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The Season of Advent is a season of Hope. Hope is the confident expectation of God’s miracles in made manifest in our lives. Hope is not a dream. Hope is not a wish. Hope is not an imagination. Hope is a reality. Hope is what sustains through our darkness hours. Hope is what lifts our spirits when frustration surrounds us. Hope is what empowers when the bonds of sin capture us. Hope is what moves us to action when the world says all is lost.
The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and others had to give grim prophesies to the people of Israel. Because of their sin their cites were to be burn, their families torn asunder, their finances plunder, their spouses separated from them, their temples pillaged , their armies destroyed, their country invaded and they were to be thrown into slavery. On top of all of that ,they had to be told that it was their God who allowed this to happen.
But throughout these grim pronouncements, throughout theses devastating turn of events, throughout these difficult and harrowing circumstances, there was still hope. Hope in a child to be born of virgin, hope in a child clothed in swaddling clothes, hope in child to be born in a manger, hope in a child that would be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, prince of peace, king of Kings and Lord of Lords, hope in a child that shall be called Emmanuel or God is with us; that hope, our hope, is Jesus!
Frustration is having your plans, dreams and desires defeated or delayed. Frustration occurs when your present situation has failed to meet your expectations. In John 16:33,” These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” In frustrating times, our peace is in the one who has overcome the world. Today, look to Jesus and you can be of good cheer.
Looking to Jesus means looking at frustration through his perspective. There have many times in my life where I have felt frustration. Through my college years, the early years of marriage, the many years of pursuing multiple advance degrees and the years of ministering in various churches, I have seen some dreams fulfilled and some dreams thwarted. But by looking to Jesus I have learned that with every cloud in life, there truly is a silver lining. There is a blessing through the storm. There is a prize on the inside. There is a godly purpose behind every frustration.
The godly purpose behind the frustration may be to make us more patience, or more loving or more trusting. Maybe the frustration is designed to keep us away from something or someone that would have been harmful to us by keeping us from dangers seen and unseen. Or maybe it was designed for us to wait long enough to be perfectly aligned with God’s holy timing.
Often, the greatest frustration seems to occur just before a major breakthrough because God is teaching us to press trough our frustration. When you take a pencil and press it against a rubber glove, it stretches and stretches the glove to the point of breakthrough. In the same manner, God stretches and stretches us through frustration until we breakthrough and God propels us forward to a brand new place in our life.
The breakthrough maybe to a new place, a new calling, a new perspective or a new determination to serve God.
What is God’s purpose behind your frustration? Is God stretching you through frustration? Then get ready for a life altering breakthrough. God has a victory for you through the frustration.
Pastor Holston
In our discipleship class, the question was raised, “Does letting Christ have control of our minds mean we are giving up part of our mental or intellectual capacities.” For many who reached a level of academic achievement this fear has held them back in their Christian walk. Many have the mistaken notion that being a Christian would make them devoid of logic, intellect or reason.
Many have had their minds been so structured and trained by the world that they often have had difficulty accepting the things of God. They, therefore, interpret this struggle as giving up their intellect. They don’t understand that the process state in Romans 12:2 is taking place in them. Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t be conformed to this world but be ye transforms by the renewing of your mind.” You don’t have to give up your intellect to follow Christ but your mind must be retrained or renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Coming to Christ is like believing the world was flat and suddenly finding out the world is round. All the assumptions you had about everything was based on the world being flat. Now you have to throw out all of those assumptions for a new way of thinking.
The more academic training you have the more assumptions you have to throw out. Now, a new way of thinking has to replace the old way. Living a life of faith totally reorders your way of thinking. It enhances your thinking about truth and reality because Christ is the author and sustainer of truth and reality. You will use more of your intellect, not less. But that intellect will be focused through the prism of faith.
Because of God’s Love,
Pastor Holston
Moving beyond our fear is one of the most difficult tasks in living the Christian life. Many Christians are so bound by their fears that would rather lose friends, family, marriages, or careers than face them. They would rather live in bitterness, shame, and guilt. They would rather blame others, destroy reputations or live lonely lives than confront their fears. These fears have become strongholds in their lives where Satan has been allowed to set up shop and control their lives. But God said in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind.” Our fears are not of God. But how to we move beyond fear?
The Bible says, in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear.” It is God’s love that moves us beyond our fear. We can understand this kind of supernatural love of God in a very practical way. Often we will see mothers running into a burning house to try to save their children. Or we will hear of someone who cannot swim jumping in the water to save a loved one. They may have had great fear of the raging waters or the intense flames but their love for their children was greater than their fear of water or fire. Their love casted out or removed their fear.
In the same sense, when we fall in love with Christ and that love grows in us, it starts to remove our fears. Our love for him reminds us that there is nothing too hard for God. Our love for him reminds us that if God is for you who can be against you. Our love for him reminds us that no weapon form against us can prosper because we are children of God. His love allows us to move beyond our fears to live a life boldly for Christ. Consequently, if you want to move beyond your fears allow yourself to fall in love with Christ.