Just a Thought "20"

Paul’s great desire was to know Christ in his resurrection power, because that same power that raised Christ from among the dead was operating or energizing in Paul and it’s energizing in us.

Religion is filled with lots of people who would rather beg God to fix their suffering circumstances, rather than to thank God for his enabling grace that is sufficient for every suffering saint, that energizing power.

Most of Paul’s pain and suffering came from making the right decisions. Paul desired to be found in Christ, not with a righteous record that could be gauged as having come from Paul as the source, but with righteousness that had God at it’s source, a gift declaration of rightness before God.

Our justified standing with God is something that cannot be handed back to God as some teach today, because it depends not on the believer’s promise or performance, but solely upon Christ’s faithfulness and his faithfulness along.

We cannot give it back, because it is dependent upon Christ faithfulness and we are sealed at the point we take God at his word concerning what his son accomplished. God’s integrity is at stake in doing what he promised he would do, we can have security of mind that we have Christ’s test score written on our paper in Heaven.

What is given in exchange for another as the price of their redemption. If the ransom was for all, then the payment was made for all. The price was paid for all and through that payment Christ redeemed the entire human race from the sin barrier that separated the world from God.

It is up to those of the world to either accept or reject their redeemer, but that does no less make him their redeemer. Those who reject the gift are thumbing their noses at the one who paid that price for their redemption. Those who reject their redeemer will face the ultimate consequences of that rejection.

The belt of truth challenges us to be mentally active, not passive, because unlike our day-to-day emotions, which are the product of our day-to-day thought life, the emotional baggage from the past is always there.

Years of exposure and experience in life have etched emotional grooves inside us, which produce a decided reaction when a certain topic is introduced. When a present event activates one those emotional grooves, we believe what we feel instead of believing what is true.

Perceiving those events from the perspective of our new identity, which God sealed in Christ, is what starts the process of healing those damaged emotions, because we have the privilege of evaluating our past experience in the light of who we are now, as opposed to who we were then.

We must learn how to resolve previous conflicts or the emotional baggage will accumulate as we continue to withdraw from life, the past will control our life as our options for handling it continue to decrease. Those who have had major traumas and have learned to resolve them by wearing the belt of truth, know how devastating the past can be to present reality.

When we do not understand the doctrinal truths Paul taught pertaining to our sealed position in Christ, we have no ground for success in the practical arena.

Prayer is indeed a powerful tool that God has given us, but was prayer given for the purpose of prodding God, pleading with God to alter the circumstances of our everyday lives, or was prayer given for the purpose of providing peace to the mind of the troubled saint.

There is a tremendous difference in one who believes they can influence God and therefore, alter their circumstances because they are a believer with prayer in hand, and a believer who acknowledges that God is in absolute control and is already doing what is best on behalf of every believer, no matter how unfortunate the circumstance that is at hand.

Reigning in life does not mean the absence of problems! Yet, many think that being a believer affords them the opportunity to get their unpleasant circumstances altered. Religious circles of our society believe that they reign in life over the circumstances in their life, in that God has empowered them with a tool called prayer, in order that they might have God alter the negative circumstances that come their way.

We trust God to know what is good for us even in the face of all of our adverse circumstances, God is not waiting for us to pray, so that he can decide what to do and then make the decision whether that would be good for us or not good for us.

The reality is, that we continue to suffer, it is not health, wealth, and prosperity in this life as the popular money-mongering ministers of righteousness would have us believe today. God’s purpose was to allow us to suffer, and there is a reason for that, so that we can put our hope on display to those who know nothing about our hope.

Our hope is not glorification here, not health, wealth, and prosperity on this planet, but a future glorification, because we are going to have a new body with that life God gave to Jesus - John 5:26.