A Winning Mindset.

A couple nights ago,  I sat down at a local eatery with my friends.  When our petite server greeted us, I took in all of her tattoos and her sweet face.  ‘What is the date about?’ Bill gestured to a date and large rosette on the inside of her arm.  ‘Well, that was my mom’s birthday; she died a year ago.’  Yikes!  There was no going back from that, so I plunged in, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss—what took her, Hon?’  ‘Drugs and alcohol,’ she matter-of-factly replied, but then launched into how she took care her of her mother from the time she was a very young child.  ‘Truth is, though I miss her, her dying was the best thing that could’ve happened to me because I kept getting pulled into it all.’  So young and yet she has lived such a very hard life already.  Maybe she is ahead of the game realizing that

things that cause great heartache

often turn out for our good – somehow.

Like my friend, Sandy, who I last wrote about—[“I Am Here.”  Love, God http://www.pastorwoman.com/ReadArchive.aspx?id=2766 ]—who came to meet the living Lord when her daughter was killed, Liz must at times wonder, ‘God, where are you?  Where were you when I had to become the mama to my mom?’ 

And so, I consider just how God might answer Liz.  No better place to find God’s thoughts toward us than his Word; Paul captures five expressions from God’s heart to ours in Romans chapter eight, ordered in the way they come up in the chapter.

1. “I do not condemn you.”  You see, Paul wrote, ‘there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Verse 1.  It is one thing to read Paul’s words, and another to apply it personally.  So, Foodserver Girl, no matter that you followed in your mama’s footsteps, no matter that it involved the Law, if you but look to him, God forgives you—there is no further condemnation.

2. What’s more . . . “I will work everything out for good.”  While Paul wrote, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God,” Verse 28.  That is even more meaningful when we realize that whatever has come before—even those things which were painful, those areas of failure, even moral failure—can be used for good when they are given to God.  When you believe that all things work together for good, it redefines the bad things that happen in your life. There is a silver lining to every storm cloud, and every downside has a potential upside.¹  Of course, there is a difference between immediate good and ultimate good!.²

God effects this radical transformation—

~>turning those things that were bad into good

That kind of radical juxtaposition happens through

           the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

There is nothing that God cannot redeem and recycle for his purposes.³

With that in mind, I went to a craft store and bought a blank jigsaw puzzle; coming home, I wrote the things which make up who I am—struggles, failures, gifts, miracles, milestones--and labeled a different piece of the puzzle with each of those areas.  Snapped together, they make for a complete picture; when I reach the end of me, God will have fit all those pieces together, of that I am certain. 

3. “I AM for You …” What will it take for you to get that? Paul so succinctly communicated: If God is for us, who can ever be against us? That is the line of demarcation, is it not?  So how long will we worry, how long will we carry around guilt already paid for, how long will it take to realize that all that matters in this world is that God is FOR us? That is eternal, the rest of the things that you concern yourself with are not; sure, day to day, they cause you stress, but even a year from now, you will not remember the things that you let rob you of life, rob you of joy today.  God is FOR you.

It is the Holy Spirit that speaks to our hearts and reminds us that God is FOR us; the Holy Spirit is the key to letting go of IF Only’s and embracing God’s WHAT IF’s.  If we do not recognize and welcome the power of the Spirit working in our lives we are only operating at 2/3 capacity!

4.  “You are not just a victor, you are a conqueror!”  Paul wrote, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  Why, how could Paul make such an assertion?  We know how the story ends. 

            So since that is the case – let’s determine to dwell in possibility⁴

We can be more than conquerors because we are devoted to Christ.  And check this out—when we are, the Holy Spirit is praying for us all of the time.  In verse 34, Paul also reminds us that Christ Jesus who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

5.  Who could we be, what miraculous thing could we accomplish if we but understood that the God of the Universe passionately loves us—not en masse but individually??

“Nothing can keep my love from you, except you; whether or not you feel it, my love for you is a constant.’  Paul went to extremes to explain that nada—no one, no thing can keep God’s love from us: I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is an exhaustive list, Paul…thank you!

These five things as gleaned from Romans chapter 8, if lived by, could move us to be not just overcomers but conquerors, not caught up in guilt and if onlys but living freely, fully confident that we are loved by the One who holds the universe and the cosmos in place.  These five statements of God could form our core convictions in Christ:  1.  I do not condemn you

                                       2.  I will make all things work together for good

                                       3.  I am FOR you

                                       4.  You are more than a conqueror in me

                                       5.  Nothing can separate you from my love

Ask the Holy Spirit to convince you of these truths, and as he does, you will have a winning mindset.

^{1 – Mark Batterson, IF, p. 199}

^{2 – ibid., p. 201}

^{3 – ibid., 277}

^{4 – ibid., p. 228}