Mitchell Swaback Charities

Volume 90 • January 1, 2012

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Confidence In God

²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God ²¹fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³But the words “it was counted to him” were not just written for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also . . . — Romans 4:20-24a

Are you a doubting person? Doubt is a lack of confidence or assurance that God will keep His promises, and for the Christian it is a very dangerous attitude. I mean, if you don’t have confidence that God will keep His promises, what do you have?

God has promised to provide for us. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” No, no—maybe God won’t provide for all of my needs. Maybe I’ll end up poor, and even destitute. That is doubt.
God has promised to protect us. Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed . . . This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.” But maybe He won’t protect me, you think. Maybe something awful is going to happen. That’s doubt, too.
God has also promised to prosper us—though, as some are quick to add, that doesn’t necessarily mean financially. But, Psalm 84:11 says, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” But, what if . . . That’s doubt, for sure.

All three of these promises, along with hundreds of others, are signed by God Himself. Why does doubt come so easily?

Doubting is contagious. It’s easier to catch than the common cold. You’ll “catch” it surrounded by people whose lives are filled with doubt.
Doubting is passive. Faith requires action; doubting does not. Nobody ever wakes up in the morning and says, I bet today’s going to be a great day for doubting. Doubting is what takes over when you do nothing.
Doubting satisfies our tendency toward self-protection. Nobody likes to be wrong. What if I step out in faith and trust God for great things, and then nothing happens? I’m going to be disappointed. But you are disappointed because of your doubt.
Doubters are easier to find than friends of faith. How many real, genuine friends of faith do you have? I mean, people who speak the Word of God into your life and fire you up spiritually?

In spiritual matters, doubting is death--plain and simple.

Ask God to grow a heart of faith in you, because you can’t do it on your own. Remember that faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). Go to Him humbly as the disciples did, and say, Lord, increase my faith!

—James MacDonald

For more from James MacDonald and the "Walk in the Word" Bible teaching ministry, visit WalkInTheWord.com

Mitch's Journal

Saturday 3/13/2004

This morning we lost our game by two points, we were down by 21 points with 10 minutes to go, I hate losing.

God taught me today that when we have our quite time with Him we need to be completely focused on Him. Put all other ditstractions aside and have it be just you and God. We can be distracted so easily, we have to pray that God will clear our minds when we get into His Word, one on one … The weirdest thing just happend! You callled but it didn't ring it went right to voice mail. This is God giving me no interruptions when having my quite time.

News Highlights

New Harvest Compassion Center Logo & Website Pages

December 31, 2011

MSC is excited to announce the unveiling of our NEW Harvest Compassion Center Logo and website pages. We’ve gotten everything in place and would like to invite you all to take a look: www.harvestcompassioncenter.org.

The new pages showcase the HCC’s new logo, volunteer and food drive information and how to become a Compassion Partner. A few of our faithful volunteers are also highlighted as they wrote testimonials saying why they chose to serve and get involved with the HCC. We live in a society that is self-focused, asking the question, “What can someone do for me?” When we should be doing the opposite! What can I do for someone else, even if it’s a complete stranger, can I really be of any help? YES, you can! Join forces with MSC and the HCC today and start making a difference! If you have any questions about becoming a Compassion Partner, volunteering at the HCC, and/or hosting a local food drive please contact Nicolee Thompson at nthompson@msfcares.org. Thank you!

MSC Review of 2011

December 31, 2011

As we take a look back at 2011 and share some of the things MSC has accomplished, we know that none of this would be possible without the help of our donors and volunteers. The economy has been sluggish for the last three years, people are hurting, many have no jobs, ...