of despair.
At the height of the struggle, already weak, we begin to speak disconnected words. Because it is no longer possible to find phrases that, in our opinion, sensitize the Lord. At this stage it is normal for the appetite to go away. The gravity of the problem takes the place of hunger.
As spiritual as we are, it is difficult not to look at what torments us at that moment. We try to think of God. He will come to our rescue and the agony will cease. It's the same when the dentist says we will not feel pain.
We are flesh. No Christian is super man or super woman. There are barriers that we can not overcome. Unfortunately some evangelical churches repeat the mantra that next to Christ, we will never have problems. Just victories.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
You go to church and at the time of the offer the shame appears before you. Soon, the rest of the brothers will realize that there is no money in their hand. The broth seems to thicken every day. Even the family relationship shakes.
As much as love is beautiful, when money is lacking at home to buy food and pay the bills, the dialogue is scratched. After all, no one lives on the breeze. Companies must receive the product that has come into their hands.
In these moments even to pray we encounter difficulties. What to speak to God, if He has knowledge of everything we've been through, before we even say anything? Suffering increases. Because as humans we are not ice.
What to do? Live within the church? Set up a tent on the hill and stay there? Running through the streets, like someone who has lost his mind and plunged into madness? Anyway, what is the tactic to face fights?
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
My brothers and sisters, I am aware of what I write and speak. In almost 22 years of new life with Christ, I have been through terrible fights. I confess that sometimes I prayed to the Lord in the cold wind of death, such was the battle.
It is not easy, for example, to lose your job when your age is over 55 and you have family to care for. You notice the money fading slowly from the checking account, with nothing coming in. The weather gets heavy, because spending cuts are needed.
He sends numerous CVs and no company responds to him. When you are invited to interview, your experience is detrimental because you want to hire someone who does not have much mastery, of course to be easily manipulated.
Your mind seems to be in the process of exploding. Sleep disappears and insomnia becomes a traveling companion. Even alongside loving wife or spouse, the business not easy to digest. Everything is a barrier to jump from the boat of Christ.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
* Luís Alberto Alves
No one likes to fight, especially when he is a Christian. They believe that with Jesus everything is only victory, shade and fresh water. Many, out of lack of understanding, when they feel this wind, leave the church, cursing God.
Who's to blame? From the Lord, you can be sure that it is not. He is supreme. The lack of spiritual maturity contributes to these attitudes. Equally rebellious baby we decided to criticize Jesus for not fulfilling our desires.
It is not easy to face wars. These are moments that we think are abandoned. Lie! At this hour, the Lord holds in our hands not to fall on the ground, wipes the tears from our eyes and calms our soul.
Mainly the terms long walk ahead. Tired of fighting, we feel like throwing everything up and returning to the sewer from where Jesus Christ one day rescued us to feel the sweet taste of abundant life.
* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor
