Great Getting Up Morning! :: Master Your Passions

In a world, where we celebrate the “great getting up morning” of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, declaring that He did so with all power in His hands, why is it that even after we accept Him as Lord, and even after we learn that we were created in the image and likeness of Him and even after we learn that He left us that same resurrecting power through the Holy Spirit, we still seem powerless to overcome the things of this world.

If we’re honest we make excuses for so long-we believe them. “We are only human.”, “God knows our heart.” “We are not perfect.” “Only God can do that.” As you’re reading today, you’ve probably thought of the one “line” you use to justify your current condition. What does the word of God say? I’m on a mission to let the Word of God do the work. I’ve tried intellect and I’ve even been offered intellect by others to be successful in “maneuvering” through the mazes of this life. While the absorption of more of that may add money to my pocket, I am confident it will not add the peace or prosperity I seek and therefore, I will stick with the truths of God’s word.

So why can’t we get up and get out of some stuff? Why is it that so many are turning to the world and its vain pleasures? Why is it that the church appears to be losing it’s momentum in winning souls to Christ? Why?

In the pictures above, we see two people in the bible “sitting/lying in their conditions”. The pictures themselves show that they are at two different places in their faith. The first, Blind Bartimaeus, hears that Jesus is near and desperately shouts out “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:48). The second, a “certain man” had been lying by the pool he believed had healing waters to heal an infirmity he had for 38 years. Jesus saw Him, approached Him and he began to make excuses (much like we do) for why he had remained this way for so long (John 5:7).

If you read you will see that faith and obedience were required for their true success. Both men were instructed to rise/get up and follow. The formula remains the same, yet we continue to try it our own way, make excuses when we don’t measure up and our conditions and those around us remain the same or worsen.

³²And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” ³³He said this to indicate how he was going to die. ³⁷But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him. (John 12:32-33, 37a)

I believe that this scripture which has been sung and spoken many a time to emphasize “praise and worship” has an even greater meaning. I believe that the truth of this word is that when the focus returns to Christ’s resurrection or “getting up” and the power that it had and the power that we have with us even today, we will recognize that we can get through and overcome anything! I’ve endured being robbed at gunpoint, cancer, divorce, and several broken friendships and relationships-including a sort of estrangement from a very close relative and through it all I’ve used it for God’s glory-inspiring others to live healthy, inspiring others to overcome, being an open book sharing my victories but also my failures. Often times people say, “I admire your strength.” I have to tell them like Paul in Galatians 2:20, “²⁰My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. “

And when more of the saints of God, are willing to take the focus off of self and let this be their testimony, I am convinced there will be more “getting up”-out of beds of affliction, out of unhealthy, toxic relationships, bodies, dead-end jobs, debt, out of it all. Each of us-when we put the focus where it belongs will have our own, “Great Getting Up Morning!”