I was catching up on the news and ran across an article from Business Insider, quoting online mattress shoppers:
“The mattress industry destroyed me emotionally and spiritually.”
“This is ruining my life.”
My first thought was, “how absurd!” I know that sounds unkind, but my thoughts went immediately to folks I know who are suffering from real problems—a friend with cancer, someone who is terminally ill and does not know Jesus as his Savior, a family whose teen girl is missing, and a new friend who lost everything she owned in Hurricane Helene. There are real people struggling with acute problems who have a legitimate reason to believe their life has been ruined, right?
So why do we seem to have a culture of individuals who are so deeply affected by something so trivial as mattress shopping?
Ah, my friend, we are a society who has forgotten who God is. And it’s not limited to online mattress shoppers. I’ve been derailed by trivial things, too. I’ll bet you have as well. The fact is that if we remain in the presence of Almighty God, no problem on earth will destroy us emotionally or spiritually because when we are born again. Our soul (the home of our deepest emotions) and our spirit (the part of us which communicates with God) are protected by His power. But, of course, even if we ARE born again we must be always growing spiritually or we will quickly become vulnerable to our circumstances. Conversely, for those who are not born again, they do not have this protection of God and are frightfully vulnerable to the power of our vicious enemy.
But for those who know Christ, if we’re derailed by circumstances, we’re like the adult child of a King who has never learned to rest and trust in the power of his father’s throne.
Can you imagine Prince William, heir to the British throne, stressing out about mattress buying? Why not? Well, because he is part of a royal family and has been trained to be focused on running a kingdom. His biggest concerns are matters of state. My friend, we are citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom and our mind should be trained to focus on eternal matters. The souls around us are in a perilous balance between eternal life and death!
But, we ALL struggle! We all forget who God is and what our purpose is. We allow ourselves to be deceived by the enemy, who is constantly degrading the image of God. But when we know God for Who HE IS, we keep His perspective and readily recognize when circumstances are trivial.
This has been one reason the study on the attitudes of Christ was so incredibly pivotal for me!
My friend, if your circumstances are ruining your life—or emotionally or spiritually devastating you—you do not have to live this way!!! First, make sure you have a testimony of knowing Christ as your Lord and Savior. Next, adopt the attitudes of Christ which will draw you into the Almighty presence of your Father. There is no one who will care for you like He does. He will handle your circumstances much better than you ever anticipated. He will remind you of your purpose. He will remind you of the power behind His throne.
“And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8
