Never Give Up! God Will Send Help - Part 2

Character flaws are present in everyone and can cause even the strongest Christians to feel like impostors. An impostor permits character defect to gain control his or her life. A newspaper told of a pastor who led a charge against the president of a seminary, which resulted in the president's being fired. That pastor later resigned his church because scandals plagued his own personal life.

This illustrates how God's gift of leadership can become abusive. The carnal side of human nature goes after selfish pleasures which insist on being satisfied. The apostle Paul warns us to refrain from deceiving ourselves and others because God will not be mocked. Whatever we sow, that we will reap.

Godly resilience nudges us back to higher ground to walk with Jesus and be a blessing to others. All people are capable of drifting into sin and temptation because we never lose our old sin nature. But with Christ in us, we have a new nature which gives us power to establish boundaries on our old sinful nature.

Never Give Up! God Will Send Help - Part 1

Jesus' parable in Luke 18 illustrates two critical components of resilience. One is persistence, which is required for getting legitimate personal needs met with satisfaction. The other demonstrates the limitations of resilience by refusing to do the right thing. Godly stubbornness or steadfastness always seeks justice and goodness.

Listen as Jesus teaches about praying constantly and with determination. "There was a judge who never gave God a thought and cared less for people. However a widow kept after him seeking justice: 'My rights are being violated. Protect me'. After this went on and on, he said to himself, 'I care nothing about what God or people think, but this woman won't quit badgering me. I'll  see that she gets justice - otherwise I'm going to be beaten black and blue by her pounding.'"

Isn't that a wonderful story? The point is, God rewards persistent faith. He shows respect for resilience, which is a quality of character that will not give up or give in to rejection, no matter what its source.

Holding on Through Failure and Success - Part 3

Resilience keeps a person holding on when everyone says, "Let go."  Resilient people maintain a grip on what is right, good, and worthy, even when faced with great temptation.   The power and limitations of resilience or personal toughness is affected by what is believed to be true about a person or situation. "Whatever a man thinks in his heart, so he is."

There are limitations to resilience, that inner strength to adapt to the hardships of life. Psychologists study tolerance levels in people and remind us we  should acknowledge what we can tolerate as well as whom we can tolerate. Tolerance is about perception, which is indicative of what you think and believe.

Success and failure hinge on strengths and weaknesses, but not on these alone. Faith in Christ Jesus prevents letting go of your grip when you feel weak and it seems impossible to hang on. God gives strength to the weak, help to the needy, and hope for the future. He told the Apostle Paul, "My strength is made perfect in your weakness."  

Holding on Through Failure and Success - Part 2

To think of defeat as being an impostor is easy to accept. But to consider success as an impostor is hard to swallow. Very few people set themselves up to fail because success is a primary objective. However success as well as failure has the power to corrupt. Success can give birth to disregarding the rules for a healthy, godly life.

Success can blind a person to boundaries that were earlier a guiding force in life. Success can create an illusion of being invulnerable to failure. Rudyard Kipling's poem, Rewards and Fairies, regarded success as being an impostor whenever it has the alluring capacity to erase from consciousness the need for God.

The Apostle Paul, speaking to the church at Rome, prayed that God, who gives endurance and encouragement, would create such unity of heart and mind that each believer would give him recognition and praise for all they have, whether a little or in abundance. This attitude sees success or failure from God's perspective.

Holding on Through Failure and Success - Part 1

Former Senator Bill Bradley, who also played professional basketball for several years, quoted Rudyard Kipling in his book, Values of the Game. Kipling viewed  success and failure, triumph and defeat as impostors. Defeat and failure can negatively mark a person's identity just as the deceptiveness of success can trigger self-destructive behaviors.

          A prominent pastor was charged with sexual misconduct with two women from his church. Those charges were the tip of the iceberg of what was to follow, for they exposed the limitation of self-control and of splitting one's life into opposite moral poles, swinging form immoral behavior to pasturing God's people.

          God intended for leadership to be used for his glory rather than for satisfying an immoral appetite. According to  Bradley, all humans have the capacity for success and self-destruction. Yet God's mercy reaches to the pit of failure or the height of success. His unfailing love never lets go of even the most ardent sinner.  

Resilience: Standing Firm in Faith - Part 3

Most everyone acknowledges the fact of their personal limitations. To refuse to do so could prove embarrassing or even dangerous. There is a place within our body, mind, and spirit that acknowledges there are limitations to our capacity to bounce back from failure, from poor judgments and bad choices.

It's reasonable to believe that success and triumph can be as difficult to manage as failure. Stories abound of individuals who ascend to the top of the ladder of success only to fall off because of inadequate character strengths to manage success. Deliberate, destructive impulses may gain control and sabotage success.

After the last supper Jesus and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives, where he told them they were in danger of turning away from him due to the temptations they would later encounter. Peter vowed he would never fall away, yet before the evening was over, he denied even knowing Jesus. That  failure became a peak experience for Peter's character and faith that would push him forward to serve Jesus faithfully.  

Resilience: Standing Firm in Faith - Part 2

Steadfastness is a character quality that sustains the believer through hard, difficult days. Distractions remind us we are not completely sufficient in and of ourselves. Steadfastness anchored in trust to Christ Jesus prevents evil forces from pulling us away from our commitment.

James 5:11 reminds us of Job's steadfastness. He refused to surrender his faith even as Satan took away all he possessed except his life and his wife. Faithfulness is compared to a house built on solid rock that incapable of being  dislodged from its foundation by a storm. Where steadfastness is weak, it's like a house built on sand and swept away by the storm.

Steadfastness becomes rock-solid as God redeems our heart and soul. He purges away all sin and guilt and then renews our mind as we ingest his word. Jesus desires to create in you a new person that's incapable of falling away regardless of the wickedness you face. This is good news Jesus offers to you.