In Prince Caspian, from The Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy gives a perfect example of how we as believers in Jesus should feel when we feel outnumbered and surrounded. Confident and unafraid.
Because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we focus on what is around us or even just in front of us. But when we remember God is always with us and he already won the victory, it changes our perspective.
We become like Lucy, a child facing an army with just a dagger, oh and of course the God of the universe to fight for us. We can have complete confidence because God loves us, he fights for us and if we trust him, he will take care of everything. Nothing should phase us, because God is with US!
Seeing God in your life is about looking for him and expecting to see him. Like Lucy in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. While her and her siblings are navigating the changed landscape of the land they once knew. Her siblings try to find their way by looking for what they remember and relying on their own knowledge. But Lucy is looking for the one thing that doesn’t change, she is looking for Aslan. She knows him and expects him to show up and show them the way and he does, because she put her faith and trust in him.
It’s the same for us. We won’t see God if we aren’t looking for him, seeking his presence and expecting that he will show up.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord -Jeremiah 29:12-13a
Faith in God is so much more than a ticket to heaven. It’s a relationship with the creator of the universe. He built this world and he can and will guide us if we trust him. But to trust someone, you have to know him.
God will show us who he is everyday all day if we let him. We can seek him while we do the dishes or drive to work. We can see him in a sunset or the smile on our kids faces. He will show himself to us if we look for him and expect him to be there. The creator of the universe wants to be in relationship with you, to love you and show you his grace, kindness and goodness. Look for God in places and ways you never have before. He’ll show up, if you seek him.
In the movie Prince Caspian, while Peter, Lucy, Edmond and Susan are making their way through the much changed land of Narnia they become lost. They tried to rely on what they knew, instead of calling on Aslan to help even to the point of ignoring Lucy when she sees him.
We can become like this too. When we’ve done something for a long time or feel we know what we are doing we forget about Jesus. We forget to ask for his guidance, help or even just his companionship. But in taking him for granted we can veer off the path he intended us to take.
If we have faith like Lucy and look for his guidance he will show us new things and new ways to accomplish what we are doing even if we have done it time and time again. His guidance should always be where we look first. He may only have the smallest change but it could make the biggest difference. He designed us for dependence on him. Trust his guidance.
Often when we don’t feel ready to do what God calls us to. It’s then that we are ready, because it’s that insecurity in our abilities that makes us dependent on God. So it’s God working through us, not our own abilities, so we cannot boast in ourselves but in him alone.
One of my teachers when I first started preaching, reminded me that nerves are good when preaching. Because it keeps us conscious of God, his will, his words, his power and his direction. If we were completely confident in ourselves. We would have no need for him. But it’s because we know our own imperfection and instead find our confidence in him, that we can shine him best.
Don’t let nerves hold you back from what you know God has called you to do. Instead use those nerves to depend on him and REFLECT God to others, not ourselves.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. -Ephesians 3:14-21
I am always asking God to reveal new things to me; especially when I read or watch something for the umpteenth time. This time it was Prince Caspian the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
I never realized it before but Prince Caspian is symbolic of what happens to us when Jesus lives in us. Caspian is the son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne but he goes about obtaining the throne by seeking to restore peace between all and by not trying to do it all on his own. Instead he looks to Aslan, who represents Jesus for help and the counsel of others who have served Aslan.
We are the same. We are heirs to the throne of heaven with Jesus, because of his sacrifice. But the only way we can take our place with him is to believe in him and serve him.
When we serve God and others he lifts us up, higher then we could ever be if we tried to lift ourselves up.
