These days, I feel that my soul is saddened as I heard (and read) that one of my favorite Christian authors had veered away from the truth. She is a great influencer and a distant mentor to me. I have read many of her books, listened to her podcast, and watched her faith grows even from afar. “Someone like her will fall? I guess that is so impossible.” This is my initial thought as I was digging into the “why.” As I did my own research, I came into the conclusion that the world overruled her (and her family) life. Fame, money, and power (control) became her (and her family) stumbling blocks. She still looks good on the outside.
Time changes fast. So do people. I cannot count how many people (close and distant) have left the faith because of varied reasons. Some, joined the so-called “illumination group.” And, I ended up grieving. This makes me wonder and at the same time, worried that might be one day, I will also leave the faith (God forbid). I got so many unhealthy thoughts that I almost felt like God whispering “Be still. . .”
The world where we live in is now in changing rapidly and we feel being left-out. Our friends are becoming richer and our colleagues are acquiring properties. Some of the people we know are already Oftentimes, we find ourselves wanting to blend with them again. Our focus starts to become more occupied with what the world offers more than thoughts of pursuing Jesus. At least, we thought that the world can make us better.
My friend, just a little bit of swerving from the faith and we become totally lost in the vastness of life’s affairs. More so, if we look at people, we will stumble. We feel discouraged and we lose faith.
Is it still possible to be still amidst the fast- changing world we live in? Such a hard question to answer when our hearts are not in tune with God. Yet, when we know that once our hearts are settled in the presence of God, we can boldly say that, “Yes, it is possible to be still despite the chaos of life.”
News sometimes causes us to be shaken and we forget that we have an unchanging God in a world where change is the only permanent. Whenever I start to lose sight of God because of the things around me, I like to keep repeating Psalm 57:7 “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise” and Psalm 112: 7 & “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.” There is always bad news, but if our hearts are fixed in the Lord, we will not be troubled. We can still be still in Jesus.
- Anchor our faith in Jesus. I have been telling you many times in the past how we need to anchor our faith (ourselves) in Him who is able to keep us forever. But it is only this time that I got a new perspective as I read one statement from someone, “To realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the storm.” Indeed, we always say that we anchor our soul to Jesus. But when storms come, we complain. We go ahead of God. We even plan our way out instead of allowing Him to be the anchor of our soul.
“That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; . . .” Hebrews 6:18-19
As we learn to anchor our lives in God, we expect trials and sufferings along the way. These things will prove how strong and firm His foundation is to be our anchor.
- Maintain our fellowship with God. Whenever I lose my desire with the things of God, (I come to that point. Please don’t judge me but I am not perfect.) I know that I don’t have sweet fellowship with the Lord. The time I start to drift away is also the start of stepping out of my boundary as a Christian. My desires are slowly shifting to personal and fleshly. And, it is scary when I come to this point. This is why we have to strive to maintain our fellowship with God. The best man that I could think of is David. No matter what the world threw at him, he was able to overcome because of his fellowship with the Lord.
“God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” Psalm 63:1-2
Even Jesus showed us an example that regardless of how tiring physically his earthly affairs, he found time to isolate Himself and prayed to God (Mark 1:35) (a means for Him to communicate with God).
- Endure until the end. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13) This does not mean the salvation of our soul, it means those who can endure the bad times since God is talking about the things to come (Matthew 24 full chapter). So, along our journey hardship will be expected. Our encouragement is found in John 16:33. No matter how hard life is, we will be victorious in the end since He has already overcome the world. Look beyond our present situation because in the end, we will see His promise.
- Know the Scripture by heart. I heard from my pastor the phrase, “The way we respond to life’s circumstances is the way we know God.” And, I could not agree more. How can we know God more and more if it is not through the Scripture? Because the more we know the Scripture, the more we get to know God, and the more we know God, the more we are able to put our trust in Him. It is through the
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11
In every season that we are into, we need God’s guidance and direction. No matter how movable things are, I hope that our mind is stayed in Jesus. I hope that as the days pass by, our level of trust in Him is also moving up.
My final note for you is found in Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
These days, I feel that my soul is saddened as I heard (and read) that one of my favorite Christian authors had veered away from the truth. She is a great influencer and a distant mentor to me. I have read many of her books, listened to her podcast, and watched her faith grows even from afar. “Someone like her will fall? I guess that is so impossible.” This is my initial thought as I was digging into the “why.” As I did my own research, I came into the conclusion that the world overruled her (and her family) life. Fame, money, and power (control) became her (and her family) stumbling blocks. She still looks good on the outside.
Time changes fast. So do people. I cannot count how many people (close and distant) have left the faith because of varied reasons. Some, joined the so-called “illumination group.” And, I ended up grieving. This makes me wonder and at the same time, worried that might be one day, I will also leave the faith (God forbid). I got so many unhealthy thoughts that I almost felt like God whispering “Be still. . .”
The world where we live in is now in changing rapidly and we feel being left-out. Our friends are becoming richer and our colleagues are acquiring properties. Some of the people we know are already Oftentimes, we find ourselves wanting to blend with them again. Our focus starts to become more occupied with what the world offers more than thoughts of pursuing Jesus. At least, we thought that the world can make us better.
My friend, just a little bit of swerving from the faith and we become totally lost in the vastness of life’s affairs. More so, if we look at people, we will stumble. We feel discouraged and we lose faith.
Is it still possible to be still amidst the fast- changing world we live in? Such a hard question to answer when our hearts are not in tune with God. Yet, when we know that once our hearts are settled in the presence of God, we can boldly say that, “Yes, it is possible to be still despite the chaos of life.”
News sometimes causes us to be shaken and we forget that we have an unchanging God in a world where change is the only permanent. Whenever I start to lose sight of God because of the things around me, I like to keep repeating Psalm 57:7 “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise” and Psalm 112: 7 & “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.” There is always bad news, but if our hearts are fixed in the Lord, we will not be troubled. We can still be still in Jesus.
Anchor our faith in Jesus. I have been telling you many times in the past how we need to anchor our faith (ourselves) in Him who is able to keep us forever. But it is only this time that I got a new perspective as I read one statement from someone, “To realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the storm.” Indeed, we always say that we anchor our soul to Jesus. But when storms come, we complain. We go ahead of God. We even plan our way out instead of allowing Him to be the anchor of our soul.
“That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; . . .” Hebrews 6:18-19
As we learn to anchor our lives in God, we expect trials and sufferings along the way. These things will prove how strong and firm His foundation is to be our anchor.
Maintain our fellowship with God. Whenever I lose my desire with the things of God, (I come to that point. Please don’t judge me but I am not perfect.) I know that I don’t have sweet fellowship with the Lord. The time I start to drift away is also the start of stepping out of my boundary as a Christian. My desires are slowly shifting to personal and fleshly. And, it is scary when I come to this point. This is why we have to strive to maintain our fellowship with God. The best man that I could think of is David. No matter what the world threw at him, he was able to overcome because of his fellowship with the Lord.
“God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” Psalm 63:1-2
Even Jesus showed us an example that regardless of how tiring physically his earthly affairs, he found time to isolate Himself and prayed to God (Mark 1:35) (a means for Him to communicate with God).
Endure until the end. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13) This does not mean the salvation of our soul, it means those who can endure the bad times since God is talking about the things to come (Matthew 24 full chapter). So, along our journey hardship will be expected. Our encouragement is found in John 16:33. No matter how hard life is, we will be victorious in the end since He has already overcome the world. Look beyond our present situation because in the end, we will see His promise.
Know the Scripture by heart. I heard from my pastor the phrase, “The way we respond to life’s circumstances is the way we know God.” And, I could not agree more. How can we know God more and more if it is not through the Scripture? Because the more we know the Scripture, the more we get to know God, and the more we know God, the more we are able to put our trust in Him. It is through the
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11
In every season that we are into, we need God’s guidance and direction. No matter how movable things are, I hope that our mind is stayed in Jesus. I hope that as the days pass by, our level of trust in Him is also moving up.
My final note for you is found in Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
Leave a reply to tracy herzog Cancel reply