We as as believers in Jesus Christ are not ultimately defined by our circumstances, nor the events , either good or bad, that happen to us, and often shape our experience of life.
Neither does our personal testimony, either positive or negative that arises from our interpretation of those events and setbacks determine the true substance and reality of who we are, and what our life intrinsically consists of.
Only God’s own testimony about us, which fortunately never varies with the changing tides of human life and uncertainty , nor alters even fractionally, despite our seemingly disastrous experiences and sometimes disappointing and even devastating encounters with the realities of this fallen world.
This liberating and saving truth dramatically dawned on me recently when I suffered the loss, through theft, of my faithful laptop computer plus backup memory six containing literally years of study and research and personal and family information, my Black Berry with all my contacts, my Mp3 player with hundreds of hours of audio teaching, my trusted preaching Bible containing all my sermon notes of the last decade !
Literally all the practical tools of my craft and essential methods of communication as a teacher and a preacher of God’s Word vanished from my life overnight!
As I emerged from the shock and realization of the implications of this loss and regained focus, I realized the following; Being merely human, this negative event has the potential to permeate my consciousness, strenuously affect my life and further tempt me to let this trauma influence my personal ‘testimony’ for a long, long time…..it could in fact become ‘the narrative’ around which I act out my future life!
However, a greater truth and reality of life exists, and it is indeed this; that this ‘serious setback’ and ‘short term frustration’ has in no way affected or caused God to also change His ‘testimony’ concerning me, nor the ministry to which I have been called or my future!
You see, unlike us humans, God does not base His perception and testimony about us on the current ‘story of my life’, nor the appearance of events nor circumstances …no…God’s testimony about you and me is based solely and exclusively on His Son!
And His opinion and testimony is simply this: He has given us His Son….and in Him we have Life! Jesus came so that we may have Life and life abundantly! And…he who has the Son, has The Life!
His testimony is also that nothing, no nothing, no event however traumatic, no circumstance however disappointing, no force or element of nature however violent, or plot spawned from the evil supernatural or the depravity of fallen human nature enacted against our human person or temporal well being…nothing can ever separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus!
Only we ourselves, and also only in our own consciousness, not in actuality, can cause this sense of ‘separation’ from the Life and Love of God, when we allow circumstances and events to override the immutable and eternal testimony of God concerning the irretractable gift of Life and Love in the Son!
The ‘Testimony of God’ regarding His Son is always our ‘default’ position as believers when life deals us a blow, causing us to lose our firm footing or when doubt and uncertainty threatens to overtake us! When the volatility of the human condition threatens to become our personal ‘testimony’!
Embracing His testimony in the face of adversity is indeed the embracing of Life and Love……….it is entering into the unusual place of perfect calm….. that strangely prevails within in the very eye of life’s frequent and unpredictable storms!
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