SUMMARY: Focus and rely on God and you will not only become stronger, but you will also experience a transforming closeness with him, especially as he delivers you through trials.
The resilience of the high school students I teach always impresses me. Whether it is educational challenges, health issues, emotional disturbance, poverty, or trauma some of them undergo trials as teenagers that usually only adults have to deal with. I have family members and friends who are dealing with stressful situations right now. Maybe you do also. Or maybe you are going through a difficult time yourself. Most likely you have heard the saying, “Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” That is true, God has given people an amazing ability to heal, overcome, grow, and improve. However, the only way to experience the full benefit of a trial is to recenter your focus on God and rely on him. Then he blesses you not only with strength, but with a transforming closeness with himself.
Your Need to Recenter
While my daughter is home from college this summer, one of her goals is to finish a book she is writing. I’ve been helping her design a cover for it. Her book talks about the need for the weeds in our lives to be cleared in order for God to grow a beautiful garden. That’s true. Ironically, when people put themselves first in order to meet their need for life, liberty, and happiness it eventually causes death, enslavement, and despair (Romans 6:23). Since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden of Eden, every person since has inherited a terminal tendency to put themselves first—to live life on their terms instead of God’s (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12-19). This prideful, self-centered waywardness seems beneficial for a time, but later it damages you and others. In addition, the sin of others and this fallen world causes strife and suffering for you, even as an innocent victim. We are all broken people who can’t save ourselves from the results of our sin—the trials or the death. Fortunately, out of gracious love, God heals broken people and saves self-centered sinners. That’s why Jesus, God the Son, came. He bore your sin and paid your death penalty, by dying in your place and rising again. If you look to him, instead of to yourself, others, or your situation, you can be saved. Anyone who trusts and obeys Jesus can experience abundant, everlasting life with God (John 12:23-33; Isaiah 45:22; John 3:14-16; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Sometimes this salvation comes through trials, because God disciplines those he loves in order to train them to live rightly, fully, and beneficially (Hebrews 12:7-11). Although there will still be skirmishes and struggles, you can have victory when you recenter on Jesus by faith, because Jesus has already won the war for your soul (Colossians 2:6-15; John 14:19).
You Can Recenter
Whether you are just starting to trust Jesus as your savior or you have drifted from doing so, here are four practical things you can do to recenter your life on him.
- Be Vulnerable To recenter you need to shift from trying to fulfill yourself through relationships, things, or achievements. In fact, Jesus taught that you need to deny yourself (Luke 9:23-26). Pray to God. Confess any wrongdoing and receive his forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Be willing to change and rely on God one day at a time to do it. Connect with supportive people, especially other believers. Be accountable, transparent, and ask for help. Jesus also taught, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). If you want to experience the riches of God’s rule in your life you must be vulnerable.
- Be Faithful To recenter you need to shift from following your feelings and move forward by faith. Although your feelings themselves are valid, making decisions based on them can be misleading. Feelings focus you on yourself like self-love, self-loathing, self-promotion, or self-preservation. Living by faith focuses you on God as you trust him to care for your self. Read the Bible, God’s love letter to you. Ask him for wisdom, courage, and strength which he promises to provide. Act on what God tells you to do or to change. Share what you receive or are learning from God with others, like his love, his truth, his healing, his grace, or his forgiveness. Serve others and intercede for them. Rely on God for all your needs as a branch abides in the vine. When you do you will bear spiritual fruit, like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, which leads to harmony with God and the salvation of others (John 15;1-8; Galatians 5:13-25). Live by faith and your feelings will fall in line appropriately.
- Be Positive and Thankful “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). To recenter you need to shift your perspective from self-pity to praise. Being positive and thankful turns your focus from yourself to God and others. Count your blessings. Dwell on what you do have rather than what you don’t have. Endure trials with joy, knowing that God will utilize the experience to refine your character and to bring good out of it (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:1-5). Thank God for who he is, what’s he’s done, and what he will do. Then let that thankfulness flow over to appreciate others. When concerns arise, bring them to God. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).
- Be Hopeful To recenter you must shift from a temporary, earthly perspective to an eternal, heavenly one. When you trust in God your present suffering is far surpassed by your future glory (Romans 8:18). “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). This world is not your destiny, God is. He has promised to complete the faith work he has begun in transforming you to become like Jesus (Romans 8:28-29; Philippians 1:6). So look forward to much more that will be revealed when Jesus returns to earth to consummate his kingdom. He will reward believers, judge unbelievers, vanquish evil and Satan, and reinstate eternal righteousness (Revelation 19:11-21:8).
Conclusion
“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him” (Lamentations 3:25). Your resilience comes from God more than from your self striving. However, his work requires a change of heart to heal your brokenness and your deadly waywardness. He does this through Jesus. To align yourself with the changes God wants to bring from the inside out, you need to be vulnerable, faithful, positive, thankful, and hopeful. As you trust and obey Jesus to save you, then a meaningful, lasting change of circumstances follows. It comes from recentering—shifting your focus from yourself and your problems to God and others. Then God is free to work in and through you to bring healing and growth for you and others. As I write this I am praying for you to be able to recenter on Jesus, even during trials. The apostle Paul prayed this for believers, “This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).