Spiritual Poise
Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way. Luke 4:3
When I watched “The Jesus Film” (1979), one of the scenes that stands out to me is when the angry crowd thrust Jesus to the hill so they could throw Him off the cliff. As in today's key verse, Jesus simply passed through the angry crowd and went His way calmly. Jesus is the definition of poise.
A person with poise is regarded as confident, calm, and collected, and poise also means balance and equilibrium. Negative feelings such as anger, anxiety and fear cause people to feel out of control, as if they are losing balance, their emotions cannot be controlled due to certain triggers. Therefore, how do we keep poise like Jesus even when life throws us a curveball?
A pastor defines "spiritual poise" as maintaining Godly characters under pressure. Even though Jesus was constantly under pressure from the Pharisees and Satan's opposition, He still remained gentle and peaceful at all times. A true poise is not faked, but rather comes from the steadfast prayer and deep trust in the Lord, which allows us to maintain godly characters in the midst of pressure.
Prayerless life is a powerless life. In praying, we build strength by focusing on the Lord, not the circumstances, especially praying in the spirit, which helps regulate our emotions back to balance. In addition, prayer strengthens our trust in the Lord, and one of my favorite sayings is, "I trust in the Lord and things will work out by themselves" since prayer acknowledges that God is sovereign and everything is in His hands.
Additionally, live our life to glorify God, for poise’s origin means "weight", just as glory means weight as well. By honoring God, we will be less egoistic, thus our negative emotions wouldn't be easily triggered, allowing us to maintain a good balance of spiritual poise to handle whatever comes our way.
Blessing prayer: May we pray in spirit at all times and let your peace rule over our hearts so that we can honor you even during difficult times, In Jesus’ name, Amen
