Lately, my days have been assisted with bible plans from the bible app. I never really FULLY realized how the things we choose to consume can literally shape our way of thinking. I am doing these “Revelations Explained” seven part series with one of my sisters-in-law. Revelations can seem like a daunting book of the bible, but it is actually not. I think the reason that it scares some people, including me, because we don’t understand it. I am now starting Part 3 and wow, just the first two series were really mind opening, soul opening, and renewing my way of thinking.
The last plan of the second week of the Revelations Explained talked about Jesus being the Lamb that was slained. I started thinking of how even the simple things of life, we can easily complicate it. Something that is meant to be good for us, somehow can become toxic and twisted due to our own selfish needs. It’s a tough thought, yes, but I think in life we have to contemplate on things like this.
First Example
A house is there to shelter us from the rain, the scorching hot summer months, and the cold of winter. Through the ages, homes have become more reliable and strong to withstand many things. It’s a simple thing, but then now there’s debt, the society standards of who has the nicest house, status, hoarding, etc. What was meant to benefit us, is now creating these random other unnecessary problems.
We take more than what we can handle or is good for us. I remember a friend of a friend, told me about how her friend in California sold her current house to buy a bigger house because she wanted to have the biggest house in their circle of friends. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t afford it in a smart way. It just needed to happen. This is status and social standing.
God calls us to always be thankful for everything. Being content is sometimes hard for us, but it is a state that allows us to be joyful, thankful of the blessings we receive, and if I may say, a peaceful way of life. We no longer have the stress of “what should be”. God teaches us to always find internal peace and that is in Jesus.
“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature” – Matthew 6:26-27
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. – Colossians 3:15
Second Example
We find it hard to be honest. We have our own agenda, don’t we? We have our own desires that serve ourselves. God intended family, friends, and all the people that we know or even those we don’t know to be a way of unity and community. We were all meant to be brothers and sisters in Christ, but this is not all apparent here in this fallen world.
Now we have pride, jealousy, ignorance, and envy. I believe we act in this way because we make ourselves the foundation of life. “It’s what I think or feel, so it must be true and right.” That creates thousands and millions of different ways of thinking and beliefs. This creates division, arguments, judgments towards one another, and more!
Have you acted in ignorance because of your way of thinking? Instead of loving and being kind to another person is now difficult because you want something else to happen that you believe should be? This can be anything. We didn’t get the promotion we want, we didn’t win a prize or whatever, two people that you didn’t want together, but God intends them to be together. It can even be something small such as how they like to cook their food or raise their children. I think that’s why there’s the term “mommy shaming.” It can even be something “big” such as political beliefs and we see that here in our country. “You have to believe what I believe, otherwise you’re cancelled.” It’s a cancel culture right now. We believe things as they should be based on our own thinking and we impose it on others.
Now, something that is meant to be good to spread love and positivity have now become something so difficult. Being in the Word and studying the Word helps to renew our mind so that we may live it as God’s will instead of our own.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:30-31
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:18
Third Example
This is a fallen world, yes. It is so fallen that God sent His Son to save us. Literally sounds like a movie, and probably why many of us have a hard time to believe. God created everything for good. He created a man and woman in His own image because God has so much love. I am a married woman. I love my husband, and in retrospect… this love should be enough, right? But we have so much love that we wanted children. We have three children now because of that love. They will grow up and become their own people, and we cannot force them to be anything than what they will be. They will make mistakes, and we will always forgive. God did not create us to be robots. He created us to have free will, to choose to love Him.
I think God has so much love that He wanted us, even in our fallen version of ourselves. He knows we can be renewed so He sent Jesus and He always forgives. This simplicity to bring us back to Him is who God really is. He is a loving and forgiving God. All we have to do is just believe in Jesus. All God wants is for us to accept Jesus into our hearts – To believe that He is God sent to earth as the ultimate sacrifice for us all. Because of our free will and our selfish desires… God knows that it is hard. There is nothing else we should do, but believe and accept. Our love and acceptance of Jesus has nothing to do with extensive works, how many good deeds you’ve done, or how large your faith is.
Just accepting and believing Jesus is a gift that will create and refresh ALL the good in you. It comes naturally and with time. To be brought back in our original self in Jesus means that we have all been forgiven for everything we’ve done, we have become pure in God’s eyes, our minds has renewed to have a healthy way of thinking, and we have come to know the love that He freely gives us. That’s an amazing realization, is it not? Didn’t the stress just vanish? Did all that weight on your shoulders just lighten? We suddenly believe and know that God is sovereign and powerful in everything. All we have to do is let Him in.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. – John 3:16-17
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. – Ephesians 2:18
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20
Renewing of the mind takes time and the willingness to go back to our natural state… and that is with God. That’s the key word: willingness. You have to choose it. Let’s go back to simplicity and stop complicating things that were meant to be simple.
The truth is that this IS a fallen world because of our free will. We have not chosen the life God meant for us, but instead searching for our own things to pursue.
The truth is that God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us as a sacrifice, so that whoever believes in Him IS saved.
That’s so amazing to know that’s what God did for us and that’s all we have to do. Forget the complications and the confusion… It is just IS and He is who He says He is and we have learned this from history and the people who walked alongside Him. The birth, His life, and the resurrection. If all we can trust is evidence… can we at least accept that evidence?
pray with me.
Lord, I pray that I consistently dive in Your Word everyday so that I may know You more. I want to live a life with peace, simplicity, and to stop overthinking or over complicating things. Lord, I accept You as our Savior who loves us and is the one who consistently waits for us to accept You into our hearts. I know you do not require works from me, for that comes naturally by the Spirit that You leave with me. I know that You came down to live among us to be sacrificed so that I can be free and forgiven through You. Please help me be aware of the Spirit you’ve given me to keep me on track to focus on Your will, Lord. Amen.
