These are unprecedented times and many of us are facing problems the likes of which we never imagined. We’re used to juggling a few balls while handling the little hiccups along the way, but this is different. It’s life-altering circumstances that are keeping us up at night. Many people have lost their jobs, others are just barely able to make it, earning a fraction of what they used to. Relationships are falling apart; obstacles appear out of nowhere and the demands of life are increasing. I personally know of individuals that are on the verge of giving up hope. The first thing that anyone facing these kinds of challenges should know is that God wants every person to succeed in life. And not only does He want us to succeed, no matter what we are facing, God is willing and able to help us.
One of the major realizations that God requires us to acknowledge through any crisis is that the things that are important to Him are often things that have not been as important to us as they should have been. The areas that we have designated as our top priorities are out of sync with what God has commanded to be our top priorities according to His Word. Jesus Christ taught us in Matthew 6:33 that we should seek God first before we seek any other thing. This commandment that Christ has given is a spiritual precedent. It cannot be altered, tweaked, or compromised in any way. It is required in order to have the kind of relationship with God that He desires.
God created life, and He has put all the rules of engagement in motion. He is perfect and so are His laws. They make the universe continue to operate. God is the beginning and the end. He is Alpha and Omega, and millions of years cannot capture or enumerate His existence. So, we can be absolutely assured that God’s systems and laws have been around a really, really long time, and they have never failed. The sun continues to shine, the earth continues to rotate on its axis, and life in some form continues to exist.
You and I are spiritual beings having an earth experience. Earth is not our final destination, but the beginning of our life in Christ. The definition of a spiritual being is being spiritual. Our spiritual reality dictates that the intangible things are more real than the things we can see. Our bodies are the wonderfully made earth suits that God has created and given us, but our bodies do not define us. Our souls and spirits define us, and these are elements of our beings that we can’t see with our physical eyes.
Many people have believed that their choices, decisions, and actions are without consequence, but this is not the truth. Everything we do, think, and say has a consequence. What we do, think, and say will ultimately build a set of circumstances that will impact our lives in some way. God commands that our minds and hearts are saturated with faith in Him, so that our decisions, choices, and actions line up with faith, then our lives will be positively impacted by our belief in God through Jesus Christ.
God has given us a way through Jesus Christ to take authority over our lives so that we can be who He created us to be, we can have what He desires us to have, and we can do what He wants us to do. Yes, things can get really crazy, but Jesus Christ taught us in John 16:33(NLT), “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Life has challenges, but when we allow Jesus Christ to be in the driver’s seat of our lives, and we follow his example, his power takes over. We must never lose hope, but instead we must be willing to change in ways that keep our faith flourishing. Mindfulness of the choices we make, the thoughts we think and the words we speak, will change the trajectory of our lives and give us the peace of Christ no matter what is happening around us. ■
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.
“Taking Authority through Jesus Christ”, written by JMack, 4theChristianMan.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.