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"Exterior assets mean nothing if you can’t control what’s going on inside.” --Tyson Fury (Two-Time Boxing Heavyweight World Champion)
"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." --Sun Tzu (6th Century B.C., Chinese General, The Art of War)
The road to personal freedom and joy is filled with a level of pain I truly did not think I would ever experience in this lifetime. When you're a teenager or in your 20's as a young adult most of your life is ahead of you. I think most young people look at their lives ahead of them and think life will only get better and better. After all, whenever we start a new year, most people make new year's resolutions and remain optimistic, usually until life slams them in the face. And then what do you do?
Romans 8:28 says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I have heard this verse quoted so many times by pastors trying desperately to make suffering people feel better about their own suffering. Honestly, it used to just make me angry! I do believe Romans 8:28 to be true, but there are very few words that can be said to really make someone who is suffering feel better. Most times, people just want relief from their pain. I used to think this verse in the Bible was just an attempt to make people feel better about their struggles and hardships in life. I was jaded and bitter of all that I had experienced personally and more specifically as an innocent young child. I had and still have a difficult time reconciling how God can be so incredibly loving yet still allow the evil to persist in my life and in the world. I have come to realize only one overwhelming conclusion that gives me hope that God can be so loving and the world so evil at the same time: the power of love (God’s love) is greater than the power of evil.
God’s love for us and the love He desires us to experience is so beyond anything we have truly consistently experienced in this life. Honestly, it’s really a foreign language to us because we’re so used to walking through hell. I do believe God has given us a glimpse and a taste of His love in flashes, in this place between heaven and hell called Earth. Think about this just for a moment, what has been the most powerful moment of your life where you felt truly loved? On your wedding day? The birth of your first child? Your first kiss? Holding hands with your spouse? Hiking through the mountains with your best friend? Overlooking the sunset on the beach? Playing your best game ever? Whatever it may be for you, I believe this is where “a taste of heaven” can be found and where we can see and feel “the fingerprints of God” if we keep the eyes of our heart open.
Could it really be that there is a love so far beyond my mortal comprehension and so powerful that it’s worth going through hell for? It’s even worth me facing my ocean of pain and baggage? God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are much higher than our ways. God’s love, is the love that allows horrible atrocities to remain in the world for a time and if we are able to look back we may even find a hidden gift in our pain and struggle. There will also be a day of reckoning, both for those who have hurt us and for ourselves. Romans 14:11-12 says: “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” On this day, every knee will bow and there will be some knees bowing in humble joyful submission and some knees bowing in utter fear and horror.
Jesus went through hell because he loves you! There it is! Who goes through torture, lashings, spikes / nails crushed through his hands and feet when they do not have to? Only God’s love for you would compel Him to die to the body so that way you can live a true life in the body now and a true life beyond the body eternally. Jesus came to set the captives (you and I) free from every form of slavery and pain. What is holding you captive now? How can you love yourself like Jesus today? Give yourself compassion, you’ve been through a lot!
I recently heard more about the amazing story of Boxing Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury. He literally had everything this life has to offer, but it still was not enough for him. His pain and heartache still remained and eventually he became suicidal, this is his story in the video.
We all have experienced extreme hardship, suffering and difficulties. Some of us have experienced more than others, but regardless of your amount of pain God’s love is waiting for you. You matter to God. Your pain matters to God. God’s love is greater than any madness we have gone through and he can take it and carry it for you, but you must surrender it. Psalm 23:4 says: “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me;” God is with you, even through the valley of the shadow of death! You can and must continually surrender to Him, surrender your madness and let it all go for on the other side of your valley is a true life beyond anything you could ever dream of, a life of freedom, love and peace!
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