Resilience Part 1

Life Church Africa

Media

Resilience Part 1

Resilience

October 1, 2023 • Ps Anthony Liebenberg • 1 Corinthians 16:13, Hebrews 12:1, James 1:2, Galatians 6:9, John 4:34

In this new series, Pastor Anthony teaches us how to build a strong life - how to build resilience. God has called us to great things and we need to be resilient in order to achieve those great things.

The dictionary defines resilience as 'the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity'.

Therefore, in whatever situation we face, we need to be able to spring back into shape when it's all said and done.

Jesus is the model for resilience. We see this in His life and crucifixion. He suffered so much and endured because He was focused on the end goal. He endured the cross and since we are His followers, we ought to endure in this life.

In order to do so we need to keep our eyes on Him. He should be our only focus. If we keep our focus on Him then we will finish the race. He is our finish line. This does not mean it will be easy, but we must persevere. In order for us to endure, we must build hope and courage and develop a tough spirit, soul and body. As mentioned, it won't come easy and that's why we need to endure. By being resilient we will live a fulfilled life.

Principles of resilience:

- Big trials equals big faith which equals a big life.

Trials result in our faith and this is evident in the stories of Joseph and Esther. Trials are not obstacles but they are the fuel that keep us going. 'God uses our trials to build our faith, draw us closer to Him and give us a testimony of His faithfulness for others to see'. Our testimony is the proven work of God in our lives. He gets the glory from our testimony. Therefore we need to have faith in Him.

We need to endure because we might be faced with resistance along the way. Resistance shows our heart and the depth of our faith in God. This is why we need to be anchored and rooted in Him. Our faith must be strengthened in times of trouble, trials and adversity. Romans 5:3 teaches us that suffering produces perseverance which produces character. As believers, we must have the character of God. He is our blueprint.

Resilience is for eternity

We have to endure the race. Our suffering is nothing in comparison to eternity which is our end goal. We learn this in Romans 8:18, with joy set before Him, He endured the cross. So with eternity set before us, we must endure - we must run until we get to the finish line. Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.

- There are no shortcuts to breakthroughs and success

We need to work hard instead of providing lip service. Sometimes we are our own obstacles, we hinder ourselves from reaching our goals. Another obstacle that keeps us in the same spot is laziness. Laziness keeps us bound in mediocrity. We need to put in the time and work. The bible teaches us that whatsoever we sow we shall reap. If you sow laziness then that's all you'll reap nothing.

- Perseverance ensures a big stretch

Sometimes we want to do things without stretching. However, even in life before exercising or running a marathon, we need to stretch. Stretching is good, when we stretch ourselves then as time goes on we see the results. We are able to do more than we did before and this is maturity. However, if we are lazy then we won't grow.

In this life we will encounter many obstacles and trials. We will face many storms and all these reveal our character. The thing is, in a storm you are either holding onto something or holding on to someone. Make sure that that someone is Jesus.

Resilience Part 5 | Don't Give Up, Just Show Up!

October 29, 2023 • Megan McCleland • Hebrews 12:1–3, Matthew 6:9, 1 Corinthians 9:26, Hebrews 11:1–3

As we continue with our series on Resilience, Pastor Megan takes us through a journey of encouragement and not giving up in the Lord. Last week Pastor Bruce mentioned John 15: 4 which reminds us that we can't do anything apart from God, therefore we shouldn't even try. However, as humans, we sometimes try to do things by our own strength and we end up running dry and then we try to draw from our personal strength. However, it should not be like that - if we draw from Him, if we remain in Him, then we will have life - we won't run dry. As believers, we need to constantly tap into our source that is Jesus and draw from His strength and His leading. This doesn't mean we won't have struggles, but rather when we do, we will be anchored because we are connected to our life source - Jesus. Resilience teaches us to keep fighting, to keep pushing and we learn and experience this from the people we encounter in our lives. The lessons we get from Resilience might be from fighting illnesses or going through hard challenges in life. However, being resilient means not giving up. It's that will to fight, to keep pushing and through it all trusting in God. We cannot do life on our own and we shouldn't even try. Our foundation is God, He is our strength when things are hard. So, we need to keep showing up even when life gets rough. The truth is that life is precious, it's a gift. We can’t waste it by being trapped by fear and worry. However, what we can do is focus on each day, live each day as if it is our last and run our race with endurance. In fact the bible says to run so as to win a prize, like an athlete. And to do that, to get to the finish line, we should practice self-control. This is what we learn from 1 Corinthians 9:26-27. The apostle Paul says that though he might be preaching to others, preaching about Jesus and pursuing a godly life, if he doesn't watch himself he might fall. He might give in to temptation and be disqualified. The warning here is to not give up our faith in the hardship of life, to not give into temptation and throw in the towel. As believers, we must Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, keep giving Him our struggles, stay in His word and hold tight to our first love (Him). We must not give up. We all go through struggles, however, having struggles doesn’t make us bad people or bad Christians', it just means that we are human and in need of the one who created us to help us. We need God. He is the perfecter of our faith. He gives us the strength to go through whatever comes our way. God is for us even when we go through the hardships of life, the most important thing to know is that He is there and He is with us. - As believers we have witnesses cheering us on so we should not give up - We must get rid of the sin that holds us back on this race ( yes Jesus loves us as we are, but He doesn't want us to stay that way. We must get rid of sin and keep giving it to Him, this could be daily depending on our struggles. But no matter what, Just show up and say I'm here - I need you. - We must fix our eyes on Jesus. He will make us, He will carry us. A thought: We should not be okay with just the thought of surviving. But we must want a life of being in His daily presence. We must aim to know and have a personal relationship with our heavenly Father. We must aim for the assurance and confidence in having the peace of God. That assurance that even when things are going wrong and it doesn't make sense, He is there. He is in control. So, in running our race lets Expect the God of the impossible to step in. Lets have faith that He is going to give kingdom solutions. He is working it out and He is using you and I for His Kingdom. Food for thought: Are you running your race with the confidence that God is with you? That He is giving you Kingdom solutions or are you trusting in yourself and your own capabilities?

Resilience Part 4 | Not Folding Under Pressure

October 22, 2023 • Ps Bruce McCleland • Psalm 34:19, Psalm 11:3, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Matthew 11:28

As we continue with the series of resilience, Pastor Bruce takes us on a journey of reflection and perseverance - springing back to action after trouble. But why do we get compressed and fold under pressure? Is it because the pressure that is outside is greater than the pressure that is inside of us? Are we spiritually strong enough to resist the pressures of the world? We don't have to succumb to the pressures of this world. However, if we have nothing inside to counter what's confronting us on the outside then we will cave and succumb. If we are not spiritually strong enough to overcome certain situations then we succumb and back slide. The truth is, we need to learn spiritual resilience because everything has a spiritual context. We need to operate out of spiritual strength and not physical strength. We all have spiritual resilience inside of us but we will only know and exercise this if we know what's inside of us: Jesus. So, how do we build spiritual resilience? Psalm 11:3 teaches us that we can have a peace of mind because we can acknowledge that the Lord is on His throne. We can be humble and let go of control. We have to focus on what we can control and release those we can't control into His hands. We have to reshape how we think. In a world full of substitutes for coping, we can look to God to help us cope. He is our coping mechanism. Therefore, in order to cope we need to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ - 2 Corinthians 10:5. Romans 12:2 tells us to not conform to the pattern of the world but we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The only one who can renew our minds and transform us is God. That is why it's important that we look to Him in every situation. Here are questions to ponder on: - How strong is your tenacity? - Do you need to let go of the world's coping mechanism? - What is making you anxious? - Are you trusting God? It's not easy to let go of control but: We need to trust and know that He is the Lord and He has it under control. We can have rest for the heart. We can take rest in Him because we know that we can approach Christ, we are not restricted but we are free and He loves us. So, are you spiritually resilient? Are you building your spiritual resilience?

Resilience Part 3 | Spiritual Buoyancy

October 15, 2023 • Ps Ray Menchaca • Job 1:21, Daniel 3:17

Join pastor Ray Menchaca, as he teaches on Resilience and spiritual buoyancy. Life can be a bit difficult and we may face certain situations, we ought to come back right up. We have been given the spirit of Christ to continue. It is understandable that life can knock us down but we need to learn resilience - even Jesus said we will have trouble in this world. The truth is we need resilience to continue in life. Sometimes when we suffer, our instinct is not resilience but to ask 'why'. We have 2 natural dispositions when things go wrong: Moralism and Cynicism. Moralism: God why are you punishing me? I didn't pay my Tithe and that's why… Moralism makes us think that if we do the right thing then we will get the right things. However, life doesn't work that way. Sometimes we suffer even when we do the right thing - suffering is inevitable. Cynicism: when suffering happens we attribute it to our luck. Both of these are spiritual dead ends. However, focusing on Jesus builds our resilience. He is our guide and He will always make a way. We find the perfect example of resilience in the story of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. Their resilience and trust in God is a perfect example of how we should be - what our posture should be. We also see the same resilience in Job. He blesses God even though things are not going well. That is how we should be and even though it's tough to do that - we trust in God because we have been given the Holy Spirit to guide us. In Jesus we have the image of resilience and this is shown when the devil tried to tempt Him but He kept on overcoming him with the word of God - 'it is written'. We need to be anchored in the word of God to build resilience in us and help us overcome. We see this in the garden of Gethsemane as well. Though He was in agony, He still persevered, He showed resilience and because of Him we can be resilient. So how can we grow and be resilient? What not do do: - Guard against becoming careless about Spiritual disciplines. - Avoid becoming indifferent to other people - Avoid being lazy about sin What to do to build resilience: - Have emotional realism - Understand that we are temporary custodians - Have the end in mind