Victory, Peace, Life, and Joy: Understanding the Mind of Christ

“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16

A few weeks ago, almost four thousand people lost their lives in an earthquake in Venezuela. In the same week, my friend’s beautiful, gifted son was beaten to death by men he tried to have peace with and walk away from. It is in these moments, the question may come to mind, “Why? Why, Lord?” Especially when we are persecuted, even the strongest Christian may ask God as Job did,  “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” In other words, “Why me?”

I Corinthians 2:16 asks “…who has understood the mind of the Lord…” and the answer is “no one.” We want a God who is vastly higher than we are, yet our greedy minds want to know everything He knows. We become demanding and desire a God we can fully comprehend with our very limited minds. We want a man-sized God, but He refuses to diminish Himself. He remains God-sized. His ways are so vastly above our ways, and He will not lower His standards to satisfy our petulant complaints and demands. He remains sovereign. He remains omniscient, omnipresent, and extravagantly, unrelatably limitless. He remains God.

Why does God allow us to live our lives in a world marked by death, disease, war, brutal acts against our fellow man, and our own sin that we abhor? Oh, what short memories we have. God did not bring sin into the world. We did. God gave us Paradise, and we introduced sin into it. You may blame Adam and Eve for it, but would you have done any better? Have you ever remained sinless, even with your best intentions after a time of repentance? No. Nor did they. Only one person has and that is God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. And that one act of gifting us with His atoning blood covers all our sin and gives us full birthrights to Heaven and a relationship with the Father. We are the reason for the horrors that sin and cruelty bring into the world, and Jesus is the only means of escape and triumph over all of it.

God even uses our fallen experiences to build our testimonies to say to nonbelievers, “You do not have to be clean before you come to Him. You only have to believe! He accepted me. He will surely accept you!”

That is why when you read a Psalm like the twenty-third one that is so comforting, full of faith, and trusting, you will always find, just before, another where David says something like,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
    and by night, but I find no rest.”  Psalm 22:1-2

Psalm 23 has probably been the chapter that has comforted more grieving, anxious, and heartbroken  people than any other, but David could not have written those words had He not experienced the despair of Psalm 22. You can’t explain what God’s magnificent redemption is if you have never been redeemed from something big. If you yourself had not been redeemed from the pit of sin.

And you cannot convey the proper estimation of God that Job gained if you haven’t witnessed His overcoming power firsthand. Job originally says to God, “How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?” Job 7:19

But God takes him verbally by the scruff of the neck and says, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.” Job 38:4 God’s response in chapters 38-41  to Job’s questioning gives this suffering servant just an inkling of God’s power, enough for Job to change his tune in  42:5-6:

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Proverbs 9:10 says that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” It seems we are destined to need these God-sized wakeup calls to make us understand that every outcome in our lives is dependent on the hand and will of God. Until we grasp that proper estimation of God, we may find ourselves learning through loss and grief all that the Lord wants us to know about His sovereignty. Our faith is tested, strengthened, and refined by our suffering. Through these experiences, God reveals our faith, not just to others but to our own surprised and delighted hearts.

Our tragedies and pain may be our equipping to bless others with what we have learned. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Are you not experiencing firsthand great joy and victory through God’s hand? Are you lacking in the power of the Holy Spirit that Acts 1:8 states affirmatively that you can and will receive?

Living a victorious life depends on our being dependent on the only One who determines victory or failure, life or death, peace or turmoil, and sadness or joy. Yield to Him today. Acknowledge that He is God and is sovereign over everything in your life today and everything that will ever unfold in your future, here on earth and beyond.