Taking Your Stand: Positioning Yourself in God's Grace When Life Hurts

By Juan Lecuona

Anxiety, doubt, and suffering can overrun your life—but if you stand up in faith and open your heart to God’s work, then he can transform even your most difficult circumstances.

Taking Your Stand explores the timeless truths recorded in the beginning of the book of Habakkuk, an account often overlooked but filled with lessons about finding hope, peace, and contentment.

Delving into stories found throughout the Bible and drawing from the author’s personal testimony, this book reveals how God can use your hardships to teach you, to grow your faith, and to reveal himself to you and those around you.

Don’t let fear or hardship defeat you; let Taking Your Stand guide you into a new assurance that the Lord God, the Creator and your personal savior, is working his purpose in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973666981

Juan Lecuona

Juan M. Lecuona has one passion: dynamically communicating the Bible’s eternal truths in a fresh, creative, and contemporary way. He travels extensively to teach and minister in churches throughout the USA and Mexico, and he is currently a member of Iglesia Biblica Juriquilla in Queretaro, Mexico. Juan is seeking to further his outreach by acquiring a Master of Arts in Theology, building on his theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. You can access his blog in both Spanish and English by going to www.chacho.org.

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Copyright © 2019 Juan Lecuona.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-6697-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6699-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6698-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908449

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/27/2019

Contents

Introduction

God Is on the Move

Questioning Your Situation

My Elohim

Taking Your Guard Post

Faithfully Wait for Its Completion

God’s Appointed Time

Epilogue

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quoted by permission. Scripture quotations marked (NET) are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

TO

GOD, for continuously pouring grace

upon grace when I do not deserve it, but I desperately needed it.

MAMA TENCHA, Thank you for paving the way for me to follow the One true God. Your relentless sacrifice for the cause of Christ has become my role model. You are the living example of what loving, serving, and obeying God means. Thank you for deciding to accept me in your life as your son. My life is better because of your unending love for me.

MAMUCHA, Without your constant support, and a clear example of generosity, I would not have reached where I am. Thank you for deciding to love me and invest in my life. I did not deserve you as a mother; however, God in His Grace allowed me to be your son.

"Let us live in the ineffable reality of God’s grace, clinging to it one day at a time."

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A late-night, fervent, unrelenting knocking at the door awakens you from your sleep. It is your friend and she needs you to help her out with a situation. Bleary-eyed, you tell her to come back tomorrow. But, she won’t relent. She shamelessly persists, knocking until you give her the help she needs.

Jesus, when speaking to his disciples about prayer tells a version of this story to demonstrate a promise to His people. He promised that if they searched and knocked, and did so without reprieve, they will find God. This is the foundation of Taking Your Stand: finding God in the most difficult circumstances and realizing He is ready and willing to answer the door. Sometimes, though, we need help finding that door.

There are times in our life when our entire existence is baked in doubt, pain, and struggle. Today, in the western world, we do everything we can to remove these sentiments from our experience, seeking out all methods of intervention to eradicate any kind of grief as quickly as possible. We avoid and deflect internal and external conflict to remain in false comfort. It is understandable, but it is not God’s way of developing character in his disciples.

What if questioning and doubting were not a symptom of a problem, but were a part of the journey in our faith? What if by confronting our doubts, instead of constantly pushing them aside, we discover a deeper knowing of God? What if the suffering we endure does not culminate in the darkness, but instead it leads us to experience the light and love of God?

As a domestic and international pastor and leader, I have seen the darkness that can grip humanity. I have witnessed and experienced deep suffering and encountered grave injustice. I find myself often left with two questions: Why is this happening? and What can we do about it?

What I have also seen is healing. I have seen the broken become whole, the forgotten found, and the captive set free. I have seen God’s redeeming love and power, the same love and power expressed in Israel and throughout the Old Testament. I have been witness to this redemption in the author of this book, Juan, where in bearing the scars of suffering and doubt, he found healing and freedom.

I met Juan when he served at our church, developing as a leader of people and a follower of God’s purpose and ways. I saw transformation take place, healing take hold, and a strength in him that was forged through fire.

In this book, Juan candidly confronts his struggles from a place humility and practical insight, providing a blueprint for those of us who are looking to experience God’s healing. He does so by taking us through a biblical framework of a story and prophecy spoken to Israel, and shows us just how relevant it is today. Juan weaves this prophecy into his lived experience and presents a pathway to light and freedom.

Do not mistake this book as an exhortation or an analysis of a section in the Bible. Juan gives practical steps and practices so you can quickly embark on your own journey to wholeness. He paints an enlivened relationship with God. There is hope when the doubts keep piling up. There is hope when it seems like suffering has no end. There is hope because of the struggle, not in spite of it. As you read, you will find encouragement and a renewed desire to continue the journey. In the following pages, you will uncover a path towards vulnerability and patience, and you will be shocked and full with joy from the kind of fruit that it yields.

Jeremy Pleasant

Senior Pastor, Vineyard Church Baton Rouge

Haiti Partnership Leader, Vineyard USA

Introduction

A Call for Help

How long, O Lord, will I call for help…

— Habakkuk 1:2a

When you look at the state of our society, you can’t help but see the chaotic situation our generation is facing. With depression, mental illness, and epidemics on the rise, with countries caught up in wars or swamped with debt, it’s hard not to worry. Even in developed countries, finances are crumbling and political chasms are widening. Since the end of 2009, the European debt crisis has been affecting economies throughout the European Union, and unemployment rates have skyrocketed. According to Reuters, one out of two young Spaniards were out of work in 2015.

Our sense of security is battered. I grew up in a time when it was safe to play outside with the other kids in the neighborhood. During the summer, we would spend the whole day playing unsupervised until dinner was ready. Now, few people dare to let their kids play outside unattended for hours on end. This protectiveness stems from the increase of dangers we see all around us, and uneasiness seems to permeate all areas of our lives.

Society is failing—it has been since the Fall of Man in Eden. Sin has distorted reality into something that was never intended for our world. It’s easy to blame the all-powerful God for not fixing everything wrong with the world, but evil has always come as the result of a choice. Genesis 3 shows how sin polluted the world. God placed Adam and Eve in a marvelous haven where all their needs were satisfied. They were given the entire earth as a gift, to fill it with their own kind and to enjoy its beauty and wonders (Genesis 1:28). Even though Adam and Eve walked with God in person and lived in an idyllic state, they chose to commit sin against God, so it’s little wonder that their offspring spiraled downward rapidly. One of their sons killed his own brother out of jealousy, and the further we read in the biblical account, the more violence and wickedness occur, until evil ruled every action of mankind. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

The problem is not that God does not care or that we have the choice between good and evil. The root of all problems, in society and in our lives, is disobedience to God’s instructions. Trouble only came into our world when Adam and Eve acted against the command God had given them: to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent convinced Eve to disobey God’s instruction, and her husband chose to disobey as well. There is no way to blot out the works of disobedience on earth until Christ returns and the Kingdom of God is established in entirety. Then, those who chose disobedience will be expelled from among those who have chosen obedience (Matthew 25:31–46).

While we wait for that time, we are still surrounded by a seemingly endless array of horrible things going on in the world.