The Models Predict...8/31/2021 I had several hurricane experiences growing up in Louisiana. Of the many, Hurricane Katrina was by far the worst and most memorable. Recently, Hurricane Ida came through and made landfall the same day Katrina did 16 years ago. Surprisingly, while the models were exceptionally accurate for Ida, that is not always the case. The reality of any weather prediction is this: We can only predict. We cannot direct. We cannot force weather systems to do our bidding—to come or go, or to increase or decrease in intensity. We cannot direct it to do anything. In fact, leading up to Ida, my neighbor (who is also from Louisiana) and I made predictions about the damage to come in the neighborhood. Our predictions were wrong and much worse than reality. We can predict, but we cannot direct. In the same way, we cannot direct the events in our lives. We can predict what might happen, but we cannot force events. Granted, we can attempt to manipulate situations and circumstances, but we cannot direct them. Any attempt to direct (or manipulate) is folly. Hurricane season is a simple reminder that we do not control as much as we’d like to think. However, while we cannot control events, we can control our response. So, what must our response be when faced with situations and circumstances that are out of our control? We lean into God even more. We rest in him, knowing that he has all things under control. The one who is infinite can care for the one who is finite, but not the other way around. The one who calms the winds and waves is the one who calms the anxious mind and heart. As followers of Jesus, we are often reminded that we are not in control. I look back on my journey with Jesus and see areas of my life that I believed I controlled, and I found myself in an absolute mess. My pastor has often said that we try to sit on a throne that is way too big for us and wear a crown that doesn’t belong to us. When we do this, we take “control” and make a mess of things. Friend, what area of your life are you trying to control? Why not lay it down at the feet of Jesus? He never told us to sort it out, but rather to trust him. You cannot live a victorious, crucified life when you seek to call the plays. On the journey, KT A person’s own foolishness (folly) leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the LORD. -Proverbs 19.3 (CSB) You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. -Isaiah 26.3 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. -1 Peter 5.6-7 When I am filled with cares, your comfort brings me joy. -Psalm 94.19
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When I’m not at the office, I like to spend my time building things. Currently, I have multiple building projects going on and each one is vastly different. I enjoy each project and I get excited when I begin to enter the final stages of a project because I’m able to admire the work and move on to the next job.
While I get to enjoy this luxury [finishing projects] in my workshop, I do not enjoy this luxury in my walk with Jesus—and neither do you. I often find myself annoyed that I am not yet perfect. Now, I am not talking about perfectionism. No, no. Rather, I am talking about the struggle with sin. It is a continual battle that hardly ever relents! I walk with Jesus and yet I still sin. I walk with Jesus and yet still say and do dumb things. I seek to walk in humility and then stumble into pride without noticing. And my list (and yours) goes on. As I have thought about this, I have realized a few things, and a few things that I hope will be an encouragement: I am not who I was. In 1 Cor. 6.9b-11, Paul wrote this: “Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Notice what Paul said: “Some of you used to be like this [drunkards, adulterers, sexually immoral, etc.]” But, for some of his readers, his preceding list of unrighteous people no longer applied to them. Why? Simply put: Jesus. They surrendered to Jesus and were changed. No longer were they enslaved to sin but were now at war with sin. Understand this: Sinners do not war with sin—only Saints do (Col. 3.1-17). When I look at my life and my ongoing sanctification process, I often get annoyed and discouraged. However, by God’s grace, I am reminded that I am not who I was and that I am a new creation in Christ. I am a new creation in Christ. Talking about the new life in Christ, Paul wrote “the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5.17). In Christ, I am new and I am free. I am free to do that which I ought to do and am no longer captive to sin and darkness. What does this look like? Well, for starters, I also have a new mind—the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2.16). I can understand spiritual things and I can know God and be known by God (Gal. 4.9). I also have an eternal hope because Jesus is hope and is eternal (John 1.1; 1 Pt. 1.3). Therefore, I can walk the disciple’s journey regardless of how difficult it may become because he is the one who leads (Ps. 23). I am not who I will be. And this is the reminder I often give myself when I’m discouraged by the battle: I am not who I will be. Yes, I am a new creation in Christ, and nothing can ever change that. However, I have yet to fully realize the extent to which I am a new creation—that will come in the next life. Even so, here’s the hope: Because I have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God (2 Cor. 6.11), and am a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5.17), with the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2.16), I am now, “with [an] unveiled face, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and am being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3.18). And in the words of John: “Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is” (1 John 3.2). Maturing in Christ is a process you and it will be in until we die or the Lord comes back. May we look to him to find our strength for today and the power to keep pursuing him. May we all commit to the pursuit of God and make it our life’s mission to “know him and the power of his resurrection from among the dead” (Phil. 3.11). On the journey, KT Kreig ToddChild of God. Archives
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