Complete in Christ
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Wholeness
Wholeness
Many times we read in scripture that Jesus would tell the individual that they had been made whole. Often times we find that many are not whole. Whole in the sense that something is lacking in their life.
Wholeness: (1): free of wound or injury: UNHURT
(2): recovered from a wound or injury: RESTORED
(3): being healed
b: free of defect or impairment: INTACT
c: physically sound and healthy: free of disease or deformity
d: mentally or emotionally sound
We live in a society that many people are so insufficient that they seek help from medication and drugs. People who are dealing with anxiety will take antidepressants. There is an imbalance and we tend to turn to things to help us. The problem with this method is that it becomes something that we have to depend on and expect to do for the better part of our lives.
I can remember in middle school of being picked on for the car my mom drove. She drove a 1980 mint green Ford Fairmont. Kids in class would laugh and crack jokes about the ugliness of this car. As a child, I didn’t realize the car was ugly because to me it was just a car. But these other kids made a point to verbally express their opinion of the color and make of our car.
See I was in a class where economically we were completely opposite but intellectually we were on the same level. In other words, I didn’t dress like them or live in the neighborhoods they lived in but I was just as smart as they were.
I can remember in middle school of being picked on for the car my mom drove. She drove a 1980 mint green Ford Fairmont. Kids in class would laugh and crack jokes about the ugliness of this car. As a child, I didn’t realize the car was ugly because to me it was just a car. But these other kids made a point to verbally express their opinion of the color and make of our car.
Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. (Eleventh ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Often times our economic differences would cause me to feel isolated and embarrassed. I can remember coming home feeling rejected, that I didn’t fight in. I would cry and tell my parents that I didn’t want to go back.
But I had praying parents who believed in God and the power of prayer. They didn’t run down to the school to confront those who mocked and made fun of me. They encouraged me to stand tall, that I had something valuable they couldn’t see.
I then remember God giving me a spirit of “that doesn’t bother me”. I would find myself going to school and hearing the insults but it not fazing me. I became friends of some who didn’t have friends themselves. See all the while, God was molding and shaping my life. He had gave me a pastor’s heart long before I knew what a pastor was.
The need for attention and affirmation are what many are seeking after. Many go to great lengths to acquire their interest and hopefully their approval. We often compromise who we are and become what we think they want or desire. Take a young lady who is seeking the attention of a young man. The young man is dating loose girls that dress immodest and are sexually promiscuous. She then feels the need to become what those other girls are to attract this particular young man. In doing this, she looses sight of who she is.
The Apostle Paul was writing to the Colossians who had already recieved Christ. He was calling them to consider more.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
The New American Commentary: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon The Application to the Colossians (2:6–7)
They were to reflect on how they had received him, and that was to be a model for their present lives
The New American Commentary: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon The Application to the Colossians (2:6–7)
2:7 The second statement describes the nature of their experience: “rooted and built up in him … strengthened in the faith.” Two metaphors combine to express their initial growth in Christ: “rooted” and “built up” in the faith. The one metaphor pictures sinking the roots of faith into the soil of Christian truth. The other calls to mind building on the foundation of faith. Although one metaphor comes from agriculture and the other from construction, together they make a strong point. This church had a firm basis for its faith and had built well upon it.
The New American Commentary: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon The Application to the Colossians (2:6–7)
The third statement describing Colossian Christians is that they were “overflowing with thankfulness.” Paul frequently employed thankfulness as one of the litmus tests of Christian health. He assumed that Christians would live in an attitude of thankfulness for the many blessings bestowed upon them. By contrast, one of the first indicators of departure from God is a lack of thanksgiving (e.g., Rom 1:21ff.). The deep roots of the faith evidence themselves in an attitude of gratitude for both the initial experience of salvation and the continued sustaining of life.
Part of the problem of not feeling whole or complete is a lack of gratitude. Not appreciating what you have or what God has given you. Instead, we always desire something that we don’t have.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
We have to become content in what we have and where we are at. You have to be able to see the goodness of the Lord and what God has done in your life.
I had fainted, unless I had believed
To see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord:
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Your life goes in the direction your are focused on. Are you focused on the blessings, the goodness, the miracles that God has done in your life?
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
When you know what you have and who it came from, you can feel secure and content. You can praise Him when you have excess and when you are in want.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
I know that my life evolves around and in Christ.
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
We are already overcomers. No one really knows the mountains you have overcome, what it has took for you to get where you are. Folks may be jealous of you, despise you, and even rooting for you to fall.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Their views and opinions are irrelevant and unimportant. I know my purpose. I know my worth and that God is on my side. I have learned that if I take care of God’s business, He will take care of mine.
The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Paul expresses that we are complete in Jesus the Son of God. Because He is the head of all principalities.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We may have to fight against principalities and powers but Christ is the head of all principalities and all power. We can take rest in that we are already on the winning side.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee;
But with great mercies will I gather thee.
I don’t have to have anyone affirm me or approve of me. I am already approved by the Holy One of Israel.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
I can be in depressing situations but that doesn’t mean I have to be depressed. I can be alive in the life that Christ has granted me. He is more than enough and has provided all I need. He’s all I need.
See in the tough times, those that you are looking to affirm you, may not be there to uphold you but God is a refuge, He is our strength. He will never leave nor forsake us.
Look to God and let Him make you complete, let Him make you whole, let Him make you complete.
Complete: to make total, to provide fully
He completes me. I’m committed to Him. When others made fun of me, when others doubted my ability, when others didn’t see my true value, He believed in me. He has stuck by me, He never left me, He has sheltered me, and He has invested in me. I quit looking for others to approve or affirm me. I found a friend that will endure the storms with me. He has healed me of the wounds left by so called friends.
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:
Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
Everyday is a journey that I get to walk with Him, to commune with Him. We have sweet fellowship together.
He’s everything to me.