One day a man visited his doctor because he was in excruciating pain. The doctor asked him, “Where does it hurt?” The man answered, “All over.” The doctor told the man to touch his shoulder. The man touched his shoulder and cried out in pain. Next, the doctor told the man to touch his forehead. The man touched his forehead and cried out in pain again. The doctor told the man to touch his knee. The man touched his knee and winced in pain. He said, “Doctor, everywhere I touch, I’m in pain.”
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, when Christ died, you died with him. When Christ arose, you arose with him. When Christ was seated at the right hand of the father, you were seated with him. You were made to function in concert and cadence with Jesus Christ.
The heart of our problem in our nation today – in our lives, families, churches and communities can be captured and summarized in these verses found in 2 Chronicles 15, a portion of God’s Word talking about ancient Israel:
All of our cars have indicator lights – lights that come on to serve notice that something else is wrong. When the light comes on, the problem is not with the light. The light is letting you know that there is a deeper problem.
Far too many Christians are held hostage by emotional strongholds such as anger, depression, discouragement, frustration, inferiority complexes, fear and countless other volatile feelings. People who are in emotional strongholds usually know it. When they wake up in the morning they don’t say, “Good morning, Lord.” Rather, they say, “Lord, it’s morning.” They struggle simply to survive, often living in a perpetual state of hopelessness, worry or depression.