Ok. So it’s January. It’s cold. It’s wet. It gets dark early. We’re in lockdown again. It’s Monday, and here comes Kev with a cheery thought – “Don’t waste your sufferings” 🙈 Stay with me folks. This could be invaluable
I was chatting with a friend this morning about how God uses stress, pressure, adversity and problems to help shape our lives and character. Walking with Jesus was never meant to guarantee us freedom from the problems that everyone else faces. If it did, people would be lining up in droves to become Christians for entirely the wrong reasons. Christianity would be the best insurance policy on the planet.
Jesus is our Saviour, not our Insurance Broker. He came to do something far deeper for us than to simply scoop us up and cosset us for the rest of our lives. We needed saving – from ourselves, from the power of Sin over us, from the clutches of a truly awful and evil enemy who is sinking fast and was determined to take us down with him.
We need to walk in a continuous process of salvation that sets us free from our old ingrained habits of thinking and acting that threaten to put ugly blots all over the brand new picture Jesus is creating with our lives. Jesus was my Saviour 2000 years ago when He died for me on the cross. Jesus was my saviour 42 years ago when He entered my life. Jesus is my Saviour every day as He changes me bit by bit into His likeness.
I know I need to change. I know there are bits of me that are definitely not like Jesus. I know too that I have changed, but there is more work to be done. It’s a funny thing but the process of change is sometimes difficult or even painful, but afterwards, looking back, there is no way that I would want to undo the change. There are times when I find myself digging my heels in, pretending to be deaf to God. There are internal conversations with God that go a little bit like this: “no? seriously? you can’t mean me? that’s not really a problem for me…..well ok, but just a little tiny problem…..can we not deal,with that later….?” How God must chuckle to Himself as He gently but determinedly moves me step by step closer to being like Jesus. “This is for your own good son” (or daughter). And it is. And after change has happened, I am the first to agree with Him!
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3v18
This verse talks about us being transformed bit by bit with ever increasing glory, so that we become more and more like Jesus (this is true for all of us by the way, not just a few special people). You are being changed. You look less like the old ‘you’ that you were before you met Jesus, and you do look more like Jesus. You are more glorious than when you started out on this road. My friend that I was talking to this morning had rung me up yesterday to tell me how much she realised she had changed since becoming a Christian- and she has. It is so encouraging to see. She wasn’t boasting, she was stating a fact – what Jesus has already done in her life. Sometimes we compare how we are today with how we were yesterday at half past four and we get discouraged because we see little difference. The truth is we are in this for the long haul, for the rest of our lives. Try looking at how you are now compared to how you were 5 years ago and be encouraged. Try encouraging others on the same basis….. “you have really changed over the years I have known you; I can see Jesus at work in your life…”
I started by saying that we all have to walk through life the same as everybody else. We are not exempt from life’s troubles. God is not the author of those troubles, but He is very good at using them to stretch us and change us. These are opportunities that He doesn’t miss!
If God sees stress, pressure, adversity and problems as opportunities, why don’t I? This is ‘training for reigning’. There is no Kingdom without a Cross – and as Derek Prince famously said, “the Cross is where His will and my will cross”.
We are facing all kinds of pressures and adversity at the moment and God would like to use these things to shape and sharpen us. In a sense He is planting seeds in us now that will grow into beautiful and powerful aspects of our character in the future. Let’s not waste our sufferings. The truth is that these are precious moments.The truth is…
….God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Philippians 2v13
It’s interesting that the next verse says “do everything without complaining and arguing…” ! Let’s not waste our sufferings.
Just a reminder; quite a number of churches have started 21 days of 24/7 prayer for this nation – from today till the end of this month. If you can remember in these days to pray for an end to Coronavirus, an end to lockdowns, for the enemy’s schemes to unravel, for revival in the UK and beyond and for God to move in us and in His church – that would be great. These are challenging days but precious days too as we get to pray for our future. (see my last blog for more details)
Lastly, there is a comments section at the end of this post (it says leave a reply) feel free to leave a reply at the bottom of this page if you would like to.
Church is out there 