Think
More than likely, the wonderfully serene scene above is NOT the first thing you saw this morning. You may have not smelled the scent of fresh jasmine blowing in your window. Your significant other or children (if you're so blessed...or burdened) may not have hugged you appreciatively with a kiss; happily done all that was expected of them, and sat quietly waiting on your next instruction.
How bout cartoon birds and butterflies accompanying a high spirited theme song to put some 'pep' in your morning? No?....me neither.
Since most of us know that real life plays out in drudgery and things that can easily wear us down or frustrate us: Lack of sleep, blaring alarm clocks, sickness & pain, kids with nightmares, broken heels, missing buttons, traffic jams, spilled coffee, overworked, underpaid, disgruntled customers, bitterness, co-workers that steal food from the refrigerator, overdue bills, bounced check fees, appliance breaks, political unrest, Facebook (and Twitter) disagreements and blind-siding family circumstances - Whew!
Since that's real life for most of us, how can God really expect us to receive Philippians 4:8 in a real way?
Here's The Word;
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things
Is He telling us to live in some sort of mental "La La Land"? Heaven's No! HE's encouraging you to develop an ability that only YOU, through the gifting of His Spirit, can!
When I consider what it means to be 'made new', to be delivered from darkness to light and to be given the power to become the sons of God, it's not an outward transformation that uploads and installs itself whereas a simple reboot brings about a whole new reality. Nope, not at all.
What really happens is something deeper and although it requires real work, all the things that we learn as 'we work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil 2:12', it's better and PROVES that we have been made new.
The unregenerate are not so, they have not been delivered and made new. They don't have the power to receive The Word and any desire to escape the frustration of real life is only in the context of temporary reprieve, not (eventual) total relief.
Everything....and I do mean EVERYTHING about life in Christ affects the context of all that once WAS, is and will be. Everything about this new life is now purposeful rather than randomly consequential and in knowing that first, choosing to consider and lean to 'better thoughts' is within our graced 'power', not just as some religious escapism but in real acknowledgment of truth by the spirit of holiness.
Here's The Word:
Ephesians 1:18 - 20 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
If that is true....and if you have been made new in Christ, it SURELY is, how much more compelling, real and relevant is it to engage in better thoughts...even in the midst of real life?
We don't live like those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13), as we have GREAT hope that's just as strong in the midst of the real struggles of life as it is when we're less "encumbered"...just think about it.
In Him,
Cros
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