When unexpected circumstances arise, and all that we once knew as constant ceases to be, Jesus has already met the thing head on. Moments before He instructs the disciples to not let their hearts be troubled, His very own spirit was troubled. Same word. Same meaning..."to trouble; to strike one's spirit with fear and dread". Same intensity.
We don't want to see Jesus as someone who experienced "fear and dread", but just because we don't want to, doesn't mean He didn't. The Master's plan called for sin, betrayal, and heartbreak. Something our finite human minds will never understand. But Jesus knew it, and was "troubled in His spirit", yet He walked it out anyway and even promised us peace. He...complete perfection...was about to be stricken, yet promised US peace. What?!?! Through malicious judgements from the world, and doubts from His very own. Thereafter He was able to exhort His people, "Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give to you...let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid...". Why? He tells us in the very last two verses, "...so that the world may know that I love the Father."
Sometimes "doing the hard" takes on a whole new meaning than we ever thought it would. When we're troubled and afraid, because we will be, let's remember His peace that He gives us. Not a trouble free peace, but a peace within the trouble.
“After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me...“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid...the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.” John 13:21; 14:27, 30-31
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Gripped by the old, or set free by the new...
Sometimes the thing doesn't turn out like we had planned in our head or in our heart.
Sometimes the thing is alive and healthy, is suppose to remain that way, yet simply dies. Sometimes the Lord takes the thing and shakes it around quite a bit, then sets it back down in the circumstance in which He chooses. Sometimes when He does that we enter into a spirit of distress.
The thing may be a relationship. The thing may be a ministry. The thing may be a financial endeavor. The thing may be our earthly identity. For certain, the thing has our heart.
Can we remind ourselves that when we cry out to Him in the midst of that distress, He answers us? Can we remind ourselves that if we truly know Him as Savior, He is on our side and there is no reason to fear? (Psalm 16) No matter what the "sometimes" may bring...even if it's a result of our own decisions...it is He who brings it. (2 Samuel 12; Psalm 139:16; Job 1:12) So, we receive it and then do our best to walk the thing out all over again, only a different way this time...resolved to learn all that He wants us to learn.
Right?
Right.
Yet, today my feet didn't necessarily want to walk those words out. Today I initially chose to walk out a little bit of the anger and sadness that has slowly built a fortress around my soul. Things like that, which are not built in a day, are neither torn down within a day.
Even still, I am confident that "...the Lord is on my side as a helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?". And I am also extremely confident that "it is better to take refuge in the Lord...".
Why?
Not because He prevents times in which we need help...we need help. Not because He prevents us from being done wrong...we will be wronged. Not because He prevents storms from overtaking us...they will take us down. BUT...we don't stay down.
Because...HE is our true helper. HE is our true provider. HE is our true protector. Every day. All day. Not INSTEAD of the hard thing...THROUGH the hard thing. Through the anger, through the sadness, through the hurt, through the hard decisions, HE is...everything.
For, without the old hard things of life, the new wouldn't be quite as exciting. So, I will trust our great God and move forward in all of the new He is about to unwrap before us.
Daily striving to no longer be gripped by the hurtful old thing, but to simply be set free by anticipation of the new.
Psalm 118; Job 1:1-12; 2 Corinthians 3; Psalm 16; Revelation 21:5
Sometimes the thing is alive and healthy, is suppose to remain that way, yet simply dies. Sometimes the Lord takes the thing and shakes it around quite a bit, then sets it back down in the circumstance in which He chooses. Sometimes when He does that we enter into a spirit of distress.
The thing may be a relationship. The thing may be a ministry. The thing may be a financial endeavor. The thing may be our earthly identity. For certain, the thing has our heart.
Can we remind ourselves that when we cry out to Him in the midst of that distress, He answers us? Can we remind ourselves that if we truly know Him as Savior, He is on our side and there is no reason to fear? (Psalm 16) No matter what the "sometimes" may bring...even if it's a result of our own decisions...it is He who brings it. (2 Samuel 12; Psalm 139:16; Job 1:12) So, we receive it and then do our best to walk the thing out all over again, only a different way this time...resolved to learn all that He wants us to learn.
Right?
Right.
Yet, today my feet didn't necessarily want to walk those words out. Today I initially chose to walk out a little bit of the anger and sadness that has slowly built a fortress around my soul. Things like that, which are not built in a day, are neither torn down within a day.
Even still, I am confident that "...the Lord is on my side as a helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?". And I am also extremely confident that "it is better to take refuge in the Lord...".
Why?
Not because He prevents times in which we need help...we need help. Not because He prevents us from being done wrong...we will be wronged. Not because He prevents storms from overtaking us...they will take us down. BUT...we don't stay down.
Because...HE is our true helper. HE is our true provider. HE is our true protector. Every day. All day. Not INSTEAD of the hard thing...THROUGH the hard thing. Through the anger, through the sadness, through the hurt, through the hard decisions, HE is...everything.
For, without the old hard things of life, the new wouldn't be quite as exciting. So, I will trust our great God and move forward in all of the new He is about to unwrap before us.
Daily striving to no longer be gripped by the hurtful old thing, but to simply be set free by anticipation of the new.
Psalm 118; Job 1:1-12; 2 Corinthians 3; Psalm 16; Revelation 21:5
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