Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
In such a day as this, we must stir up our hearts to know the salvation of our God for the sake of influencing our world in life-giving ways. Our salvation is seen by the manifest presence of Jesus in our lives. As leaders, we must rest our hope fully on the grace that comes by seeing Jesus in our lives each and every day and we must lead others in doing the same.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
In this verse, Peter is talking to believers; human beings who have discovered that God loves them. They are not better than other human beings, they have just discovered God’s love. This verse implies that the loins are in the mind. It implies that our future is in our thinking. The world does not gird up the loins of their mind. The world doesn’t have their loins in their mind, they have their mind in their loins. In other words, their future is in the desires of their flesh. Their future is bound to their own ways. They can even have a good intention and a good heart, but they do not put their hope in what God can do in them. They see their future as dependent upon their own human abilities. Their future is determined by what they think, they can do, or what they want to do. God knows that there is a better way. He wants us to be dependent upon Him in all things. I believe that we are about to see a supernatural testimony of God’s grace beyond what we have seen in the past. Our future is only found through Christ in us and Christ in us will empower the thinking of our hearts and minds to be that of children of a Father who loves us. This is the environment of grace and it creates an atmosphere of life for who we are meant to be. It is not about what we can do for Him. It is about who we are in Him.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is for us, not against us. He is for us, but not necessarily for our ways. He is for us and thus He is transforming our lives to His ways in all things. He wants to freely give us all things. He wants to give us His heart. He wants to give us a testimony of His character, nature, way, power, and authority in our lives. God has justified us to live and thus He is giving us a testimony of life. He is giving us truth in who we are. The tribulations, distresses, persecutions or any hard thing in life is not meant to destroy us, but merely to prove the power of God’s grace at work in our lives. God is not the author of the things that come against us in this world, but He is the author and finisher of our faith in all things. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in the midst of all things. When we face the trials of life, our connection to God must be more important than merely our deliverance in our circumstances. The purpose of our present circumstances is so we will know God in His love for us like never before. It is God in His love that will lead us forward in the path of life, not merely our deliverance for our past or freedom from our present circumstances. As leaders, we must lead others in knowing God in His love. This is the true lesson of life. God loves us and nothing can ever separate us from that fact. It is time to draw near to Him so the power of His love can be revealed in and through our lives.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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