Overcoming-Spirit
Overcoming-Our Spiritual Personal Trainer
Intro
We’ve been talking about overcoming the overwhelming things of life. The things that cause worry, stress, anxiety & guilt. Been really stressing in a lot of different ways the need to trust God. We need to focus on what He wants. We need to trust that He is working in our lives and the lives of people around us. We need to trust that He uses all thing-even our failures-to do good things and accomplish His will. When we are working to overcome obstacles in life we need to trust in God’s ways and live as He wants us to even if others around us are not. And we need to trust that Jesus has already overcome the real enemy of our souls and our lives and He has cleared the way for us to live as God wants us to live and overcome ALL things that get in the way of that.
So you can see, we’ve been really hitting on the idea of trusting God from a lot of different perspectives. It’s an important and foundational thing. I hope that you’ve been seeing and experiencing that need to trust God and letting that seep into your heart and mind. Everything about our relationship with God...and with one another…really, gets back to simple faith…trust. And as we continue to journey together here, I’m confident you’ll discover more and more reasons that you CAN trust God…
You might be saying now, OK..I got it. trust God...follow His ways…do what He wants me to do…but…what does He want me to do? What steps do I need to take? How do I actually get past these things? While the specific answers will vary for each person, I want to focus in a bit today on what God does do to let us know what to do…
In thinking about this, it helps to realize that in many ways, this overcoming we are talking about is part of the process of spiritual maturity. Getting past the things that cause you stress and worry is all steps on the journey toward becoming the person God meant you to be and cutting loose from all the stuff we carry along with us. It’s about getting ourselves into shape spiritually. And it’s a lot like a physical workout…
So if we want to get into shape physically, we know we need exercise. In our world today that often means either joining a gym or workout center of some sort or maybe even getting some exercise equipment of your own. We get the tools we need.
The basic tool we need for getting into shape spiritually is the Bible…by spending time reading and studying it we discover who God is and what He says about us. There are also tools to guide us in our study of the Bible…Life journal help guide us through ….There are also various devotions and books focused on biblical topics. If you go to the True North website, you’ll find a resources link where you’ll find the beginnings of a list of useful books and links to places you can get them or other books. While to goal is to depend primarily on the Bible, some of these things can guide you in studying the Bible of help you get focus on a particular issue…
But this is really just a starting point…getting tools to help you know God…consider, though, what typically happens to the exercise equipment people buy. Maybe it ends up looking like this…covered in clothes. Collects dust. Gym memberships-excited at first, then other things take priority. End up not using it…
Our lives do get busy…and it’s hard to keep ourselves focused on the routines we need to stay physically and spiritually fit.
But it’s often not easy to remember to trust God…we need help to remember.
We also sometimes face circumstances where it’s really hard to just tell ourselves to trust God. How do you just trust God we you feel alone or unloved…like your family and friends don’t really care about you? We need help to trust.
How do you make yourself turn to God when everyone around you tells you it’s ridiculous and a waste of time to depend on God? How do you make yourself turn to Him when those people begin to make sense and you wonder whether God really is there? We need help to keep turning to God.
We can’t always see how God could possibly use our situation for good. Where is the good when every day presents the same stresses and frustrations no matter what you do or how hard you try to make a change? How can you see any good when you are dealing with so many issues and are so worn down you can’t even think straight? How can we see the good in life when nothing seems to be turning out the way you wanted or expected? This is a big one!
Imagine planning the vacation of a lifetime…to go visit Paris. You’ve been dreaming about it, studying for it and getting ready for it for years. You finally get on the plane all excited to finally experience what you’ve been longing for…but when the plane lands you discover you are in the Netherlands. You try to explain what happened to the booking agent, but they look at you blankly and say this is where you are supposed to be. Now it’s not a horrible place to be…but it’s not what you expected…it’s not where you wanted to be. And now you are stuck there.
Life seems like that sometimes…we don’t want to be where we are doing what we are doing…we’re not even sure how we ended up here…and we don’t like it. There is always good in every situation if we could just accept the life we’ve been given…but sometimes we need help…A LOT of help…to see any kind of good in it.
Sometimes even when we want to trust God and live the life He wants, we can’t seem to make ourselves stop doing the things we want to get away from. It could be that when life gets stressful, you just want to escape for a little while…and you can’t stop yourself from doing things that you know you shouldn’t like maybe going down to the bar and drinking the night away…or maybe you just need to light up one more time…or reach for those pills…or the syringe…or some other drug…Or maybe you can’t seem to stop yourself from trying to please everyone around you or trying to control them…or constantly seeking out the attention and affection of another person. Maybe you can’t seem to stop yourself from walking over to the fridge, or the pantry, or the vending machine when you need a break from life. Maybe you can’t stop from shutting yourself off from life for hours in front of the TV or the computer or video games…
…all of these things can be addicting and damaging to our lives if they are drawing us away from God and we are depending upon them for what we want in life instead…and often times we need HELP to overcome them.
So where does that help come from? Consider that physical workout again. Many people realize that it is difficult to keep at it alone and get a friend to workout with them-someone to help encourage them and hold them accountable. Someone to help make it fun.
Same is true for our spiritual working out-God has brought you here-all of us to encourage and help one another. Need to keep working on developing closer relationships with one another…
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
(Heb 10:24-25 NIV)
…but that’s not really enough either. Can’t expect a friend to stick with you through every situation. Those really tough obstacles we need to overcome…we are going to be struggling with major temptation. Too much for another person to help us overcome.
Need professional help.
In a physical workout, some people hire a personal trainer to really make their workout effective.
Spiritually, God provided the ultimate personal trainer when a person acknowledges Jesus as His son who died and rose from the dead so that we could be forgiven from our past and have new life with God.
No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
(Act 2:16-17 NIV)
God said would pour out his Spirit on all men. Jesus opened the way for us to receive God’s Spirit…part of Him that remains with us.
Holy Spirit-our personal trainer.
However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
(1Co 2:9-16 NIV)
Need to accept him, allow Him into our lives.
Now personal assessment…insight into us/God..knows what we need. Knows our issues.
Learn to listen to Him
Learn to submit to Him…let go of our expectations..
Celebrate victories.work them into personal testimony
End with prayer of commitment to Jesus..acceptance of the Holy Spirit.
Close with encouragement to go out filled with the Spirit..learning to listen to Him and follow His ways in order to overcome and become all that God has designed you to be.