The ups and downs – Thank God for grace.

According to Wikipedia:

The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in puremathematics, as well as physicssignal processingelectrical engineering and many other fields

If only all life could be described as “a smooth repetitive oscillation” – it seems life is more haphazard rather than smooth, you never know when the down is about to happen, but on the flip side you don’t know when the ups will begin either.  There are always three “powers” at play, the human, the Godly, and the satanic. With God being fully sovereign and all-knowing, it leaves the other two parties in a bit of a tug-o-war – until one surrenders to the Godly power (of which only the human power has that ability). However, this tug-o-war is not easily surrendered, since with all observation it appears we need to desperately fight it, we can’t give up, otherwise we’ll “lose our life” – but this is exactly what the enemy wants us to think.

I’m writing about this because the beauty in the surrender of our lives to God is that we receive grace for all our transgressions and all our fighting. We receive a life, that forever goes beyond this earthly life. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul writes:

24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

I pray that I may discipline myself to continue in the race God has called me (us, my bride, and my daughter and children to come) to run, to be the voice and servant to all man kind as Christ is, and be disciplined enough to surrender it all, each morning, day, and night. It is in this surrender that rest comes, and it is in rest that we encounter God. With His grace I will walk through the ups and downs, and in discipline I will love on and live on.