Resurrection Strength

Colossians 3 1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

A pastor told a story of a man in his congregation who had lost literally hundreds of thousands. He owed everybody. One day the pastor asked him, "How in the world are you even surviving? How can you smile? How can you be enthusiastic about Jesus and about life when you are just going through all kinds of problems?

He said, "Next time you come to my house, I will show you how."

The pastor said that he was curious, so not long after that he went to his house. He said, "I told you I would show you the thing that gives me strength." They went into his study and there was a painting. It was a simple painting of a Bible experience we call "Daniel in the Lion's Den." It was a beautiful painting. There was Daniel standing there among ferocious looking lions. These were not sleeping, slumbering lions. These were lions whose teeth were bared and whose claws were exposed. You could tell that they were threatening to hurt Daniel! There was a shaft of light that seemed to be falling down from the roof of that cave in which Daniel and those lions were being kept. The man said to his pastor, "Look at Daniel's eyes!" the pastor looked closely at the eyes of Daniel and Daniel was looking up at the light.

The man said to him, "The thing that gives me strength in the midst of my troubles is this. Daniel is not looking at the lions. He is looking at the light!" So when you get surrounded with a lot of adversity; when you get surrounded by a lot of problems, don't focus on the lions focus on the light and that's God's prescription for depression.

The clear focus in these Colossians verses concern where that the believers are to set their focus: “seek things that are above…set your minds on things that are above” (3:1–2). So often this is taken to mean something like, “think about heaven,” “seek things that are of a Godly quality,” or “set your minds on things that are good, peaceful, divine, rather than things that will bring you down.”

Right in the middle of the two focus set of words to “seek” and “set your minds,” Paul identifies “above” as “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” In doing this Paul draws attention to Christ’s lordship. The one who reigns as Lord of the universe, the one at the centre of our seeking, is none other than the crucified Jesus, the image of God, who came to renew life. Surely, this is resurrection strength!

Prayer

Lord Jesus, today, I set my eyes on You because You are the Author and the Finisher of my faith. I offer my everything to You because You own them all. I offer my words, actions, and thoughts to You, may they glorify You all the time. Lord, I want to thank You for enduring the cross, despising the shame, all to reconcile mankind and God the Father. Lord, I cannot thank You enough for such a wonderful display of love. Lord, may I love my enemies and not hate them. May I pray for those who persecute me, and treat those who hate me with love. May I never pay evil with evil, but good with evil. In Jesus' Name. Amen.