THINK AGAIN…

The only reason any two people can look at the self-same thing and understand it differently is not so much the eyes they look through, but more so the mind they look with!

How your mind perceives God impacts all facets of your life – especially when it comes to inner peace and contentment.

One commonly held view sees God as the Creator of a human family that will, for the most part, end up in some ghoulish place referred to as hell.

The idea being that God apparently discards those who don’t make the grade into some torturous ‘too hard’ basket.

May I offer you another perspective?

Same Bible.

Different mindset.

For the Scripture I read teaches that God is Love – and Love Never Fails!

Rather than speak of life as being bookended by birth and death, I’m told my substance was known to Him before I was even formed.

I’m reassured that the finality of death is a lie.

That God our Saviour “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Not some.

All.

I never read about ‘lost sheep’ finding their Shepherd.

It’s always the Shepherd searching for and finding the ‘lost sheep’.

Every single one.

Yes – we’ve all turned away from God’s counsel, and soon lost our way.

But I don’t see Him becoming bitter and twisted.

Instead, I read of our Father Who sends sunshine and rain on all humanity.

I’m taught about the human family being Spirit-led for our own healing – for our own reintegration – for our own recovery.

About Jesus (God incarnate) being the Great Physician.

About His call for a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of our vision of the world and of ourselves.

About a new way of loving others and God.

The Bible I read shows me clearly that Jesus came with our best interests at heart.

That the One Who made us, entered the world to heal us – to put things back on track.

To free us from the dysfunction of our minds.

A wounded thought life flowing from a mindset that is not in keeping with our original, God-given nature.

An impaired state of mind through which our understanding of reality is marred.

A fear-based misperception that places us on the road to restlessness and ruination.

Life becomes a living anguish when it is lived in fear – when we buy into the falsehood that God doesn’t care and self-preservation (at any cost) is our number one priority.

Living in fear is being held back by misperceived insecurity – a pervasive dread feeding on the misplaced notion of imminent loss.

But fear can only ever bite you if you believe you have something of value to lose.

And once you take hold of God’s assurance, the only thing you lose is the insecurity that once held a gun to your head.

You see for the first time, that by losing everything you were never intended to have or be, you have in truth lost nothing of any real value!

In the absence of fear, True Love re-establishes His rightful reign in the hearts of those who turn to Him.

Jesus makes it perfectly clear – the human family is missing something vitally important.

What we are missing is the true aim of life.

To be aimless is to be lost.

The Bible teaches straightforwardly that Jesus came “to save that which was lost.”

To save the human family by opening our eyes to the Light of Life.

By showing us in Person the best way to live.

By showing us in Person that God does not make rejects!

By showing us in Person that ‘death’ does not have the last word!

All our troubles are self-sown produce stemming from the misuse of our very own free will.

For our misdirected will has proven to be anything but free as it enslaves us to the very things that eat away at our being – all the while robbing us of the inner rest we so desperately crave.

We needed to be turned around with a loving hand.

We needed to be re-educated.

We needed to be re-created.

To start afresh!

This is why Jesus came.

I don’t believe for one minute that God gives up on anybody.

I do believe He hands us over to our own choices until we finally reach the end of ourselves and wake up to the fact that He’s been right all along.

That which we wrestle is but the shadow we ourselves cast – a shadow we step into when we turn away from the Light of Life.

The Bible I read speaks of rescue.

Of loving patience, forgiveness, recreation, and renewal.

It tells the story of God’s never-ending Love.

Not a sweet fluffy love – a firm, fairhanded, Fatherly Love for the human family He brought into being.

For this is who God says you are;

Known – (PSALM 139:16)

Wonderfully made – (PSALM 139:14)

His child – (JOHN 1:12)

Saved – (JOHN 3:16)

Enough – (2 CORINTHIANS 3:5)

Complete – (COLOSSIANS 2:10)

A new creation – (2 CORINTHIANS 5:17)

A warrior – (EPHESIANS 6:11)

Forgiven – (EPHESIANS 1:7-10)

Free – (JOHN 8:36)

Loved – (1 JOHN 4:10)

His friend – (JOHN15:13)

You are an integral part of a much bigger picture – a picture that extends far beyond the confines of the thinking patterns you were saddled with from birth.

Read your Bible from the perspective of a vengeful Creator Who loses control of His Creation and discards His failures,

or think again,

and read your Bible from the vantage point of a God Whose Grace abounds – Whose Love Never Fails!

The choice is yours,

because you are His,

and the only way you come to truly know you are His,

is through the free will He has given you.

It has been said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Real rest is there for the taking.

It is not hidden from us.

We don’t have to find it.

We just need to accept it.

The One Who offers it is Jesus.

All He asks is that you stop trying.

And start trusting.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

JESUS CONTINUED SPEAKING to all who listened.   

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” The Message (MSG)

The world we all live in perceives ‘rest’ as being something experienced only in the absence of activity.

Jesus sees it differently.

He does not say, “Be still and do nothing.”

He says, “Be still and know that I Am.”

To know is to grow.

To grow is to shed all the falsehood.

To become everything He made you to be!

THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE

On any given day, I have no way of knowing what awaits me.

I cannot (nor would I want to) control what other people will think, say, or do.

I do not walk in their shoes.

I do not see through their eyes.

I do not know their innermost thoughts.

I do not know these things, and I cannot change these things, for I have not the capability to do so.

I do not (nor would I want to) know the mind of God, because I cannot know the mind of God.

It is beyond my comprehension.

It is beyond my design.

It is beyond His expectation.

I did not make myself.

It was God Who knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Since I am made by God, and am maintained by God, and am provided for by God, and am equipped by God with everything I actually need, it becomes clear to me that the things I see as limitations, are in fact things that He deems to be unnecessary.

For if anything truly purposeful was within my power, and within my responsibility to change, it makes no sense that God would withhold that outcome from me.

That which I am not equipped to change, I cannot change – that which I cannot change, I obviously was never meant to.

This is the way it is, and since I cannot change the way it is, there is absolutely no point whatsoever in me continuing to worry about it.

If I cannot change it – what good does it do for me to lay awake at night thinking in never-ending circles?

What do I hope to achieve other than giving myself a stomach ulcer, and making myself miserable?

I am not the Head of the human family – that position belongs solely to Christ, and this is where we've all put the cart before the horse.

Changing others is not the priority. The first cab off the rank is to be changed ourselves, and the only way that's going to happen is through the workmanship of the Holy Spirit. 

Life is not a journey – it is an awakening.

It is not a trip from here to there.

It is a recognition, an understanding, an awareness that grows and matures – it is the emergence of a bigger picture.

To surrender to this emergence is to accept both who we are, and who we are not.

It is to lay down our boxing gloves – to stop trying to change everything so as to keep it in line with the way we would prefer it all to be.

To surrender is not to throw in the towel.

Neither is it to take on every fight that comes our way.

To surrender is to forego all delusion of any self-importance – to counter every kneejerk reaction with a reality check.

For only with the reality of God stored in our hearts are we both fully armed to change the things we can and should, and fully content to leave the things we cannot change to Him.

To surrender is to know that life is neither a mountain to climb, nor a puzzle to be solved.

It is simply the artless act of being fully alive.

Life is not a checklist to be ticked.

It is not a forum to impress or manipulate others.

Nor is it meant to be fearful, worrisome, and anxious.

The things that lay beyond our capacity, are beyond our capability for a reason.

And that reason is His.

To surrender is to let go.

To let go is to let God.

Not to let Him take control, for He’s been in control all along, but to let God know by way of words that spill forth from our hearts, that no longer do we doubt Him – no longer will we ignore Him.

Not understanding His ways is no basis for us not to rely on Him, neither is it any excuse for us not to believe in His grace.

He made us the way He made us – be happy to accept that.

I am not here to change the things I cannot change – neither are you.

We are all here so that God can make each and every one of us better people, bring us peace, and grant us rest in the knowledge that all things will come together for our ultimate good.

We are all here to become everything we are destined to be.

We are here to grow, to mature – to be transformed.

We are here to learn (through firsthand experience) all about the rest to be found in acceptance, and surrender to God.

Not to see the things we cannot change as unfair limitations, but to see them more as boundaries – fence lines past which we are not expected to venture.

It is on this side of the fence that our attention belongs.

For only on this side can you and I truly take stock of our own thoughts, words, and deeds, understanding by way of newly opened eyes that our first priority is undoubtedly to ask God for a change of heart.

Life is not to be lived with a spirit of defeat, on the basis of what you already know you can’t do.

It is to be lived with The Spirit of Truth – on the basis of everything God has already done, and continues to do for you.

It is to be lived – not given up on!

All of us are created equal.

And as it turns out, all of us seem to share the same deep-seated hunger for something we struggle to define.

But is it true to think we lack the capacity to understand?

Or could it simply be we lack the preparedness to see?

Never buy into the lie that where you step to next, depends upon where you step from now.

Living is a practical thing.

So is trust!

The place to begin is with Jesus.

And that place is nowhere else other than right here, right now.

Wherever you find yourself to be.

Most fortunate are those who recognise their own poverty in the richness of God’s Spirit.

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