Survivor

God doesn't want us to feel helpless - in fact, He has given us His power and His promises to rely on so that we might possess confidence in Him. 2 Peter chapter 1 states:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Jesus is sufficient - He is all that we need; that is a point that we'll be discussing a bit later on during today's Meeting House program.  Because we have Jesus, we don't have to fend for ourselves - we don't have to be lost, because, as the old song reminds us, we have been found.  We have direction for our lives because of the power of His Word.  His Word, as I read, contains these incredible promises, which can sustain us and remind us that we belong to Him and that He has our best - which is His best - in mind.

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We can be thankful to God for how we have seen Him be faithful to us and we can know Him more fully as we spend time learning His Word.  God's Word is our key to spiritual survival. James chapter 1 states:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

In the late 70's, in the midst of the disco craze, a woman boldly declared, "I Will Survive."  The recording artist on that song could certainly be termed a "survivor," and she has found the strength that has enabled her to persevere - the power of God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  On this day before Thanksgiving Day, I think it's appropriate to reflect on how God has rescued us, perhaps enabling us to survive difficulties by His faithfulness.

Her name is Gloria Gaynor, and, at a party after I Will Survive had become a hit, God worked dramatically in her life. A Movieguide article quotes her:

“Years ago, right after ‘I Will Survive,’ I was riding high and my and my ex-husband and I had given a party and we’d invited these people and long story short, I was about to indulge in drugs because I felt that if I didn’t, my husband was going to be left with all these women and I was going to be asleep because I wasn’t indulging and as I was about to do it,” she recalled.

“God literally grabbed me by my collar; ‘That’s enough.’ And I was visibly shaken,” she added. “Got to the bathroom as quickly as I could close the door and I was standing there shaking..."

The article notes that, "Gaynor revealed that the close call made her realize her need for Jesus and God’s message of joy."

Perhaps in order to process what was happening, she went to the source of truth, God's truth - the Bible. Gaynor said, according to Movieguide: “I had to really go a different way...So I sat down in my house, grabbed a Bible that someone had given me thinking I was religious. I’m like, ‘I wasn’t thinking about that Bible.’ But I had it when I needed it. And so I took it, blew the dust off it, sat down with him. I was like ‘okay, God, show time. Who is this Jesus person?’ And He said, ‘open the book.’"

This is what she discovered:

“I opened it and on one side of the page was a list of prophecies of the forthcoming messiah that would save us from our sins,” she explained. “And the other side of the page was a list of scriptures showing how Christ fulfilled those prophecies. I was done. I was so done. I was crying. I was penitent. I’ve been following Him ever since, never regretting a moment. Always just so grateful. Just ever so grateful.”

She is a cast member of a movie called, The Thursday Night Club.  Movieguide printed a summary on its website, which says: “When a young woman filled with the Christmas spirit suffers a devastating loss, her four closest friends work to bring the spirit back to her by helping others. The Thursday Night Club is an inspiring movie about a group of friends who listen to God’s calling to serve others in unique ways.”

This article portrays the pop singer as someone in whose life God was working, but she seemed to resist turning her life over to Him.  But, the seeds that had been planted, at some point, began to bear fruit.  And, that's how it is; Jesus taught about the seed of God's Word and how it can bear fruit if we do not allow ourselves to be distracted or deceived.  We can be convinced that, as Isaiah says, God's Word will not "return void."

We can recognize the work of God in our own lives.  We can give Him the glory for how He has shown up in and around us and how He has demonstrated His faithfulness.  We know that the Spirit of God is working on our hearts in order that we might see clearly our need for a Savior and then to lead us into a deeper walk with Him. We can be thankful that God has not left us to fend for ourselves, but He walks with us.

Gloria Gaynor's life shows how we can be a spiritual survivor.  It takes the willingness to hear and believe the Word of God - to really study the Word and seek God's direction.  We have to do more than just merely read the Word, we have to be willing to act in accordance with it.