November 11, 2004
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
-Romans 8:34
The dictionary defines paranoid as “a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur.” True paranoia can cause people to pull down the shades on windows of their lives for fear that “someone is out to get me.” The idea that it is “me against the world” can shackle the person for whom such delusions represent reality.
On the other hand, a healthy dose of reality about exactly who is out to get you is needed in this life if you are a believer. In other words, if you sometimes experience a general sense of weariness from just being alive, it could be because there really is “someone” out to get you. And that someone is the world.
Many Christians forget from time to time that living in this world is like swimming all your life against the current. It never lets up. There is never a moment when you can just relax and float downstream. If you do, you automatically start moving in the direction of the kingdom of this world and away from the kingdom of God.
Before you became a Christian, living in this world was easy. You didn’t know it, but you were part of the world system, going with the flow. But when you met Jesus, you were called to go in a different direction in life. That’s why I have heard more than a few relatively young Christians ask, “Why is life so much harder now that I’m a Christian? I thought coming to Jesus was supposed to make things easier!” Well, it does and it doesn’t.
Coming to Christ solves some problems such as being released from the condemnation of sin. But coming to Jesus creates other problems—like making you odd man out in terms of the world. The system of life that was once your comfort zone is no longer. But you still have to live and work in it every day. You now have to be in the world without being of the world. And that can take its toll.
You will grow weary in this world. But Jesus Christ, who loves you and redeemed you, is at the right hand of God making intercession for you so that you will not fail. Pray for His strength and pray for wisdom, so that your walk through life may be smooth.
HE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER THAN HE
WHO IS IN THE WORLD.
-1 JOHN 4:4