Just gonna ramble a little bit, bear with me:
This week I’ve started to learn what it means to stand on Christ as your rock amidst the storm of circumstances. Not that my circumstances have been bad—they haven’t been bad. But they’ve been different. I’m the type of person that likes familiarity, and over the past week….. every single thing has been unfamiliar.
I walked into a living situation with three roommates I didn’t know. I started a job in a new town with new employers and new gym clientele. I’m having to learn to navigate though a city I’ve only been to once in my adult life. I came down here not knowing a soul, so every encounter with every person has been new and unfamiliar………you get my point. Every little thing is different.
I am an anxious person by nature and tend to get overwhelmed easily—fortunately, I know this. And in knowing this, I’ve pressed into the Lord in advance before embarking on each day. Not that I didn’t have my quiet time back in Shreveport in the mornings—I did. But now it’s different. Now it’s not just something I need to do, it’s something I have to do. Being close to the Lord is my only way of maintaining my sanity. I am desperate for the work of Christ’s Spirit in my life in a much more profound way than I’ve ever been. He is–and has this week proven to be– my hope, my rock, my stability amongst instablity. I am so thankful for Him calming my soul this week and for broadening my vision beyond these circumstances to continue to see the bigger picture—the eternal picture. No matter where I’m at in this world, God is God—and the whole earth is His.
This has been the anchor of my soul lately: the unchangeableness of God’s goodness toward me in Christ. How I wish I saw this with clarity all of the time! But like most others, I get comfortable in life and get away from central point of the gospel. I get focused on other things, and in some way convince myself that those things are the reason for God’s goodness toward me. But the fact of the matter is that God is not “impressed” with me moving to a new city for the gospel or reading the Word and praying with diligence….. God is impressed with the finished work of Jesus Christ. And THAT is the basis of His goodness toward me and THAT is the reason that I can have a deep anchor of the soul that keeps me from being tossed to and fro by circumstances. However good, bad, familiar, or different those circumstances may be—however diligent, lazy, stubborn or prideful I may get at times—Christ, through His Cross, has secured me in the goodness of God. I am safe, protected, and immovable in the goodness of God. What an awesome, inspiring and comforting fact. It leaves me speechless.
Wonderful and inspiring post , Matt!!!! –”Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be change, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be CHANGED!!! ” –What a glorious hope we have in Jesus. You get it, Matt. You get it really well!!! Press on and share THAT in NOLA!!
Hope is so important Matt, reminds me of a favorite verse 1 Corinthians 13:13, ” For there are three things that will endure- faith, HOPE and love- and the greatest of these is love”
Hope often feels like such a loosey-goosey intangible thing, but your post is such a strong reminder that hope is the foundation for everything. For our lives today and our lives forever. Hope is everything. What an awesome truth, and one I lose sight of far too often. Thanks for the reminder. Much love brother.
Beautiful Matt, Beautiful! I love you, congrats on the new job!!! I’m so happy and proud for you, don’t forget to come visit when you come back home.
A wonderful reminder to us all….even those of us who sit in the familiar. Let us never become so familiar that we miss Christ newness everyday and we become complacent!
Hi Matt, I think you write beautifully. I am glad that you are able to express day to day life in the most of simple words and get understood…by me anyway. I too I’m a person that tends to get overwhelmed very easily. I took up a new job approximately three months ago and for a while I’d wake up panicking about what my new responsibilities were and whether I’d be able to meet the required standard. I still panick about that sometimes but God is helping me. I probably haven’t prayed much about it as I should but I’m encouraged to lean on Him more and more beacasue of what you have written.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read one of your blogs and I picked a good one to read! I’m amazed that, yet again I find I’m not alone in my feelings! Many others struggle with the feeling of being overwhelmed! Having majored in Psychology, I know that the feeling is brought on when I feel like I’ve lost “control”! Funny thing about control is that it is an illusion! Humans have NO CONTROL over anything! We can’t control what happens when we drive on the highway, we can’t even control what happens inside our own bodies.
I think one of the major problems with many people & God is that they are mostly focused on, “What about ME! WHAT ABOUT WHAT I WANT!” I’ve heard people say that if God really wants them to serve Him then He will have to except them as they are, because they are determined to live the way that makes them happy! Sooo not gonna happen! I hear people that are sinners say, “I love the Lord! “, again not true! Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Matt & those of us who do our best every day, let’s pray as often as we do that God let our lives reflect the life of Christ and that through that sinners will become aware of their sins and come to repentance! Let’s make sure that we give ALL PRAISE, HONOR &GLORY TO GOD!
For it is only because the Holy Ghost dwells with us & the blood of Jesus saves us that we can work the Holy Will of God!