Galations 2: 20 NKJV
Sometimes I forget. I'm not all that old, but at times my memory fails me. Don't get me wrong, I know what is good for me, but at times we all forget these things. I'm not above reminding myself now and then of who I am inside. Each day we might bounce from one trial to another, while all the while our stress level skyrockets. Well, I'm here to tell you friend, it doesn't need to be that way at all. See, this should never be our very first reaction to the trials we face. However, sometimes we forget. When the swirling storms and trials of life come knocking, it should not be in our nature as lovers of Christ Jesus to revert back to our old ways of panic and fear. For it was not a spirit of fear which Jesus left us with {2 Timothy 1:7}. If there is one thing I am well familar with...it is fear. However, were I to break down each and ever fear I have ever had, the fear of the unknown would be the common factor of them all. Fear of heights, fear of being seen as inadequate, etc. I'm guessing that most of our fears can all be broken down into this simplest of forms. What is it that we are afraid of? All too often I am left in anxiety over what may occur in the near future. Now, I can't see the future, but there is one who can. It is Christ Jesus who proclaimed we should not be anxious about anything {Matthew 6:25}. It is also Christ who lives through us today {Galations 2:20}. We who follow Jesus do not have a spirit of fear, but the living Spirit ofChrist Jesus. What have we to fear?
33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 33 - 39 NKJV
Yes, sometimes I forget. When the storms and trials of everyday life come upon us, I all too often forget just who I really am. In these times, my default reaction becomes one of worry and anxiety. That very same reaction which Christ Jesus told us to avoid. After all, who is it that in control of all that I see? It certainly isn't me. Any semblence that I am in control of my own destiny is linked to the lie which satan told to Adam and Eve at the fall. No, for all intents and purposes, I am stripped naked of any and all independence in my life. It is my heavenly Fathers creation which I see when I awake in the morning, and His creation which I see just before I sleep at night. Indeed, there is nowhere I can go where He is not beside me. Knowing this, what situation is there where Christ is not playing a key role in my life. He was there from the begining {John 1:2}. It would be foolish of me to think that I could somehow be seperate from Christ if only for a moment. One moment for me to contemplate a better path than He ever could? One moment to brush aside the best friend and advocate I could ever have? The bigger question I need be asking is simply, who am I without Jesus? Of course, I already know the answer. For without Christ I am nothing. Simply a human form with a expiration date, and nothing else. As the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, there is nothing which will ever seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. I may give in to my fears from time to time, but that does not change who I truly am in Christ, only that I need a reminder now and then.
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment