Keep going

 

I have these mental exercises I do, where I imagine myself in terrifying situations and test myself if I could, objectively not ideally, overcome them. I try not to lie to myself, I have failed too many times to put any confidence in my flesh, my self-discipline and “amazing skills”. I don’t know that these exercises do any good. I just have some control issues that gave me the ‘lovely’ delusion that if I’m not surprised by the prospect of doom and gloom, it will be less painful once it happens. Surprise: it’s not. I’m not a pessimist, I am just a lamb in wolf territory.

One of my favourite verses in Scripture is in Psalm 118:6, “The Lord is with me, I’m not afraid. What can man do to me?” I recite it a lot when I get startled. Why? Because I know what human cruelty is capable of and I also know what a coward I am. Startled, sure. Afraid? No. Not because the danger isn’t real. Not because, ‘I’ve got this’. But because The Lord is with me. Not like a pacifier that a child uses to stop crying, like a nice idea that gives one courage even if untrue. No. The fact that He’s with me changes everything. How? Because there’s literally nothing you can do to a child of God that will beat, crush or kill God out of him. Trust me, the world has tried. A child born of an imperishable seed (1Peter 1:23), that hasn’t come to put his trust in a doctrine, but in The Only One True Saviour, can’t be reasoned out of his faith. Children who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13) cannot be destroyed. What can you possibly do to them? Starve them? They know that man can live on more than bread alone (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). Take away their possessions? They know not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides (1Timothy 6:17). Mock them? Their King was mocked, do you think they would think it beneath them to suffer insults on His behalf? Beat and torture them? Burn them? Sure, they will scream, but they will know that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed (Romans 8:18). Their eyes are glued on Him that called them and shaped them, their King “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). His voice is still in their ears, gently whispering “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). You might label them as irrational fools, slaves to an imagined morality, indoctrinated idiots, superstitious simpletons, they have thick skin. It’s nothing that they haven’t considered about themselves at least once in their new life. You’re right in thinking they are narrow minded because by necessity they must be. They’ve narrowed their field of vision to the path before them, forgetting what’s behind they keep on going, doubting themselves almost every step of the way. Falling more times than the world can count. But do you know why they keep going? Because on their path, the set of feet they follow looks like brass, as if they were burned in a furnace (Revelation 1:15) and they remember that The One that loves them hasn’t done so from a distant place. Hasn’t just sent letters of encouragement to them, but stepped into their fire and brought them out of it. They remember that no other love in this world would have loved them to ashes and back. So, they keep going. Mock away.

by Cristina Pop