Complete Trust

 

A man came to Jesus for healing; but knowing his human soul, he honestly admitted, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:23-25). Trusting in a Being, which we cannot see, is a bit overwhelming, especially as a new Christian. The secret lies in realizing that Christ lives IN us, and we function through His faith, His desire and His ability (Galatians 2:20). God has a special calling for each of us (Ephesians 2:10).

Therefore, we imitate Christ and do the works, which He did (1 Corinthians 11:1).  Surrendered to God’s Spirit, we live in serenity even through life’s negative circumstances. Depending on Jesus for everything in our life, we trust Him to know what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Our union with Christ eliminates the stress of life. Born Again Saints, who live in stress, are not living a surrendered life.

Like Christ, we receive our life from God. God reconciles us to Himself. Then, we surrender our life back to Him and walk in His resurrection power. God does not renew our life so that we can pursue our carnal dreams, but in order for us to live in His will (Ephesians 2:10). We are freed from the death of sin to surrender our life to God (2 Timothy 2:15). We have the life of Christ filling our entire being.

God perfects everything, which pertains to us (Psalm 138:8; Philippians 1:6). We can trust in His unchangable nature (Malichi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Like Jesus, we commune with our Father and we live in obedience to His Spirit’s guidance each moment of the day. We do this through the anointing of Christ IN us. As we enter into His rest, we abide in the perfect faith of Christ, completely trusing in God’s faithfulness (Hebrews 10:4: Galatians 2:20).

Prayer:

Father God, we have confidence in Your will for our life. We are not sufficient in ourselves to accomplish anything on our own. Our adequacy comes only from You. You make us competent ministers of Your gospel message, mercy, grace and truth. We do not minister by the letter of the law, because legalistic adherence kills; but Your Spirit gives us life (2 Corinthians 3:4-6).

Thought for the Day:

Trust in the Lord with every fiber of your  being, and do not rely on your own plans. - Proverbs 3:5-6

Hey, I'm Suffering Over Here!

 

Are you hurting right now, either physically, spiritually, emotionally or mentally? What happened? Who brought this pain and suffering into your life? Do you feel as if life is no longer worth living, or that there is no hope for you or that you are all alone and nobody cares about you? Do you want to end your life, because you see no way out of your predicament? We often suffer at the hand of an evil perpetrator that inflicts his/her selfishness on a family member, a friend or on us personally.

You may wonder why God would allow us to suffer? Well, have you tried asking Jesus to forgive your sins and then totally surrendering your life to Him? Your life will not turn around immediately, because you will still reap the consequences of your past behavior. However, as you start to sow good seed into the Holy Spirit, nurtured soil of your new life in Christ, you will see His benefits and blessings filling up every portion of your spirit, body and soul – your mind, will and emotions.

Many times we even suffer, because we are reaping the results of our own poor choices. We may suffer from debt, fear of financial collapse, unstable emotional relationships, physical ailments or wounds inflicted on us by some one or some force in this tragic, sinful world. God often uses suffering to draw us closer to Him, or to keep us from wandering back into a sinful lifestyle (Job 23:10). If we suffer according to the will of God, because we are Christians, we can commit our body, soul and spirit to God’s safe care, because He is our faithful Father (1 Peter 4:19).

If we choose to live according to God’s Word, then He will protect us from much of life’s suffering (Psalm 119:67, 55:7). We will have the same testimony as the three young Hebrew men facing the fiery furnace; or Job, when he lost his wealth, family and health in a brief instant of time (Job 13:15; 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 12:1; 2 Corinthians 4). When we fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, we draw closer to Christ’s resurrection power in our life, even if we are put to death as He was (Philippians 3:10).

Have you ever noticed that you spend more time in prayer during bad times than during the good times? We forget to praise the Lord for His blessings, but we certainly have a great deal to say when something goes wrong in our life. However, if we turn our tragedy into an opportunity to seek God and pray, He will most assuredly deliver us (Psalm 50:15). We will also see the fruit of His Spirit manifested in our life, as we are refined by these fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12).

Prayer:

Father God, we want to bring glory to Your name. Sometimes, You use our suffering to spur us to live as a testimony to the world around us. We are living examples of the fact that You will sustain and deliver Your Saints through every trial and tribulation (John 9:3). Remind us to look to the eternal consequences of every situation, because the aspects of this world are simply temporal and fleeting (2 Corinthians 4:18). Thank You for comforting us in all of our trials, and help us to share this same comfort with others who are going through similar circumstances (2 Corinthians 1: 4-5).

Thought for the Day:

Our suffering in this world will provide for us an exceptionally, enormous, eternal compensation in Heaven. – 2 Corinthians 4:17