"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Revelation 12:11
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
If you've followed me on these devotions, my blog, or any other video, you would know that lately the message the Lord has for me is Unity. It is so unfortunate that our lack of biblical understanding causes us to succumb to anger, jealousy, outrage, and so many appropriate emotions used inappropriately because we do not rely on Jesus, but instead rely upon our own insecurities and dependency on feelings. There is a lot to be upset about. War, famine, murder, injustice. Very appropriate things to be upset about, but we follow these instead of the ONE who will see them all ended. We shall, all of us, stand before our creator some day. And we either shall be judged based upon reliance on Jesus or reliance on self. Personally, I would never take my chance with the second one...it has led me to too many dark places that I wish never to return to. This being said, our words and actions have power: life and death.
We can continue the cycle of death by being like the world, or we can submit our anger, our tiredness, our hurt and outrage to the ONE who will dispense all justice. As we look to the Word for our inspiration, let us recall that not once do we see Christians slandering one another for any purpose, but we do see church fathers telling us these behaviors are opposite of God's design. We do not see Christians rising up, but we do see them radically loving those persecuting them, and the world changing as a result: Empires have come and gone, but the Word of Truth in the Spirit of love remains. So let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Use His word to make our gaze immovable, not letting outrage, or pain, or anger remove our eyes from Him for one instant. Let us instead, when the world troubles us, throw ourselves upon Him, relying on Him. In this way, since He has overcome, we too are overcomers.
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