From the day I was first saved, my sincere ambition was to be a true Christian. Of course I had my own conception of what a Christian should be, and tried my upmost to be that kind of Christian. A true Christian, I reasoned, should smile from morning to night! If ever he shed a tear, he had ceased to be victorious. He must also be unfailingly courageous. The slightest sign of fear would mean he had failed seriously to trust his Lord; therefore he would have, in my opinion, fallen far short of my standard.

But the Christian life, I soon learned, is very different from that! It is a paradox of power in weakness, joy amid pain and faith triumphing in the presence of doubt and unbelief. When the Christian is strongest in the Lord, he is often most conscious of inability; when he is most courageous he may be profoundly aware of fear within and when he is most joyful, a sense of distress readily breaks out upon him again. It is only the exceeding greatness of the life of Christ in the believer that lifts him up on high.

Today in the Church as the body of Christ, we are encompassed about with all sorts of fears and concerns, yet the Lord Jesus comes through for us on our behalf and delivers us from every one of them! He is our reason for us not despairing!