Keeping a "texture of sanity" in an insane world.
Wayne Duncan
Friends one thing that is certain…in this life you will have trials. We will all go through challenging times in our lives.
James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.
He did not say..if you have trial..but when you have trials…I want to ask this question which we will answer at the end .
Why were trials a joy for him?
Not to depress you but there will be times when our circumstances, and the worries of life will feel like they are pressing in on us. These times are certain, and cannot be avoided in the sense that things will come, and trials will come. Sadness and loss will happen. These things take on many forms.
It could be political instability, like our current situation in South Africa, with our president resigning, and the instability and vulnerability that comes with that.
There is living with the threat of crime and violence in our land.
There may be living with the pain of divorce you're going through.
There could be the pain of an unsaved love one.
There could be desperate need or great loss financially.
There could be the devastation of loosing a loved one.
You could be trusting for a miracle in your body.
You could have an uncertain future.
A theology of sanity would be helpful, but we need a secure hope, an anchor for the soul. An anchor that will sustain our hearts and spirits and minds in every situation.
I'm going to try bring light to your life. Point you to one who can lift and carry your load.
Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
So Jesus promised us rest…the question then is how do we enter that rest?
1) Have faith in Gods great love.
If we understand how much God loves us it will change us forever. When we understand that he is our father in heaven. That he loves and cares for us. That no loving father would ever desert a child. No father would let His child go hungry. No loving father would ever leave a child hopeless, He would never abandon His beloved child.
Faith is a big deal in our Christian life. It is a key to many victories. The greatest key to confidence in faith, is understanding His love for us.
2) The gift of righteousness.
There can be few things more reassuring to the heart than to know, we are in right standing with God. This is life and light to the weary soul. When all of life presses in, when all seems dark, we have a place, a shelter where love and warmth and acceptance are guaranteed. It's His great acceptance of us. He will never close His ear to you, he will never look away from you, and never turn you away.
We need not burden ourselves with much work and performance to win approval with God, we have eternal acceptance through Jesus blood.
The tragedy is that in addition to many of life's challenges, many also live with the pain of "trying" to be right with the father. Oh what joy and strength it is to the weary soul to know, "Jesus earned our peace".
3) "You are what you eat".
This point speaks to the feeding of the soul. We are a lot like computers really. If you load a computer game, what will be available for you on the computer?...a computer game.
If you load a virus, what will the computer have?...a virus.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
There are many interpretations around this scripture, but I'm sure we can all agree on this aspect.
If you meditate and fill you head and heart with junk…you will think about junk!
If you fill your heart and mind with goodness, and love, and righteousness, and faith…you will think good thoughts.
So we need to guard what we "feed on". It may be helpful to go on a diet of things that steal your joy. Go on a good news diet. It's not helpful to meditate on all the crime, and killings, and murder in our land. If you meditate on these things you will become depressed, sad. You may even loose your joy.
The enemy would love for us to loose sight of the cross. He would love us to become distracted with the "things of this world"…
II Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
What do you think is the enemy's strategy? How does he want you to feel? What does he want to release in your life?
The answer is fear…when we move into fear, we've moved out of the will of God. We must immediately repent.
Fear is crippling, fear destroys faith. Fear produces nothing good. We can never be in total victory when operating from a place of fear.
God want us to have faith, the enemy wants us to fear.
Meditation on Goodness produces faith, mediation on the bad stuff, produces fear.
Fear is not believing in God.
Not believing in his promises, or his love, or his Fatherhood, or His goodness etc…
All sin is birthed in unbelief.
Which brings me to point 4
4)Repent
Now most of us conjure up pictures of weeping and remorse when we talk about repentance. But repentance for me is a tremendously exciting. Repentance is changing our minds. We repent and change our minds. We must think God thoughts.
Re-again
Pent- penthouse/high places
We must regain the high places. We must change our thoughts, until we think about the situation the way God does.
So I love repentance. Repentance brings much joy and peace.
5) With repentance comes the presence of God. This is so key…so important. His presence has the power to sustain us through anything!
We find the previous points of faith, and "gift of righteousness", and the love of our father God position ourselves for the presence of God…
Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
Repent, throw off unbelief, God is faithful to wipe it away…then comes the glory…the presence.
In His presence is fullness of Joy. In His presence is all you need. It's where you find love…where you find peace…where you find hope. It's the place of miracles and power. The place of divine encounters with a living God. It's the place where everything else becomes insignificant in caparison to Him, and being in Him. Experiencing this refreshing is the nectar of life. It's the sweet spot. It is the only solution for permanent sustained victory over fear, and loss and trials. He has promised to never abandon us, leave us or forsake us.
Friend if you learn nothing else, learn to finds his presence. Unlock that door. The keys are plainly set before you. The gift of righteousness through Jesus, and faith. Now we have confidence before Him.
So throw off the junk, and all that hinders the presence. If it's habits, deal a death blow. If its thinking change it. This is repentance we adjust ourselves, and position our hearts to receive WHAT HE LONGS AND LOVES TO GIVE US.
The great son…"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and the things of this world will become strangely dim, in the light of His glory and Grace"
At the beginning of this preach I asked,
Why were trials a joy for him?
The answer is this. If you consider life, the only place we can find sustained life, and joy and victory is in God. In trials we have no were else to turn but to the father. Here we find all we need. Here we are satisfied. Here is life, and life to the full.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
II Corinthians 1:4He comforting us in all our trouble, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in every trouble, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
II Thessalonians 1:7 and to give rest with us to you who are troubled, at the revealing of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with the angels of His power,
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