Resignation or Acceptance?

Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Two scenarios:

• I was driving along the main thoroughfare in downtown Bujumbura when an old lady stepped out into the road. She was hunched over, filthy, and never even looked up. I tooted my horn, slammed on the brakes, and swerved around her. She was ‘alive’, but really she was more like the living dead.

• I was having a meal with my friend David in the slum. He was so poor that there was open sewage around his mud hut. He had once reluctantly asked me for some money to buy a pair of shoes because “every time I preach, I have to borrow a different friend’s shoes, and now they’re all fed up with me. That’s how poor he was. But his face was always radiant with joy. I asked him once: “David, how can you be so happy when you are so desperately poor?” His answer wasn’t meant as a rebuke but I felt chastened by it: “Simon, how can I not have such joy when I have my Jesus?!”

Will you choose resignation or acceptance? With resignation, you focus on your problems, completely lose sight of God, and give up – and the door of hope slams firmly shut. But with acceptance, you acknowledge your reality, face up to your problems, and yet look above and beyond them to Jesus who is still on his throne. And with that attitude, the door of hope remains wide open to God’s sovereign and creative plans and purposes.

Although probably not in the above two scenarios’ league, your and my problems are real. Emmanuel is one of God’s name – ‘God with us’ – and he is committed to helping you through. So don’t give up! “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7).

Emmanuel, help me never to give up. I accept today’s problems and challenges and look to you to help me get through them. Amen!