04/29/2009
Author: Pastor John Powell
As I come through a period of increased pressure and look at the challenges around us in the world and in our city, I am more grateful than ever that I am connected to Jesus Christ and get my identity and future from Him.
I become more and more grateful that I am not left to myself to figure out how to get value, significance and hope.
Ephesians 1:1-3 reminds me I am chosen before the foundation of the world and that I have been adopted by Him into his family. Before I was able to know or care about Him, “before I was ever thought of”, as my mother used to say, God set His love on me and set me apart to be His child. This gives me more security than I deserve and more confidence than I can ever drum up on my own. I am secure in His foresight and am enjoying the benefits of this insight into His feelings about me. And as I look back in hindsight, I see how He has drawn me with the cords of His love at every turn and at every detour I could have taken.
Hebrews 4:14-16 reminds me I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. God invites me to draw near to the throne of grace to receive the grace for the help I need right now. I remember the days when I didn’t think I could do that. I wondered if God would accept me. But since it doesn’t depend on me or on my ability to please Him now or in the future, I can rest in His grace instead of nervously searching for ways to get His favor and attention.
Romans 8:28 reminds me that He is causing all things to work together for my good. That helps me when people let me down or I get totally surprised by some new challenge or event. When JR had an accident recently and when other financial challenges followed close behind, I took comfort in the fact that He is turning it all to make me look more like Christ. He doesn’t waste anything, does He?
John 15:15 reminds me that He has called me His friend. Abraham was called “the friend of God” because God set His love on him and made a covenant with him to include his family for generation after generation. Then He jumped over the wall and included Gentiles like me. That means Jesus calls me His friend too. I want to be a friend of Jesus. Frankly, I have not been initiated into the world of Facebook and other social networking sites in cyberspace. I know there are benefits. But it breaks down my reticence and resistance when He invites me to be His friend and lets me call Him my friend. I need that.
Philippians 1:6 reminds me that that He who began the good work in me will finish it. I like to finish projects in one sitting whenever I can. I would rather handle things once than have to go back over and over. But to God it is not a waste of time. He works in stages in me and doesn’t leave me and move on to something else. He keeps coming back to refine things over and over, without being bothered by the “lost motion.”
When I get knocked down and pushed back several times in succession and begin to feel dazed, my heart softens and I am reminded to review my identity in Christ. No, I don’t look for trouble, there is no virtue in that. But when trouble comes, I am really happy I can look out to my identity in Christ and what He says about me.
And to top it all off, I remember that Philippians 4:13 says “All I am able in the One enabling me.” No, I’m not superman. I just know I can handle both pressure periods and pleasant days because in Him all the above things are still true about me.
