“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This is a question that we all need to ask “What ‘Centers’ You?” First, I need to define what I mean by “centers.” What is it that calms you, emboldens you or gives you a feeling of completion? This is not a real good definition, but I think you get what I mean. We have something, or someone, that we can fall back on when life seems to be getting out of control, or when we just feel down and depressed. When we center ourselves on that, we can see things more clearly. There are people and things that encourage me and help me in life, but when the going really gets tough the main thing that centers me is my faith in Jesus Christ. Everything else just falls at His feet. I pray that you can say the same thing. What I have found is that I am more easily centered on Jesus when I stay in close fellowship with Him through prayer and Bible reading. Jesus cannot be the center of things for us, if we do not take advantage of the intimate, personal relationship that we have with Him. The question then becomes: “Who Centers You?” Paul stated it succinctly in the text: “I live, nevertheless not I, but Christ lives in me.” That is the most important relationship that we can have in our lives. Relationships with family and friends are certainly important, but even those relationships are stronger when Christ is the center of our lives. We can be glad that Jesus is not just a religious figure, or statue, like Buddha. Jesus is a real living person, who loves us and wants the best for us. He lives in us through the Holy Spirit, and is available all of the time for us to fall back on. The Bible even promises us that He loves us enough to discipline us if we get out of line. Pause now and ask yourself if Jesus is the One who centers you. Paul added something to this testimony about Jesus: “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Now we can turn to the “what” of what centers us. The cause of our personal, saving relationship with Jesus is “by grace through faith” in Jesus. It is faith in Jesus that helps to center us in our daily lives and in all of the bumps and bruises of life. I imagine that you are like I am when I really get in a bad situation; I turn to Jesus in faith and He gets me around or through whatever it is that is troubling me. This will not do a whole lot of good if I ignore Him when life is going smooth, and then call on Him in faith when life gets rough. Our faith in Jesus is meant for every situation in our lives – the good and the bad. You know: “The God on the mountain is still God in the valley…” We need to understand that the Lord, who is the center of our faith and our lives, honors our faith in Him. This is true throughout the whole Bible. The Old Testament does not stress the word “faith” like the New Testament does, but faith is implicit in its teachings. Hebrews 11 tells us about the faith of Old Testament saints. They had faith in the promise of God, and that faith enriched the lives of people like Moses, David, Elijah and Daniel. Their faith in God and in His promises centered them and helped them to serve Him effectively. Like us, they stumbled and fell from time to time, but all in all their lives reflected their faith in God. In the New Testament we have men like Peter, Andrew, James, John and Paul to show us what it means to center our lives in faith in God/Jesus. You just need to ask yourself if it is faith in Jesus that centers you as you face all of life? Think about it. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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