18 Jan Keep Your Head Up High!

This life is a rat race, so petrifyingly bequeathing us for a wild-goose chase, in which we run for mirages on a desert road, not knowing where the oasis is. So foolishly we attempt to act wise, so weakly we try to show our strength. The heartache, the chaos, the failure, the dryness, the undefined frustrations of life all make us cave in to what we have always feared – a desolate, depressed and untainted reality where we feel like we are losing it all. This is something all people face; even the best of Christians.

When others look for encouragement, we are reminded to turn to the Greatest Encourager, our LORD, who always signals us with a smile when we keep moving in the centre of His will – He says “Keep Going Strong”.

In the Scriptures, we learn how God commissions Joshua for the task in front of him by asking him to “Be strong and courageous…” (Joshua 1: 6). In the next verse God tells again “Only be strong and very courageous…” (Joshua 1: 7). We learn here that both these encouragements were followed by instructions. Encouragement to keep moving is not without its flavour of fervent devotion to obey Him, His laws and His words so as to gain what was promised. When God asked Joshua to be strong and courageous, it was actually God’s strength and courage that He showered upon him. Our self- esteem is something God loves. It is something that God gives. He wants us to have a high esteem of ourselves, even while in His presence we are meant to stay meek. Because later, Christ, through His life unveiled the greatest paradox of strength and courage where His strength was transformed into a greater strength when He chose to be a servant, just as He said “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mathew 20: 28). Only a person who is strong, courageous, and has a high self – esteem could go to the lowest places of this fallen World to uplift the fallen people higher. Only a person who has found strength in the LORD will be able to serve and not be served and yet lead!
This is our challenge, it is our mission, how to harness the strength of God within ourselves and His courage to dive deep into the hearts of people – fallen in despair – to lift them up, so that they too might wield His strength and courage. We might ask as to how we can do that, especially when we ourselves are in despair and don’t know how to get up again. Just know then, that our Greatest Encourager is encouraging us to get back up! You just have to listen, you just have to take heed! Jesus who came in human flesh, fully human and fully divine had lived a lifetime to give it away, so that we would learn the same, that is why Apostle Paul tells young Timothy “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1: 7).

We have power in the blood of the Lamb; we are lavished with love by a loving Saviour; and we are gifted and blessed with a sound mind to learn how deep, wide and vast His love for us is, so that we can keep going strong in our pursuit for His glory! Therefore there is no need to be ashamed, no need to grovel any more in despair, no need to stay confused or to belittle yourself in your own eyes because if you’re meant to see all else with eternal eyes, so should you see yourself.

Pick yourself up again, treat yourself better, be happy, be strong and be courageous! The time is running madly ahead, and we have no more time to while away. We have a great responsibility to find our worth in the LORD and help others find theirs. We have a huge responsibility to rescue the perishing, care for the dying, to snatch them in pity from sin and the grave, to weep over the erring, and to lift up the fallen and tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to save!

Keep your head held up high, and keep going strong my friends. God has greater plans for you than you can ever contemplate, just only be strong and courageous! God bless!!

Susan Ann Samuel is studying IV BA LL.B in Govt. Law College Trivandrum, Kerala