Encouragement

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Created In His Image

My reflection in this article is centred on how we are created in God’s image to live a victorious and fulfilled life, despite all of our life’s pressures; I will explore why we loose our focus off Christ; and also in the process, to find ways through Scriptures how to refocus on who we really are in Christ.

What started this current article I was while flicking through my notes on ‘faith, and also on the book of Proverbs,’ recorded while I was in Canada (Proverbs is a great book to study it contrasts ungodly lifestyle with living a godly lifestyle). Nearing the back of my notebook I had written notes on ten principles about “How Do I See Myself”these notes jumped out in front of me. The article was written in - a daily devotional Words forToday on 24th January 200, the text was Genesis 1:31. I was so encouraged with these ten points highlighted in the days reading, that I had to write them down. I believe I will share these ten points at some juncture within the text. But for now, I will concentrate on the idea of walking in the the created image of God; that God said, was good and completely approved of what He had created.

I guess most of us do not want to focus on ourselves but the daily grind which is common to all, be it, emotional and stressful situations, family or cash flow etc. can divert our attention. While we are here on earth, these are the source of our enjoyment, the benefit of the family, home, car and other material things.

Nevertheless, these many things which have been blessings to us can often be used to become distractions to take our focus off Christ. Heighten family cricis or financial burden can have a dominoes effect that escalates most of our life’s problems. Many of us have tried to hold on to Scriptures, declare them regularly, quote them ‘cast all our cares on Jesus because He cares for us’ knowing He is always working alongside us and taking us through these battles; but when we least expect we become overwhelmed by these distractions and down we go into our dungeons whether for a short term or long term.

The devil, who is the emeny of our soul, knows exactly how to get our attention and dismantles our steadfast walk; disrupt our minds with things, to remove our focus on the God who is bigger than any of our problems, trials and tribulations to focus on ourselves. Do you know that the devil looses his grip on us through every battle? Every time we rise up and declare to Him, our position in God, he loose. The enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but Jesus is the Lion of Judah who breaks the devil’s chain over us. We have the word of God so let us use it, we have got what it takes to succeed in every trials, we can rejoice in any tribulation because the ‘Hope of Glory’ lives in our hearts, the song writer says ‘Rejoice, rejoice, Chist is in you, the hope of glory in our hearts, He lives, He lives, His breath is in you, arise a mighty army, we arise---.’ The Bibls says when God created mankind He was pleased with His creation, we are His creation.

And God said, Let Us [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and and let them have complete authority over all of the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.Genesis1:26 [Psalm 104:30; Hebrews1:2; 11:3] Amplied Version

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was vey good (suitable, pleasant) and He approved it completely---. Genesis 1:31Amp.

We have been chosen and created for a purpose; we have been hand made, and hand picked by the Godhead; embedded within us are potentials for special purposes. Wow! Do we really get it? Hand picked. One of a kind, no one else is exactly like us. When we live less than what we have been created for we are living below God’s expectation. Can you imagine; no matter how we feel, what we look like, our backgrounds, where we originated from; the fact is that God has created us, not man. We become united with His original plan when we renounce our sins and accept Jesus as our personal Saviour. We have been engrafted into the universal body of Chist and we are expected to live supernaturally on earth. We can call God, ABBA Father, and that is a supernatural act which we can not understand but must accept.

The word supernatural seems to throw us because we might believe to live supernaturally we must have a halo of bright lights over our heads and act in a certain (spooky) religious way; but living supernaturally natural, is living above the world’s standards. Paul’s advice Romans 12:2 – Amplified version, listen, “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], be transformed (change) by the [entire], renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].” In another version it says, ‘Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould---’ and if we can survive living above the worlds’ standard we are walking as God has created us to be, naturally supernatural. This truth (that we are supernatural beings) should enable us to be bold even when we are going through trials, and not let them overwhelmed us; we should have enough strength and confidence to rise above these obstacles, but we are not to be confident in our own strength, but who we are in God.

How do we demonstrate to the world that we have been hand picked, and God’s special people during our trials? It is only by the attitude we portray and holding our head up high. However, the enemy of our soul knows exactly what to bring along our pathway to dismantle our unswerving strides, disrupt our minds, remove our focus from Christ and turned it inwards. But the good news is we are on the winning side, we have His word in Philippians 4:6 “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving continue to make your wants known to God” (Amp); we are not only to believe the word, obey it, but to live it. We walk in the finish work of Christ. He has already given us the victory and the liberty to walk in that freedom; according to the Scripture we should ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling---,’ it is our choice whether we stay focus or not, ‘we don’t need to do anything we really don’t want to do’ (may be not correct grammar), but what it means we have free will, we are not forced to do anything.

What do we do, whenever we loose focus?
We should take hold of the word of God and remember how special we are to Him; concentrate on how much He loves us, and that we are known only to Him. He is rooting for us to succeed. His word is an entrance into an abundant supply; we seek Him through His word and have daily regular fellowship.

We can only know the heart of the Father through the Son and by obeying His word. The closer we get to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are less likely to habitually sin. But if we should commit any sin we have an advocate to plead our cause when we confress our sins. John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But remember, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins.” We have been given all the ammunition we need to live above sin. In this verse I will look at four clauses:
• First clause, - if we walk, that is, in order to live in close fellowship with Jesus, our walk depends on it;
• Second clause, how do we walk? We walk in the light; the light of God’s commands - be ye holy for I the Lord am holy,
• Third clause, we have fellowship with one another, living above sin depends on our fellowship, God has instuted His body for fellowship; obeying these three steps the fourth clause is automatic, a continuing cleansing is taking place during our walk with Jesus.
• Fourth clause, the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” 1John 1: 7
We have not been created in God’s image to sin, we are of a different kingdom, and belongs to the kingdom of light. Do you know to doubt God is sin and also to crumble under attacks or pressure is sin?

I have had many attacks during the last year or so and I have deliberately kept my focus and have steadfastly held on to the Word of God. I have continued worshipping and praising my Lord despite of everything, but unknowingly like a deflated balloon I had often found myself down in the dumps, for a minute second my focus shifted and that’s all it takes. How am I or how can we able to lift someone else up? It is impossible to lift up another person while we are down in the dumps; so that is why from where we are, call out to God, ask Jesus to take over our lives; He is the One who lifts us up.

This reality hits me since last September; to eliminate us from being overwhelmed by circumstances (and dominate our focus) we need to die daily to self. I had to make sacrifices and continually live in that word God gave to me - “I need sacrifice, and you must die to self.” It is not easy to die to self, I’m telling you, it’s a daily battle, but to really live is to die and experience abundant life; seeing ourselves as God sees us (living above sin) dying is the only way. To stay focus on Christ and bear His image: is to die to ourselves, trust Him to fulfil His word, walk in His word, fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fellowship with each other; we are recapturing (Genesis 1:26) living in God’s image. When God had finished His work He saw everything that He had created was very good, Genesis1:31. This is how God sees you and me in the 21st century, but we have a part to play, so let us live as God intended us to live.

Whose image do we emulate? This is an extract from Word For Today (as describe earlier in the text) has impacted me, see excerpt below.
How Do I See Myself?
“After God completed His work He declared everything very good---” Genesis 1:31 NIV

(1) Never think or speak negatively about yourself that put you in disagreement with God.
(2) Meditate on your God-given strengths and learn to encourage yourself, for much of the time nobody else will.
(3) Don’t compare yourself to anybody else. You’re unique, one of a kind, an original. So don’t settle for being a copy.
(4) Focus on your potential, not your limitations. Remember God lives in you!
(5) Find what you like to do, do it well and strive to do it with excellence.
(6) Have the courage to be different. Be a God pleaser, not a people pleaser.
(7) Learn to handle criticism. Let it develop you instead of discourage you.
(8) Determine your own worth instead of letting others do it for you. They’ll short change you!
(9) Keep your short comings in perspective you’re still a work in progress.
(10)Focus daily on your greatest source of confidence. The God Who lives in you!

WOW! Fearfully! Wonderfully! God has made us; with ingrained potentials to live victoriously.

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