Gospel Reflections #343: God transforms our flinch into hope

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you to be strong and mighty? Do not be dismayed. Do not tremble. Wherever you go, the Lord your God will be with you.”

Even though we know and believe in God, we are always troubled and trembling.

Why is this?

It is because we are under the influence of sin. Even though we have received "new life" from God, the new life is swallowed up by the old self because the old self has not died completely.

The most troublesome parts of the old self are greed, comparison, and worry.

Greed is a picture of the person we want to become more wonderful. It causes us to worry about others because it brings out the "comparative consciousness. It makes us happy or sad.

We focus on our sense of "worry" rather than looking at what God has given us and being thankful, satisfied, and joyful about it.

Our God speaks strongly to us that He is with us wherever we go, even when we step into strange paths.

The more we learn about who God is in our daily mundane lives, the more we accept these words of God as they are and ask Him to help us take a step forward with Him.

God turns our flinching into "joy."

God transforms our flinch into "hope."

Those who experience this cannot help but want to live in it forever.

To do this, all we have to do is ask God for it, not our efforts or achievements. God will not give up until the end that we ask for it.

This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. She is a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through the Christ-centered approach of Biblical Reflections. We're sharing her message here so that you too can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel