Isn't it something how wind, weather, and indeed the whole world, can change day to day? And isn't it something how our hearts and spirits can rise and fall...varying so dramatically from one day to the next, and even from one moment to the next?
There is One constant in the midst of all this upheaval and change in our daily lives--the Lord Jesus. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Heb.13:8)
He is the same Almighty Savior who saves us from our sins and gives us moment-by-moment grace to live this life to His glory. He is the same Lord who is sovereign over every single thing that ever happens to us and is working all, all, all things for our greater good and His greater glory. He is the same loving, tender, compassionate One who knows our every thought, our every failing, our every sin and loves us just as we are...BUT Who also loves us too much to leave us there. He is the same God of unimaginable glory who has power over even sin and death, and Whose resurrection power is available to us 24-7. He is the constant Companion, Encourager, Comforter who has given us His Holy Spirit to continually guide, correct, convict, help, and lead us. He is the same Emmanuel--God with us--all the time, all the way.
So here's the thing: when our emotions go up and down, when life presses us hard and trials come, will we choose to remember and place our trust in this unchangeable, perfect, omnipotent, and infinitely loving Savior? Or will we place our trust in our own piddly little ideas and plans? Will we trust our ever-faithful Emmanuel or our ever-vacillating emotions?
Or, as Paul David Tripp says, will we preach to ourselves "a false 'I can't do this' gospel or the true 'I have all I need in Christ' gospel?'" As Tripp says over and over again, "No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do."
Isn't that the truth? Aren't we all constantly talking to ourselves, evaluating ourselves, others, the world, and choosing the lens--either a lens of Gospel truth and hope or of worldly doubt and despair--through which we will view all these things? Tripp reminds us:"We either preach to ourselves a gospel of aloneness, poverty, and inability or the true Gospel of God's presence, power, and constant provision. You are preaching to yourself a gospel that produces fear and timidity or one that propels you with courage and hope. You are preaching to yourself of a God who is distant, passive, and uncaring [which is, incidentally a totally false God!] or of a God who is near, caring, and active."
Today, this very day, we each have the choice: which gospel will we preach to ourselves? Will it be the Gospel of Jesus Christ's gift of salvation, grace, and ever-lasting hope...or some gospel of lies, self-dependency, and despair. Will it be the Gospel of the Truth as revealed in God's perfect, eternal Word...or of any other lesser, empty, failing, misery-inducing man-made gospel?
You choose. What will you be preaching to yourself this day? Our gracious, extravagantly generous Lord has given us His Word that we might daily preach to ourselves the life-giving, strength-infusing, hope-sustaining Truth.
Yep, a lot can change in a day, including us and our perspective on life. And so much depends on the words that we are preaching to ourselves on a daily and hourly basis. Let's choose Truth and Life. Let's choose the Word. Let's choose Jesus.
To God be the glory.
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