OUR LORD REIGNS: A LESSON THAT NEEDS RE-LEARNING

I had learned a very simple lesson years ago, which I continue to re-learn. On top of decades of depression, I began to experience panic attacks. I had never dreamed that anything could be so painful and debilitating. I had always told myself that, “Whatever life throws at me, I can endure it.” However, the panic attacks changed all that.

One day, while I was walking, I prayed, “God I cannot do anything about this. If you don’t help me, I’m lost.” That understanding was simple but so liberating. I could now be still and know that my Savior was in control:

·       "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:10-11 (NIV)

The Lord would exalt Himself in my life in ways that I never could. Jesus often echoed this very same assurance – that He is our deliverance and not we ourselves:

·       “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)

Jesus continues to teach me that He alone is my answer (Psalm 62). He has become everything to me:

·       It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Therefore, my boast is now in my Savior alone, upon whom I can cast all my fears, anxieties, failures, and weaknesses:

·       Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

People ask, “Don’t you trust in yourself at all?” I do not! I trust in my Lord working through me. He must get all the credit for whatever good, which might come out of my life (James 1:17). Once I take the credit, I am betraying the truth. If I do this, He will not lift me up. Instead, He lifts of the humble and the broken-hearted.

Paul had learned to thank his God for his weaknesses and afflictions. He learned a lesson to which I must continue to return. He had asked God repeatedly to take away his painful affliction. However, God revealed that Paul needed them:

·       But he [God] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

This has also been my experience!