This morning I woke up at 4AM. And immediately
all the things that I have to face today came flooding into my mind. Within moments I was overwhelmed with the circumstances of my life. We have to move soon from the house we’ve lived in for eighteen years to a small condo that is one quarter of the size of our home. I have to get a book written in the next few months and I am not just on deadline for it, I’m on an already extended deadline. I have a mountain of financial obligations that I can’t meet because the last seven years delivered obstacle after obstacle. Starting with the death of my oldest son’s wife. which brought him back home with many needs to be met in order to help him start a new life. Then the great recession that brought the death of my business, which then brought the death of our finances and now finally the death of my life as I once knew it. These are the thoughts that crowded in to start my day.
But there is a ritual that I observe every morning that thankfully is not dependent on the thinking of my natural mind. I reached for my Bible next to my bed and opened it. The random page that I found myself looking at was Ephesians 4. I began to read – There is one body and one Spirit – just as there is also one hope that belongs to the calling you received. The calling I received? One hope? I read on. . . . There is one Lord one faith, one baptism,One God and Father of us all, Who is above all (Sovereign over all), pervading all and living in us all.
I set my Bible down and closed my eyes and tried to grasp what I had just read.
There is one hope that belongs to the calling I received! I know God’s call on my life. It is to write . . . about many things. There is one hope that belongs to that calling. Belongs. Not available if I ask, not connected sometimes, not dependent on what is going on in my life. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, all manifest as One Hope that belongs to that calling I received.
That is His Truth. Written down for me to read this morning! And beyond that it says that He is sovereign over all, pervading all and living in us all. Living in me. I have His strength and authority to draw on. I can put to death fear and discouragement. I don’t have to accept them. God put them to death on the cross. I absolutely believe that and I can choose to walk in that Truth.
Oh, the futility of our natural thinking. I started my morning focused on my reality. Recounting the circumstances of my life as they looked through my natural eyes. But I don’t have to do that. I can strip myself of my natural man and the hopelessness that springs from the delusion of my natural mind. I can be constantly renewed in the Spirit and walk in my new nature created in God’s image and live in the hope gifted to me by Jesus Christ.
It is not only available, it is already in me. This is His reality. What I see with my natural eyes and think with my natural mind is death. Put to death 2000 years ago. Why do I insist on embracing what is dead when He has given me life? My daughter-in-law is not dead. She is alive with Him. My business is not dead. My business is doing His work. My finances are not gone. He is my provider. How can I loose what was never mine to begin with? The only thing that is dead is my life as I once knew it. That is the life of my natural man, that old man that we buried the day we accepted our One Hope. How I praise and thank Him for putting to death that old life.
This is His Truth. And so it is my Truth.
Today I choose to walk in it. You can too!
You said:
It is not only available, it is already in me. This is His reality. What I see with my natural eyes and think with my natural mind is death. Put to death 2000 years ago. Why do I insist on embracing what is dead when He has given me life? My daughter-in-law is not dead. She is alive with Him. My business is not dead. My business is doing His work. My finances are not gone. He is my provider. How can I loose what was never mine to begin with? The only thing that is dead is my life as I once knew it. That is the life of my natural man, that old man that we buried the day we accepted our One Hope. How I praise and thank Him for putting to death that old life.
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WOW!!! I need to read that ten times so it sticks in my head, I am walking in defeat today also Nikki and God just used to you speak truth to me…truth…truth is like a cup of water, the living water…thank you sweet friend.
Yes, Satan is busy deceiving us, waging war against us and robbing us of our joy. But we don’t have to accept that. And we don’t even have to fight. We just have to stand on the ground He’s already taken, be open vessels, and allow Christ to fight through us. That’s why He says is yoke is easy and His burden is light. He will do it all if we’ll just let Him.
Amen and Amen!
Thank you, Nikki–this was something many of us needed to read, I think. 🙂 May the Lord provide all your needs and continue to help you keep your eyes on Him.
Oh my, this has blessed me beyond explanation. I struggle to think with my redeemed mind. Why indeed do we cling to what He’s already put to death. Fear, discouragement, doubt. None of those things belong and yet when circumstances look impossible, health issues happen, things don’t go MY way, I can find myself looking back to Sodom. How I wish I would ALWAYS operate without my natural mind and rest in that Hope! Every day I get better though and in every detour I see Him making a better “life as I know it”. I would never go back and so I must cling to Hope and get out of the boat, like Peter, even if I might get a little wet. Thanks Nikki for your obedience and vulnerability as well as your constant encouragement!
What an inspiration you have been to me today. I’ll walk through this week with my head held a little higher because your words have helped to lift a burden from me.
I am His, I am in His care. Do I really need to fret about anything?
Thank you for sharing your life with others so that we might be encouraged.
I’m so glad you stopped by and found encouragement. When we truely can focus on who He is and who we are to Him we can be peaceful no matter what is going on. Every one of His words are true. You can open the Bible almost anywhere and find promise upon promise about the provisions He has made for us. All we have to do is receive them and walk in them. He overcame everything on the cross . . . even death!
So very true, Nikki. Thanks for chatting with me on Facebook and encouraging me to surf over to your site.