The secret to choosing hope over despair.

It’s so easy to melt into defeat. As much as the world we live in tries to escape from the limitations of being human by shifting the focus to ourselves- making ourselves look better by  wearing a certain makeup or sculpting our bodies by going to the gym- discouragement is sure to knock heavily on the door of the heart. Even in the Christian circle, however, the situation is not much different. Authors are giving no rest to their fingers as they are writing books about making ourselves better or about the 10 steps to a better ‘you.’ Little do they know that in order to escape the obvious flaws and inabilities within us, we don’t need more of ourselves but less. You see, every time I shift my focus from God to myself, I fall defeated. I know what it feels like to give your best effort into doing better in your Christian walk and completely ending up hungrier spiritually than ever. I want you to know that God uses those exact moments of inadequacy on our part in order to make us more aware of our great need for Himself which causes us to look to Him for help. I would like to tell you about a way of living that far surpasses your desires to be a better Christian. It goes beyond getting yourself out of bed when the alarm that you’ve set the night before so you could spend time with God before getting ready for the day, goes off, because it is not about you but about God Himself living through you. I will never tell you that in order to be a Christian you don’t need to do anything because He did it all; but I will tell you that as long as you are aware of Christ’s desire and power to overtake your life and are willing to submit to His lordship, you will experience the secret that many people die without discovering. The answer to your limitations lies in Christ Himself. In John 15:5, He clearly tells us that, “…apart from me you can do nothing.” This is no hidden symbolism that Christ wishes to expose to us- it is rather the very essence of Biblical living. It is the very secret to living in the power of Christ. In Andrew Murray’s truthful words, “Blessed the man who knows, then, in living faith to say, ‘But we behold…Jesus…crowned with glory and honour.’ Blessed is the man who knows to look away from all that he finds in himself of imperfection and failure and to look up and behold all the perfection and glory he finds in Jesus! Yes, blessed is the man who finds his delight and his life in meeting every disappointment and every difficulty with the blessed statement: ‘But we behold…Jesus…crowned with glory and honour.’ This is all I need! This satisfies the soul and gives it peace and joy and strength.” Don’t make the tragic yet highly committed mistake of falling under the overwhelming weight of disappointment and despair because of your inability to live up to God’s standards. Choose to look outside of yourself and unto Christ from where you can draw endless power and strength. The more you will submit your will to His, the more you will experience the truth that “…with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26)!