Freedom and Victory in Christ...

Note: The date of this post is scheduled as 21st of March as that is where I'm writing from although I am only posting it now on the 28th of March

For some reason, I felt like sometimes we get so bogged down by life and all the burdens it carries, coz we are not perfect and we make mistakes, and we face difficulties in life along the way. But, we forget that we have such joy and freedom that comes from the death of Jesus Christ who took all our sins and we have a Saviour who if only we will seek in prayer promises to forgive and to comfort us from the burdens in our lives. (God does not take away our burdens, but He places His hand under ours and takes the weight off us.) Really, I realise how meaningful the hymn What A Friend We Have in Jesus is in an age where so much of the hype is on contemporary Christian music, I’m not saying that Christian music should be fixed to one genre, as long as it expresses the heart of worship it doesn’t really matter, but what I am saying is that there is actually a much richer message embedded in the words of songs and hymns of worship that are of old. Anyway, this particular hymn speaks of exactly what I am expressing here, that we have joy of knowing that we have a God who can take our burdens to and we can live freely knowing that there is no burden too great for God, that He can relieve us from, so we can live unhindered by our burdens. And, the sermon in Church was like the perfect way to continue...

Basically, this is the outline of that message....

The necessity of weakness

1. Lest we trust in our own our strength

2. Lest we steal the glory from God

3. Lest we forget victory belongs to God

That strength may be made perfect in weakness

1. Strengthen by His grace and mercy

2. Strengthen to be courageous

And we can be more than conquerors in weakness

1. A seemingly absurd strategy

2. A seemingly incomprehensible victory

The reason I say it is a perfect continuation is that not only do we have the joy and freedom of knowing Jesus has paid the price and knowing that we can take our burdens to God, is that He is able to show Himself strong in our weaknesses, it is in our weaknesses that He gets His Will done and we can be more than conquerors through Christ. That is the ultimate show of God’s love and His glory, that He died for us to take our burdens and that He shows Himself strong in our weakness. And, of course, we have the victory in Christ alone in so many ways.

And, like there were two things of the many things we mentioned during Youth class. On the day we did Acts 16 and recapped on Acts 15. I can’t remember exactly what we were talking about that let to this but like it was something to do with realising who our true friends are when we have certain difficult circumstances in our lives. And, I feel like as much as I used to have trouble finding friends and I could have been more sociable, it was because of my condition, I was able to see who were my real friends. That is because I believe people were not very friendly to me due to me being different. But, the few who were nice to me were the ones who could see beyond my differences and see me for who I am. Also, in Acts 16 the Lord prevented Paul and Silas from going to certain places to spread the gospel but opened the way to the places the Lord’s Will dictated. It feels so real in my life the way that God does His Will in my life, just like my path in my life now...the Lord closed the doors to university for me at this moment, but opened the path for me to study in a course I want before trying for university again. Not just in this, in many ways the Lord in fact has used this method to do His Will in my life. And, but no mean is it a bed of roses, it is sometimes through painful circumstances that the Lord directs us, and I have gone through experiences like that in my life.

So yea, these were the few things I felt the Lord spoke to me about for the Sunday on the 21st of March...