Mark Affleck

Facing A Challenge, Is Your FIRST Thought Success Or Failure?

July 3, 2020
Spiritual Growth

We are living in a POST-CIVIL era. A time of tension and turmoil.  A time which defaults to conflict and confusion. A time where civility is gasping for air to stay alive.

It is against that backdrop that we are watching the world grow more CYNICAL every day. Men and women. Old and young. Christians and non-believers.
  
cyn·i·cism:  an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism.
  
This bed of cynicism has produced a group of weakened souls who face the world’s wicked winds thinking first about how to make sure they do not fail.
  
Here’s the problem: Thinking first about insuring against failure reduces the odds for success.
  
God wants so much more from us than exhibiting strong faith only when the winds of life are merely whispering their soft breath into unbending trees.
  
It is hard to understand why so many Christians are cynical and pessimistic when one of the most important components in the Bible’s foundation is OPTIMISM.
  
We should be celebrating every instance of seeing God at work!
  
Instead of assuming—cynically—that God is not working, we should do the opposite and assume that he sees everything and hears everything–especially the prayers of his children.
  
Make no mistake, it’s one tough job finding the balance point between grieving over the world’s pain and celebrating the blessing of being the recipient of what Christ did for us on the Cross and the blessings and mercies and joy that resulted from his sacrifice.
  
The antidote to living in a post-civil, cynical world?
  
Elevate GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY above the WORLD’S SADNESS and realize that he has everything under control and evil CANNOT win.
  
I ask God to help me be a perennial OPTIMIST who believes in his sovereignty and truth.
  
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
  
How high are you on the CYNICISM meter?
  
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 
  

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