By Larry Stover
Stover lives in Valley Grande and is pastor at Praise Park Ministries Church of the Nazarene.

Two months have flown by since you made those resolutions that were intended to revolutionize your new year. Do you remember the declaration, “I’m going to change?”

You had that dream of having a body that did not sag in the wrong places. Hard earned money was spent on that designer jogging suit. Joining the Wellness Center was a logical step. A “Fitness” magazine subscription expanded your reading habits from those traditional outdoors magazines.

Eating habits were changed. A Wok was purchased. Eating fresh veggies and ditching fried foods became the “new you.”

The driving force behind it all was,“In two months no one will recognize me. I’ll be buying a whole new wardrobe.”

Valentine’s Day rolled around and you stumbled on that designer jogging suit in the back of your closet. The Wok has found a new home in the garage.  You needed something to catch the oil. Those fitness magazines were on the bottom of the pile. In fact, it had been so long since you had visited the Wellness Center that they didn’t know you were a member.

Depression and guilt are so plaguing you that you head to your favorite fast food dive and devour two triple cheese burgers while the grease drips off your elbows.

Sitting there on the sofa you still feel beat up by life.

As a victim of circumstances, trapped in a job your barely tolerate, you break out in the old tune from Hee Haw, “Gloom despair and agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery; if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, gloom, despair, and agony on me.” (You were humming that, weren’t you?)

Sometimes, when life crashes around us, the temptation is to ask, “Where is God?” The truth is “God hasn’t moved!” When those times come, and they do, it is good for all of us to slow down, sit back, and think about what God has already done. Imagine the power it took to create the universe, ignite the sun and sustain its light for millenniums, or stack mountains 20,000 feet into the sky.

Throughout history people have found themselves facing impossible odds. The spiritual giant, Job, commented, “Who can understand the thunder of his power?” The psalmist wrote, “God can do whatever He pleases.” God said to Moses, “I have raised you up to show my power in you.” With the Day of Pentecost God’s power was unleashed like never before in the hearts of believers.

If you feel powerless to fight of the troubles of today, there is hope. God challenged Jeremiah: “Call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things.” God is waiting on each of us to respond in faith as his power liberates us from the sin, doubt, and disobedience in our lives.

When Jesus Christ is the focal point of your life, and all you do is intended to be a reflection of Him, it makes life “Simply Beautiful.”