One of the things I hate most about myself (which i think is healthy) is how much I base the way I feel on the circumstances in my life. I was having one of those days where I was anxious about a certain situation and it was bugging me all day. Then I received a text message that changed the way I felt; no longer was I anxious. However it made me realize how disordered my thinking is. How do I wish I was? I wish my emotions didn't blow with the wind. I wish my emotions were rooted in the concrete foundations of the promises of Jesus Christ. I am taken a back at how little my emotions are based in reality, actual reality - the reality of say, Romans 8. That nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ, that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed, that all things will work together for good, that if God is for us who can be against us, that Christ is interceding for us, and that if God did not spare his own son, but gave him up, he will freely give us all things. I should also base my feelings on the truths of Ephesians 1; that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless, that in love he predestined us for adoption, that we have been forgiven, that we have been redeemed through his blood, that we have obtained an inheritance in Christ, and that we were sealed with Holy Spirit, who is the promise of that inheritance.
I am amazed at how little my mind dwells on these eternal realities. I constantly think about trivial things, things that could never compare with what Jesus has done and who he is. And yet I continually live in a state of superficiality, disregarding things of everlasting value for things of short term, temporal value. Why am I like this? One answer is clear to me. I don't bathe myself in what God has to say enough. In writing this I was overwhelmed at the truths in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 - and those are just 2 chapters in 2 books of the Bible. There is 1000 times more truth where that came from and yet just those two chapters have unbelievable power to ground me and prevent me from blowing away in the wind. I want to be firm, unshakable in who I am in Christ because of what he has done for me. I want to love Jesus more - and I want the reality that I know him to be the greatest joy that keeps me going even though every circumstance fail me.
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It is amazing to me how God works in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Just this Sunday, I attended a new church, where the first few verses of Ephesians 1 were exposited by the church’s new pastor. God’s grace in calling me to Himself was explained in a way that has brought me a fresh and deeper understanding of how solid a foundation we have in Christ and in God’s grace through Christ.
I, too, find myself blown to and fro in the winds of emotions based on nothing as substantial as eternity. How is this gift of grace not our daily thought? How are we pushed back and forth worrying about things of this world? We have a Savior who has called us to Himself. We are “in Christ.” We are His. There is nothing better than that.
Great post, Jar.
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