Life is ups and downs. Do good. Do bad. You run into the ills of life somewhere along the road. But those of us who believe in Jesus and turn to do his commandments gain a faithful friend who helps us as we struggle with living. He faithfully promises, “call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory” (Psalms 50:15), in Isaiah 46 verse 4 “I will sustain you and I will rescue you”. He also says in, Matthew 28 verse 20 that he would be with us until the very end. A promise many in this life will testify is true.
To tell a little story; my life used to be full of anxiety and indecision. Artistic and love writing, but underneath I was a nervous wreck who would fall apart for no reason at times. Along the road of life, I met Jesus, who called on me to see there was a better way, the way I had walked away from to walk in the ways of the world. He was willing to show me the better way as long as I was willing to go back to living. I was willing because He was willing. It wasn’t easy and it still isn’t, but the life I left behind had the same ills without Jesus.
Because I was willing to believe and pay attention, the Lord taught me how to live. More important He changed me, and I began to see that some of my down moments in life are because I would rush things and at times be unwillingness to stop – we all do it. People being people, we say. When we have a willingness to listen to Jesus, we know we can “cast all our cares on him because he cares about us”, 1st Peter 5:7. When the Lord takes our cares and pains from us we allow him to lead. When Jesus leads we only need to go our way and live how we are advised by scripture (The Bible).
One of the most amazing things about Jesus is His patience with us. When we believe in Jesus and express our faith, we become new people from the inside out; new way of thinking. New way of seeing things. New fruits of the heart to choose from. In giving ourselves to learning the way of the Lord by reading the Bible, prayer, and living our new lives, we learn the delights of the word of God, even those written in Matthew Chapters 5 – 7
Blessed are the poor in spirit
blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are you who hunger and thirst after righteousness
Blessed are you who are merciful
Blessed are you who are pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness sake
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
Do not judge or you will be judged
One of the changes that takes place as we learn the word of God is that we understand what it means to go boldly to God in prayer. Asking for things that are according to the will of God. Of course, nothing happens overnight; particularly for me, since I tend to be a lot slower than most. But as we live this new life and this new way of thinking a new confidence develops. We learn to trust the Lord, and in so doing to trust the things we’re doing, to Jesus.
God counsels us through His Spirit about many things. It is like constantly being able to draw from the wisdom of the ages, to understand why the people of God from the old days spoke the way they spoke and trusted Him the way they did. As we grow in wisdom we also grow in love, which is the rule the Lord wants us to live by. Love, above everything else. To put away our fast life for trust and peace. To give up doing and learn the right way, according to the Lord.
I can’t tell you I have life under control. Not even close, because this life is not an overnight life. This life is a ‘for the rest of our lives’ commitment that requires our decisions and determination to live it. The value we put on trusting in the Lord and His righteousness instead of what we believe we know would be far to small. To see the truth, you would need to live in Jesus and be able to look back a year or two and see where the Lord carries you; those who measure what the Lord does for them by money miss the point of this life, because money is nothing compared to the presence of Jesus Christ. That was probably the first sobering truth I had to come to terms with.
The other was as simple as it was difficult because I’d grown up believing I had to put my back into it and get it right. The truth is when we “submit (give) ourselves to the Lord” and resist the temptations that used to trap us, as written in James 4 verse 7, the better our outcomes. I have learned over the course of the last five years that it is better to trust the Lord and seek out the commandments because when we are saved, we are able to do wonderful things that we could not fully do on our own.
In Christ, I have learned that the way I see things sometimes needs adjustment to my understanding of the will of God. What matters is trusting our paths and outcomes to the Lord and being thankful for the way He leads us, because there is greater victory than trusting the Lord. In submission, I have learned how important the words; “Not my will, Lord, but your will be done” are to a happy healthy life.
My walk with Christ has been sobering and eye-opening. I’ve seen my past life for what it was and was led to repentance and freedom, which is truly humbling. I’ve given my pains to Jesus because I came to understand what this life is truly about. I have been able to let go of a lot of things and forgive a lot of things, and grow past who I once thought I wanted to be. I have learned that confidence in Christ brings health and real freedom. I also learned that Love is a gift of God through His Holy Spirit in Jesus and that it is one of the answers I spent my whole life searching for. My walk in Jesus Christ gave me a different humility than what I thought being humble was. All those pieces I thought were missing from my life, I can see them coming to me with every bit of maturity. Even now with my incomplete self, I am complete in Jesus Christ, which is the greatest feeling in the world.
My testimony to you is that testing the spirit of Christ and searching him out is the greatest adventure you will find on earth – forget every excuse and turn to Jesus if you are moved to do so. The Lord has testified in Psalms 103 verse 12 that “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” So you don’t have to worry about your past wrongs or pain or shame. God has forgiven us, which is part of His grace because of His love toward us. You don’t have to work for it, you don’t need to achieve forgiveness; in fact there’s nothing we can do to earn salvation – we only believe in Jesus and accept salvation. Only believe in Jesus Christ and “confess with your own lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior” Romans 10 verse 9. This is why Jesus testifies in John 3 verse 16 that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. That is how simple God makes it for us to be saved. Believe in Jesus.
That is our calling to walk with Jesus Christ. In Christ is life, real life. Freedom, real freedom. Freedom from your anxieties (I testify), freedom to live according to the life God has planned when he made our people – because the Lord is Love and the chain breaker who invites us to freedom in Jesus Christ. A wonderful life worth living.
