When it comes to ‘seeing’ ourselves the way that God sees us, there is probably no more important scripture for our generation than Romans 8:31-39. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul declares that in everything that befalls him, trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or the sword, he and his fellow Christians are ‘more than conquerors through Him who loved us.’ And he can say that because he is ‘convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Paul knows that having God’s love, having Jesus as Saviour, and having the Holy Spirit indwelling us, trumps anything else that can happen to us, or that anyone else, human or spiritual can throw at us. That is quite some place of confidence and security. Like Wesley he could say (or sing ) ‘tis done, the great transactions, I am my Lord’s and He is mine’, and that gave him this incredible sense that he would never be ‘underneath’ the circumstances. Nor would he just ‘survive’, but he would come through triumphant in heaven’s eyes.
Contrast that with the cultural atmosphere in which we now live where, because people don’t have ‘a mighty God’ in their life, everyone is becoming someone else’s victim. People might be victims of the bad behavior of others, the failure of others, or of broken systems; they can be victims of their parents, their lack of education, victims of criminals, of trolls, or simply of people who disagree with them on social media who make them feel bad. There is no longer the recognition that we live in a fallen world, and so when something is wrong, or goes wrong, the conclusion is that someone, somewhere must be to blame, and be held accountable.
Now the bible tells us that we are to fight for the widow and the orphan, to look out for the poor and hungry. We are sent to heal the sick and visit the prisoners, so I am not saying that we shouldn’t fight injustice or evil when we see it. We are never encouraged however, as followers of Jesus, that our first priority is to fight for ourselves, or to blame others for our difficulties, but rather like Paul, we are to ‘entrust ourselves to our heavenly Father who will guard us.’ 2 Timothy 1:11 and who is ‘able to keep us from falling and to present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy…’ Jude verse 24.
Our perspective has got to be just so different to that of those in the world. If we see things as God does, and we see our circumstances in the ‘light of His light’ Psalm 36:9, it will help us not to take on that ‘victim spirit’, which seems so very prevalent all around us. Instead, because we know that ‘in all things God works for the good of those who love Him…’ and that He will use all things and every thing to ‘conform us to the likeness of His Son’. Romans 8:28,29, we can like James ‘Consider it pure joy,…..whenever we face trials of many kinds’. James 1:2. Crazy I know, and so counter culture, but very powerful, and we can take up this stance because our ‘citizenship is now in heaven’, Philippians 3:20, and our spiritual life is therefore of greater significance than our temporal life.
We have a very dramatic example of this when Stephen was martyred. We are told that rather than protesting his innocence or calling for justice to be done, ‘Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God’. Acts 7:55. Now let’s not wait until something that shocking happens to us, let us, by giving thanks in all our current circumstances, gain God’s perspective on the things that happen to us in life.
Thanksgiving lifts my gaze to heaven, it takes my gaze off of myself, my wounded spirit, or my bad situation, and it stops me from entertaining any victim spirit. Instead thanksgiving helps me, like Paul to say, ‘Yes. In this situation I will be ‘more than a conqueror, through Him who loves me.’
