II Corinthians 10:4-5-4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Galatians 2:20-20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
We live in the flesh. We deal with the physical realities and challenges of life, but the way to handle everything we will face is by faith in the Son of God. He is always with us (Hebrews 13:5). He has a plan for our good (Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11).
Here is what I know. Satan cannot diminish, derail, or destroy the person who is living by faith.
Make up your mind that it is faith over feelings and even faith over physical facts for you. Who you know, the Resurrected Christ, is greater than what you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.
In John 20, we read about Mary Magdalene’s distress at the empty tomb. She had gone to anoint Jesus’ body. There hadn’t been time to do it properly before He was placed in the tomb. Mary Magdalene, a woman from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons (Luke 8:2) was determined to give Jesus a proper burial. When she arrived, however, she saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb. She took off running and found Peter and John and the story she told them was that “they” had taken the Lord out of the tomb and had hidden Jesus’ body. She thought the Romans or some other earthly authority had stolen Jesus’ body.
She didn’t come to that conclusion from faith. She came to that conclusion out of fear. Jesus had been the One to liberate her. Before she encountered Him, she was tormented by 7 demons. Her life was a hell on earth. Every day was distressing. What would happen to her now? Without Jesus to guide her and protect her, without her Liberator, what did her future hold? We can understand why fear might be a natural response in this case. As followers of Jesus, however, we can choose the supernatural response, the response of faith, to conquer fearful thinking.
Peter and John ran to the tomb to investigate things, and when John looked in the tomb, John 20:8 tells us he saw and believed. Both John and Mary Magdalene saw the same evidence, but only one of them interpreted the evidence with faith. Peter and John ran off to tell the other disciples what had happened, but Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb weeping. She was stuck in that moment of grief.
It’s easy to get stuck in an unwanted place, isn’t it? John says she then looked inside the tomb where she saw two angels. They asked her why she was crying, and she told them the same story. She had convinced herself that the Roman authorities or some other authority had stolen Jesus’ body. After she told her story, she turned around and saw who she thought was the gardener, and she asked Him if He was the grave robber. She didn’t realize she was face to face with the risen Christ. Listen, without faith, you won’t even recognize Jesus when He is standing in front of you. You have to make a move in faith if you want to see Jesus!
Jesus called her by name, and when she heard Him say her name, everything changed. Grief gave way to joy and hope. She tried to cling to Him, but instead of allowing her to do so, He sent her on a mission to tell the other disciples she had seen Him, that He was indeed alive.
We must stop drawing conclusions based on natural fear and live by convictions from supernatural faith. When fear begins to creep in, we need to “hold that thought.” We need to hold it up against the Cross of Christ and the Words of Scripture.
Mary Magdalene let her feelings lead her mind to the worst-case scenario.
Listen, God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, II Timothy 1:7. While it is natural to be concerned in a situation about what will happen next, how life will be different because of an unwanted event or how you will go on in the midst of some uncertainty, you have the option to exercise the supernatural response of faith. You can evict fear from the equation. You can declare that God is with you and for you and that He is going to work things out. You can “hold that thought” and make it obey the Lordship of Christ.
A second post-resurrection story comes from Luke 24. It’s the famous “Emmaus Road” walk where two followers of Christ are walking and talking about all the things that transpired. They had to feel like they were living in a nightmare. It had to be surreal. Jesus’ arrest, the trials, and the crucifixion all happened very fast. Sometimes things happen so quickly that our minds can’t even process what we are experiencing. Anyone know what I’m talking about?
They were dejected and downcast, and as they were talking to each other, Jesus slipped up beside them and started walking with them. Like the Mary Magdalene encounter, these two people didn’t recognize that it was Jesus who had joined them. Jesus nonchalantly asked them, “Whatcha talking about?” And the two Christ-followers stood still, verse 17, and Luke said, they were looking sad.
They couldn’t believe that the stranger on their journey appeared to be oblivious of all that had just transpired.
Everyone was talking about it. The person named Cleopas said, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
They weren’t wrong to pin their hopes on Jesus, but they were wrong to lose hope when what Jesus went through was necessary to fulfill His mission to redeem Israel and the entire world. There was a bigger picture they had not yet seen. What they had hoped for is actually what happened. Jesus did redeem Israel through His death, but because that redemption didn’t happen in the way they thought it would, because Jesus didn’t perform according to their earthly expectations, they counted Him out.
When the thought, “We’re done for,” “We’re toast,” “All hope is lost,” when those thoughts entered their minds, they had an opportunity to arrest their hopeless thoughts and to remind themselves of what they knew to be true about Jesus, but instead, they let hopelessness rule.
And here is Jesus’ response:25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Notice that when hope had left them, Jesus took them to the Word. What does that say to you about the power of the Word and the need to go to the Word when we are struggling? The Word will get your mind on the real battle, will enable you to war, and will get your thoughts on victory. When you allow yourself to sift what you are going through, through the lens of God’s promises, you’ll be reminded that there is always a plan. Some things are necessary for us to experience. Jesus had to die. There was no other way, but His death wasn’t going to be the end of things. It was also necessary for Jesus to be raised from the dead.
Every time when hope seems lost, when you have encountered some kind of death, some kind of loss, whether the death of a dream, a door that closed that you were counting on to be open for you, or even the loss of a loved one, you don’t have to be relegated to a hopeless existence! On the other side of that loss, God can bring a resurrection of hope into your life! Even when you feel like your life is empty because of loss, God can fill you with hope and bring fullness to your life. Don’t believe your feelings, and don’t give them an opportunity to be magnified. Grieve over what you have lost, but “hold that thought” that hope is gone. Arrest that thought. Hope is never gone for a child of God because Hope is a person, and He will join you on your journey. He will remind you all of He has said. He will point you to the bigger picture to give you the hope you need to keep going.
When you start to feel hopeless, you need to “hold that thought” and remind yourself that Christ is the Living Lord and because He is alive, our hope is alive! There is a bigger picture you can’t always see, but you can pray for God to reveal the truth of His Word and reassure you of the reality of His presence. Hold that thought of hopelessness and ask God to give you boldness to trust Him as you keep walking by faith.
One final story from John 21. We read that after the crucifixion, Peter went back to fishing. He had promised to follow Christ even unto death, but after Christ was arrested, Peter denied he even knew who Jesus was. That happened not once, not twice, but three times.
Jesus had found Peter when he was fishing. He had called Peter away from fishing for fish and told him He would make him a fisher of men, but shortly after his failures, after his betrayal of Jesus, Peter went back to doing what he had been doing before Jesus found him.
Sometimes, our failures trigger thoughts that Jesus could no longer use us, that we have disappointed Him to a point where we have been disqualified for the future and the plans He had for us.
I love that John 21 tells us that while Peter was fishing, Jesus showed up on the shore. Once again, Peter and those who were with him, didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Jesus asked them if they had caught any fish, but they hadn’t.
Jesus instructed Peter to throw the net on the right side of the boat and promised the fish would respond, and they did. The haul was miraculous!
In that moment, and in the moments that followed, Jesus was reassuring Peter that our failures are no match for His redemptive power. Jesus still has miracles for us, even on the other side of our failures! Jesus was going to give Peter a do-over, a fresh start. He didn’t have to live with a cloud hanging over his head. His failures could be forgiven and put behind him, and his failures didn’t have to disqualify him from the future that had been spoken over him. There was a heart-to-heart conversation on the beach that day between Peter and Jesus during which Jesus told Peter to quit beating himself up and to start beating the street in search of people to feed, souls to feed.
Satan wants us to be defined by our failures. He wants us to loathe ourselves, to limit ourselves, and to lament everything we have done wrong because he wants to keep us from the purposes for which God has called us.
When feelings of failure start to overshadow the purposes of God for your life, it is time to “hold that thought” and make it submit to God’s greater plan. God has factored our failures into His invitation to follow Him, and He has taken into account the times we will get it wrong. And guess what? He still wants us on the team.
In each of these stories, Jesus came to the individuals, but they didn’t recognize Him. Seeing Jesus requires faith. That’s why it is so important that despite how you feel in any moment, in every moment, you have to walk by faith.
