Learn How To Look

With this in mind, we constantly pray that our God will empower you to live worthy of all that He has invited you to experience. And we pray that by His power all the pleasures of goodness and all works inspired by faith would fill you completely. By doing this the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you will be glorified in Him, by the marvelous grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 TPT

It’s all too easy to get comfortable when life is good. But if we stay in our comfort zones, we’ll miss the new things God has for us.

That’s the journey — to never get so comfortable with where we are that we miss where God wants us to go next. 

We aren’t called to only go so far then settle down. We’re called to go from faith to faith, grace to grace, and glory to glory. We aren’t made for this earth. Our destiny is Heaven!

Psalms 103:2-4 CSB My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all His benefits. He forgives all your iniquity; He heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. 

There are seasons in life where we spend numerous hours of the day worrying and fretting over things we have little or no control over. Our stomachs churn, our minds spin, and our hearts hurt. We can't enjoy a beautiful spring morning or a ride on our bikes because of the anxiety we are experiencing or the “what if” we are anticipating.

And some of us may be so accustomed to feeling this way that we don’t even realize how much it impedes our boldness, our energy, and our focus.  We don't see how much it impacts our earthly relationships and ultimately our relationship with God. 

But we have a remedy for the ache of anxiety. Jesus Christ. 

That’s so true! What if we allow our thoughts to seek Jesus? We can pray, thanking God sincerely for the gift of communion with Him, peacefully walking forward through the day confident in God, resting in His character, trusting in His power, and believing in His Word. So we instead are overcome with hope and Holy Spirit’s presence that washes over worry and fear.

Mark 4:40 TPT Then He turned to His disciples and said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Haven’t you learned to trust yet?”

I can hear Jesus lovingly say, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” It was after He said these words to the disciples that "He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm."

we can learn to find that same calm by faith amidst the waves of sin and the storms of emotion within our hearts - It may seem impossible, but there is hope, and there is comfort to be found, my friends know that we are not alone and that anything we are facing, good or bad, is not any surprise to God.  When we have given our lives to Jesus as our risen saviour He is with us in every tragedy and every celebration!  Because He loves His children! 

Psalms 103:6-9 TPT You’re a God who makes things right, giving justice to the defenseless. You unveiled to Moses Your plans and showed Israel’s sons what You could do. Lord, You are so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail You! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults, just so that You can hold a grudge against us. 

Amen! And it’s by Holy Spirit’s wisdom that we know we are not failures in His sight because it is a struggle be aware of God’s calm in our storms. 

It is an age-old challenge for all of God's people. The Lord told Joshua, a valiant leader in Israel who followed the Lord fully, to not be afraid! 

Remember that with Christ nothing is impossible. He is able. When we understand that we are weak and learn how to look to Christ and cling to Him, we will begin to experience Christ as our calm.