Today, we're going to take a posture of peace by refusing to believe that we are alone.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale. Posture is a podcast that serves as a short audible fist bump to remind
you that God is in everything. Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture
of perfect peace. Galatians chapter 2 verses 20 and 21 says, I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify
the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
You and I have been given a stance in every circumstance, and that is Christ is in us.
This is our starting point in every situation we will ever face. We are not striving to get
through the struggle so then we could have Christ. No, we have Christ to get us through
the struggle. I used to work myself into such a panic because I felt as though I carried the sole
responsibility for managing, well, I mean pretty much everything, but especially my spirituality
and relationship with God. And let me just tell you, that wrong belief of sole responsibility
planted in the middle of a hard situation or suffering will mess you up because the lie
of isolation isolates us from the truth. This is why the self-empowerment movement is so popular
today because too many of us are out there believing the lie that we have been left alone.
And if you think you're alone, then it is so easy to believe that you're going to have to be your
own hero here, that it's up to you to figure it out and get through it because no one is coming
to save you. And you know, God challenged me on this one day. He said, Lindsay, why do you believe
you have a savior for eternity, but you struggle to believe that you have a savior
for the suffering that you're facing today? You know, striving to get God's victory by our
own works or, you know, staying away from his victory by our own sins, those are really two
paths going in the same direction because both disregard the power of Jesus's finished work on
the cross and they lead us to self-righteousness. Here's the truth. You cannot get off the cross.
There's no saving yourself. There's no redeeming the current hard circumstance on your own.
There's no victory over your suffering by your own creative genius plan because if there were,
Jesus wouldn't have had to die. You needed a savior. And the good news is, is that you have
one. We've talked about this before. Jesus didn't just die for you. He died as you. So your old,
sinful, failing nature is dead. And you have been raised with him to live his totally victorious
life. Even here on earth, you know, speaking about responsibility again, Jesus takes responsibility
for who he raised. The plan wasn't for him to save you. So then you would go live this lonely,
isolated life where you would then be responsible to save yourself day by day over and over again,
as circumstance and struggle came your way. No, you and I have been crucified with Christ and a
new you has emerged together with Christ. So you are never alone. It's impossible for you to be
alone. And I wanted to talk about this today because I'm hearing this a lot right now. While
we're sheltered in and locked down in this quarantine, I'm hearing, I just feel so alone.
And friend, while you may feel that it just isn't the truth because Christ now lives in you. He
doesn't just live around you. He's not just beside you. He is in you. You carry the empowering
presence of God everywhere you go, in every season, in every circumstance, in every battle,
in every quarantine. And here's what's even more amazing. As He is in us, He is making us
more like Him. So we are being upgraded in every circumstance by His very presence in us.
We're not being depleted by our problems. This is good news. This week, I'm actually going to be
joining my spiritual mentor and dear friend, Graham Cook. I've spoken about him before.
We're going to be doing a five-day challenge on Facebook called Three Plus Me. And we're
going to be exploring the depths of God's empowering presence within us. If you don't
know Graham, let me just tell you, he carries such a profound revelation of walking with God
in this life, not just waiting around for the life to come, but how we live in His presence,
how we live in His power today. And I honor Graham for not hogging this revelation to himself,
but sharing it with us all, especially for such a time as this. The challenge starts today,
Monday, April 27th. You can join anytime this week. The link is in the description of this
episode. Just click for all the details. I hope you join this. I want you to know this.
No matter what your day holds, you have Christ's empowering presence in you. And He's never
leaving you. He's never forsaking you. So today, ask Him to make Himself known to you in a fresh
way. He is always there at the ready, ready to share His victory with you. The promise of perfect
peace is found in Isaiah 26, 3. And in Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness,
nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Let's declare this together.
Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole heart, I trust the Lord. I am strong.
I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend, you are a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate win,
not because of anything you did, but because of what He did for you. With every step you
take today, you're putting Jesus' victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.