The Dogs of Your Winter

It is simply unheard of within scripture of someone with great faith not being tested in that faith.  Try as you may, you will not come across a God beacon who avoided being sorely tried.  Noah, Moses, Ruth, David, Daniel, Mary, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Paul; they all were sent careening off the cliff at some point and you will also come upon your own cliff.  It may not appear suddenly but could gradually arise but you will face it if your love of Christ is actual.  The most comfortable life there is right now is the one without hope, without promise.  Hope is not for the pagan or the atheist but only for the one going through the fires of faith.  If you want to look around at all the pitch dark souls wandering around without Christ and long for their settled existence, you certainly can.  But it would be like Noah's wife perched in the ark ruminating over how easy her aunt has it back in the village.  You are going to face tremendous trials that will bark at your faith but that is all they can do...bark.  The trials have no bite for they cannot get at where you are...hidden with Christ in God.  You are dead and that is what the Lord declares  you to be.  Imagine a great bear snarling at the Lord Jesus Christ glorified.  It is as ridiculous as your trial besting you.  The Lord has you and yes your faith is being tested but that is just the beginning of birth pains for you as you triumph in them and come out victoriously to your place in the pantheon of God's great hall of saints purified by trial.  Resist the urge to envy the untroubled.  Nothing can take away the joy you possess ultimately and it doesn't need to be dispossessed now.  The trial will pass but you will stand and stand with a smile gracing your face as you look back upon it as a toothless barking dog .  Be resolute in your determination to trust Christ fully at the moment the hounds come after you.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.    Colossians 3:3-4 NIV

Fretting For What?

It is never the crisis that unsettles us but rather the deviation away from Christ.  We are so infatuated by how things will turn that we forget just how perfectly Christ is fitting Himself into us.  When the Lord reminded us not to worry about what we would eat or wear, do we think that was all there was to His point?  Jesus was not unsettled by criticism or temptation, by poverty or that frustrating co-worker.  He simply was not rattled and that is what God wants for us too and has for us.  This is possible not because we become skilled at scaling back our responsibilities or cutting out negative relationships; this is our personality in Christ.  The Lord does not want us to imitate Jesus but rather for Him to live in us.  As we give sway to Christ at every instance, we find the mind and emotions of God coming out of us in all sorts of exciting and surprising ways.  God did not die for us to just take away our punishment for sin; He died that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  That life is not a life of fretting, stewing or striving.  The life God died to give us is one with the Lord Jesus Christ living fully through us.  Each turn we take is an opportunity for the wisdom and love of Christ to manifest itself in what we do and how we think about all we encounter.  Lust, selfishness and pride are the archaic remnants of a dying breed.  The new man is being established as us: Christ joined to me, Christ joined to you in a dynamic synthesis that will be perfect.  As you read the Bible, don't look for ways to make something of your life; look for Christ to live fully and happily in and through you as He works out your day moment by moment.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:3 NIV