Hi. I know I said I’d keep going with Romans 8, but I thought I’d let this all out first.
Stop insisting that your happiness is found in what is dead. Stop feeding what is dead – stop feeding it with your time and your thoughts and your focus. You are dead to sin. Sin has no power over you. Sin is separate from you. It no longer has anything to do with you, and, more important for you to realize, you no longer have anything to do with sin.
You have much more joy to gain, much more fulfillment and contentment to discover in what you have been brought to life into. And you don’t need to feed righteousness – no, as righteousness is unto eternal life, you are the one receiving the sustenance; and this is no ordinary bread, but the Bread of Life that will never leave you, nor will it ever leave you starving.
And you are not merely alive to righteousness – no, it’s righteousness that brought you back to the source of all Life. In other words, you are not merely alive to a concept, but reconciled to the Creator. You are now able to do all things through Christ who strengthens you – by being with you, no matter what.
Once you were without options, without a place or a person to run to. Once you were alone with your anxieties, confused in all you were doing, and unsure of all you set out to do. You were cast down – if not by others, you cast yourself down. You had no peace, nor did you have rest, only fear that wreaks havoc to your heart and mind.
Such was ‘life’ – such was our existence, before we yielded to the Holy Spirit, accepted Christ, and gained access to God’s grace! Now, you no longer have anything to do with sin… and on the other hand, you have God always thinking about you.
Therefore, cast all your cares to Him. Cast all your anxieties to Him, for He is always thinking about you. Commit your works to Him, and your plans shall be established.
Present all your requests to Him in prayer and thanksgiving, and the peace that goes beyond all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Humble yourselves before Him, and He will lift you up in due time. Cast all your burdens upon Him, come to Him, and He will give you rest.
This is a message for me just as it is for anyone else who happens to be reading this. We may have our own struggles and our own issues, with ourselves and with others. We have have hang-ups from our past, worries about the future, and pain in the present.
Through Christ, we do not receive a solution – no, Christ HIMSELF was, is, and will be our Solution, now and forever. We are not necessarily given a one-snap solution and fix to everything as we see fit. We ought to understand that God, in His infinitely superior strength, glory, and wisdom, cares for us and loves us with an everlasting love.
The key word here is ‘everlasting’ – as in, beyond what we see or think, and therefore uncontainable… not meant to be fully grasped by creation, only trusted. Received.
With that said we trust HIM to work in ways we cannot see. We trust HIM for ideas beyond our senses, just as we trust HIM for comfort and, again, peace beyond our understanding.
I just finished working out, and now I’m typing this, all in an attempt to just brute force re-program as much of my being as I can cover, telling myself that I shouldn’t merely be pulling myself out of the darkness, but bounding into the light.
The stakes have never been higher. Things are happening in my own personal life, and in all that concerns me. Things are happening in my city, my country, and in this world. It can all drag me down, and I could simply choose the irresponsible option of ignorance… but praise God, because He says in His word that He gives us a more excellent way.
It’s not giving up on life and ending it all – It’s giving IN to Life, and trusting in the Beginning and the End. It’s relinquishing all assumptions of control, with the purpose of casting all trust and casting all hope unto our Savior.
It’s no longer resisting everlasting love, or taking His grace for granted… but, in the light of all that pain and the stress, it’s letting go, to realize all of Him that we have let in.
I suppose this is what it means, to LABOR to enter into His rest. The ‘labor’ does not involve effort to produce, but the will to relinquish. More pushing things out, than pulling more in. As in meditation, we put all things away, to give all our attention, all we can from all of ourselves to the Truth – that in all things, He is with us.
Once upon a time I used to say that He is with us, even when we don’t realize it – and I still hold on to this as Truth – but, I guess what I’m pushing myself to do today is not to merely acknowledge, but to appreciate it… besides, this is our FATHER we’re talking about!
Father, I’m sorry for taking You for granted, and not giving You the opportunity to minister to me. I’m sorry for being content with all I know about You, and not realizing You’ve done, and are doing so much MORE for me, and for the body of Christ! I’m sorry for insisting in my own standards, for having such a low level of satisfaction and content, when I KNOW that You sent Your Son to set us free for so much MORE!
Father, as we continue down this pathway, and as we continue to exist in this fallen reality, please, PLEASE continue to remind us that by Your Grace, by Christ’s finished work, and by the power of Your Spirit, we are ALIVE in Your everlasting love.
He’s done so much, He’s doing a lot in the present, and He’s certainly set to do a lot in the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years to come. And, sure, this is all so wonderful to take in, and it’s certainly more than enough cause for us to just keep trusting and depending upon Him… but take note that this is our eternal God we’re talking about.
This means that our timeless, eternal Father does things that have eternal implications – making an impact in ALL within and beyond time. And we could take time, thought, and exertion to maybe have a cohesive idea of what any of that actually means, but, again, we’re meant to trust Him more than contain Him.
I speak to myself, and to you, dear reader (thank you for making it this far) – In our struggles, and in our successes and failures, let us keep trusting in the Lord. Let’s keep trusting our Father.
Blessed are those who place their trust in Him. Those who place their trust in Him shall never be put to shame.
Thank You, Father. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit.
Until the next post, be blessed. May the peace of God reign in our hearts and minds. May we find all satisfaction and contentment, all fulfillment in our loving Father. In Jesus’ name, amen, and amen.
Halleluyah.
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