When it boils right down to it, either we are going to believe that Jesus Christ is the answer or we’re not. He is the answer to all our questions and the solution for all our problems. All the situations of life will mirror how much of this truth regarding Christ and his power we believe in our hearts and minds. Our lives are going to follow what we believe. This is why God tells us in Proverbs 4:23(NKJV), “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” To keep our hearts is to pray robustly and to keep watch that no negativity grips us while we grow higher in God’s Word. It’s to cling to the truth that Jesus Christ is the joy of our rejoicing, the unfailing Source of our hope, and the fulfillment of all God created us to be. When we have taken hold of God through His beloved Son, to the point where nothing else is more important than Him, we will witness victory after victory. Our full surrender is what God is after, and when we walk in His Spirit to this degree, we will become stronger than we ever thought possible.
2Corinthians 5:17(NIV) says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Becoming born again by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior makes us new creations. He gives us his nature, and our spirit is recreated by the Holy Spirit. We become alive to our Heavenly Father through the life of Jesus Christ! The person we used to be is gone, and our spiritual reality is made wonderfully alive and indescribably vibrant. However, our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are a part of the soul, and the soul was not made brand new. It is our choice, yours and mine, to put our souls and our bodies under the subjection of God’s Holy Spirit. God will not come inside our heads and hearts without our permission and start moving all the bad stuff out. He has given us the distinct responsibility of lining up our will with His Will. To do this, we must bring our souls and bodies in line with our newly recreated spirit.
Looking back at who we used to be and stacking that up against who we are now in Christ gives us an extremely important measuring stick. Just as a parent measures and pencils in their child’s growth on a wall, our commitment to put on more of Christ is a check between the past we left behind and the newness we have received; our allegiance to his example marks our growth in him. It also gives us a definitive way to anchor our hope for the future, because our futures in Christ are nothing short of glorious!
Romans 8:23-25 The Message (MSG) says, “The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.” There’s some pain going on with this earth experience. Trials, tribulation, and troubles are a part of life, but these challenges increase us. They reveal our spiritual strength, and our spiritual strength is made strong through our faith in God. So, these rough and tough times that we endure on this earth journey are reminding us of the treasure we carry within. Our bodies are yearning to be released from these earthly limitations of sin and suffering, and one day in the future, we will be. But right now, God is showing us that the choice to wait on Him and to trust in the power of His healing, restoration, and blessings is an extremely good choice.
As new creations in Christ, we are dealing with a gap between our right now reality and what awaits us in the future. This gap is the time it will take us to make the paradigm shift or a change in our thinking and believing. We have to put on the mind of Christ, but there is so much entrenched thinking and believing that we’ve adopted from the world that many of us struggle with this. We struggle to put on more of Christ. There’s a war going on inside us because society and the world are bombarding us with information designed to tear down our faith.
Because of this, when we’re facing the emotional weight of devastating issues, and they seem to hit us one right after the other, many of us are overwhelmed to the point of emotional exhaustion. The pain is deep and gut wrenching, but as down and trapped as we may feel, we must never forget that God is causing all things to work together for our good. He didn’t cause the situations of our hurt and pain, but if we trust Him, He can and will work things out.
Romans 5:3-5(NLT) tells us, “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Nothing is outside the realm of God’s power, strength, and love. Tragedies can take our breath away down here, and God could change them in the blink of an eye. He could cause us to remember them no more, but He doesn’t prevent them from happening. Through our greatest heartaches and tribulation, God is always with us. He walks with us as our problems teach us to patiently endure in Christ, and to wait on God, for He is deserving of our patience and faith.
Our inclination is to sink, but God wants us to mount up with His strength. He wants us to trust Him as He turns things around and does a work in us through His Holy Spirit. Newness will always require change. God shows us this in Romans 12:2 where He commands us not to conform to the behaviors and customs of this world. We’re not to copy society’s patterns. Instead, we are to change the way we think so that God can transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. Again, our will must be lined up with God’s Will and Plan for our lives.
To become better guardians of our hearts, there are circumstances and patterns in our lives that we will have to change in order to mature and become stronger mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually. We must accept that it is necessary to make a break from the darkness of our pasts. It is too heavy to carry forward in the life of love and light that Jesus Christ has called us to. Our spirits have been regenerated through our new birth in him, and although pain and suffering have left their mark, a new race has begun.
Some of us have been flying on automatic pilot when it comes to grief and misery, and we have convinced ourselves that no other way to fly exists, but oh how wrong we are. Some of us have self-hatred, fears, shame, and guilt of the past, and those things have kept us bound, but be assured in Christ. Take great courage in him, because through him, we can be healed from the oppression of our past. God gives us spiritual strength through Jesus Christ. If we will give Him the time that we have given our unhappiness, if we will be steadfast in learning more about him, praying often, and yielding to His Holy Spirit, our journey to higher blessings and greater strength will begin, and in Christ, we can be sure that it is a journey that will never end. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“It Will Make You Stronger” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!