We Are More Than Conquerors
We Are More Than Conquerors
For some, “shelter-in-place” may mean inconvenience or take a deep breath, maybe enjoy the well needed time with loved ones, for others, perhaps not so much. “Shelter-in-place” may be so much more than not leaving your home but include; groceries, medicines, being alone, loneliness, kids, home from school yet needing to attend school online, financial, nerves, people stepping on what you might consider your very last nerve. For many, this time dealing with a world-wide pandemic is overwhelming.
We at Everyone Has The Freedom To Choose want to be a foghorn in your life to say:
“Keep going; you can do it, God created you with all you need to be all you can dream of being even in this hard and challenging place.”
This statement is not a trite cliché or minimizing what you are going through, but to say: “Even in this place of extreme challenge, you can do this.”
You are not alone. Together we can make it.
It is time to stop, take a deep breath, and say, “God, we need your help. we need to know we can make it through this place. We need Your strength, grace, mercy, and wisdom to know how to navigate these deep waters that we are going through.” For me, I have spoken those very words in times where I was sure I didn’t have answers, strength, and surely not the grace to push through the hard place.
But, God.
I found that when I ran out of me, with all the pain, stress, and struggle in midst of the circumstance, God gave me what I needed to make it through to the other side. Sometimes the challenge was for a short time. Other times it was extended over the years. But through it all when I was willing to ask God for help, God was always there.
God may not have answered the way I wanted or in the timeframe I thought was needed. But when I look back over some of those times in my life, His answers always worked the best for my good.
I must say I quit praying for patience and learned to ask for His grace instead. Grace is a free gift. Patience, we need to work through circumstances that required patience. When asking God for His grace to fill us, we find we are “graceful” because we are “grace-filled.” It changes our perspective. Being “grace-filled” changes how we respond. I know there have been times I was shocked at my response to a person or circumstance when I asked God to fill me with His grace that I would be “grace-filled” so I could be “graceful” to others.
The statement on our website, in the “Who We Are” section, came from those hard places in my life. It was God always, not sometimes, but always, giving me what I needed to make it through the circumstance. Ultimately, I became a better person, stronger, wiser, kinder, and more grateful than I was before I faced the challenge.
It is in our perspective and knowing God is with us that makes a difference in our lives.
The apostle Paul tells us this:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8: 37-39 New International Version (NIV)
We really do have the Freedom To Choose to get up when down. Move when frozen by fear. Be strong when challenged by circumstances. Re-fired when tired of being strong. Love, even when you feel empty. Give when you think you have nothing of value left to give. When we ask, God steps in and gives us all we need to go on, to succeed, to get up, to give out, to love more. We have the freedom to choose to look up and become better, stronger, freer, or choose to be like a ship wallowing in stormy seas, constantly striving and focused on the storm.
There is more to life than to strive. There is more to life than just surviving.
We can thrive!
That is a choice, not a right, not a given, but a choice.
We all have the Freedom to Choose!
Things come and go and sometimes come again, but people are irreplaceable. Their lives in large or small parts have similar challenges. Although we may not be able to reach out and physically touch one another, we can reach out in love. We can ask God for grace to fill us so we can be “grace-filled” that we may be “graceful” to those around us.
With God, we will make it; we will thrive! We are more than conquerors!
