Good news! You can take back whatever power you’ve surrendered to your circumstances.
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” and take back any power that we may have given to our circumstances.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you, God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily Posture of perfect peace.
We’re going to spend a little bit of time today in Isaiah 43. If you have time today, I was about to say if you have time today, even if you don’t have time, make time and read Isaiah 43 in its entirety it is such a treasure. We’re gonna read starting in verses 1 and 2. It says, “but now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; and the flame shall not consume you.” Same chapter, Chapter 43 but going down to verses 10 and 11, the Lord continues. He says, “You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am the Lord, and besides me, there is no savior.”
So in the last episode, Episode 127, I shared about how I am learning and practicing this promise that we find in Jeremiah 29, seeking the Lord with my whole heart, with my whole self, and it’s changing everything. It’s changing how I now read scripture when I come to the word of God, I’m not looking for me, I’m looking for Him. I’m seeking who He is, His nature, His ways, His perspective. This has changed how I pray, I’m not coming to Him to lay out how I think and feel about things but instead, I’m coming to hear what God thinks about things; and then I’m aligning my thoughts, and my emotions, and my actions to His.
And through this seeking Him wholeheartedly, I’m no longer viewing the Lord through the lens of my circumstance but I’m viewing my circumstances through the lens of Him. Meaning you know when I’m facing negative circumstances, I’m not using them to inform me about who my God is. Using them as proof like to say “oh well, I got God must be distant or He definitely must not care, or He’s definitely punishing me right now.” Instead, I’m relying on the nature of God to inform me about my circumstances, we see this all through scripture. Lamentations 3:22 says, “because of the Lord’s great love, because of who God is we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.”
Romans 8 28, it says, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” Jesus told us in John 16:33. He said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace; in the world, you will have trouble. But take heart or have courage because I have overcome the world, you can have peace because of who I am.” This is who our God is, this is who our God is not in theory but in truth, not some of the time but all of the time. So He tells us in Isaiah 43, He says, “before me, no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me”, meaning there is no other god but me.” This includes whatever circumstance you may be facing today, that circumstance is not your god, it is not the ruler of your life.
Let’s just sit with that truth for just a minute and soak it in. No matter what you’re facing today, financial distress, sickness, grief, betrayal, the circumstances that feel all-consuming and seem everlasting. They are not your god, they don’t rule over you, they don’t determine your destiny, they don’t hold your future in their hands. The only power that circumstances, whether they’re positive or negative, ever have over us is the power that we choose to give to them. Here have my emotions, here have my mind space, here have my attention, here have my affection, here here’s my piece, here take my joy, here have all of my trust. Now, I’m not picking on you. Again, this whole lens change has been a practice for me so these are not hypotheticals that I’m throwing out, these are real things that I have chosen to surrender in the past to my circumstances.
I’ve chosen to allow my circumstances to take that power over me and if you can relate; if this is resonating with you; if you’ve also surrendered those things over to your circumstances; if you’ve given them the power. If you’ve treated your circumstances again whether good, bad, or ugly like they are your god; like they determine your destiny.
I have great news for you today, you can get back what you surrendered. You do this through worship, worshiping the only God. You know worship is not letting a song play through while you close your eyes and more seriously contemplate all your issues. Again, I’m not picking on you, I speak from experience. Worship is surrender. It’s saying, “Lord, hear. You have my emotions, I want my emotions to be aligned with You, with the truth. Lord have my mind space, I receive the mind of Christ. Lord, You have my attention; You have all of my focus. Lord, You have my affection; You are my peace, You are my joy, You have all of my trust.” In worship; and in thanksgiving; and in praise; we rid ourselves of that lens of self. The lens of our circumstances that we talked about in the last episode, and we take on the lens of Him and we begin to see ourselves in our world and our future through the lens of Him. Worship the only God, worship your only God today, and allow Him to inform you about everything you’re currently facing.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26:3. In Hebrew, it is “shalom, shalom”, meaning complete wholeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Because of Jesus, you are a living testimony of Jesus’s ultimate win. With every step you take today you’re putting Jesus’s victory on display and satan’s defeat on replay.