The Jesus Advantage

Recently, during our ladies’ Bible Study session, I shared with the group the story of how my family was left in dire situation during the heat of the COVID pandemic. We had made arrangements to relocate from our home country, Nigeria [including quitting our jobs], when in just a few weeks to our departure, the COVID situation around the world heightened and national borders began closing rapidly. The Nigerian borders were not left out. Interstate borders were closed as well. No one knew what the future held and for us, with no jobs, a two-year-old child and a baby on the way, the future almost seemed bleak. I think at that time what seemed to cause the most anxiety for us was the uncertainty of everything that was going on around the world. There was no good news, and we had no idea what would happen in the coming months.

Later that night, after sharing our experience in 2020 with my wonderful sisters in Christ, I took some time to personally reflect “again” in even more detail on how much we had along with our challenges enjoyed God’s faithfulness and mercies. I remembered how even when government offices were hardly functioning, we got a Nigerian passport for our two weeks old newborn and how that was around the time the Canadian immigration office began accepting new visa applications. I remembered how even though information we got said that it was very difficult for non-Canadian children of Canadian Permanent Residents to be granted Temporary Resident Visas if the PR parents were not physically present in Canada… I remembered how we took just one person’s “Yes” out of the 100s of “Nos” we got, and by faith applied for our newborn’s visa and got it – miraculously. I remembered how money for all the flight tickets we kept booking and they kept cancelling were refunded without issues, and the flight we finally booked for four people when the borders opened was cheaper than the flights we had earlier booked for three people. I remembered how God provided for all our needs in bountiful ways that we did not even have to spend anything from our savings in those over 5 months of being stranded. I remembered so much more, and I smiled. God was, and still is, more than faithful. In our valley of difficulty, He stayed with us every step of the way – calming our fears, answering our prayers, assuring us that even if we didn’t know it all, He had us covered. This is what I call the Jesus Advantage – trusting that everything will turn out for my good, not because it is supposed to, ordinarily; but because I am a child of God.

The Jesus Advantage is what makes a person selected for the job among several applicants, even when he/she is not the most qualified. The Jesus Advantage is what makes a person feel rare peace when it is glaring to all that the earth is splitting ways under their feet. The Jesus Advantage is what makes anxiety turn out very quickly to hope. The other day, I was sad and anxious and could not shake it off as quickly as I wanted to, then I remembered my Jesus Advantage, and began to sing “the Joy of the Lord is my strength” in every variation that I knew and composed on the spot, and I began to experience true joy – anxiety gone. Nothing on the outside changed, but everything on the inside did. That’s the Jesus Advantage. The Jesus Advantage is what makes you look the devil in the “face” and say with all the confidence that you have in Christ, “Satan, get your filthy hands off my health, off my children, off my marriage, off my finances, off my mind,” and he rattles off with all his baggage. That’s the Jesus Advantage.

As believers, we need to constantly remember that we have got the Jesus Advantage. There is joy in just knowing that you have this Advantage. There is greater joy in seeing the results that come from you making use of that Advantage, by standing upon the word of God and claiming the benefits that it says that you have in Christ Jesus – spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and material benefits.

Henceforth, as you go through your regular routine, let it come to the fore of your mind the advantage that you have in Christ.

… If you are expecting a response from an application that you made, remind God about your Jesus Advantage as you pray towards the responses. Tell yourself, “Others may not get it; but I will because I am a child of God.”

… If you’re sick in your body and your doctor is not giving you any hope, remember your Jesus Advantage that “by His stripes, you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

… If you’re struggling with maintaining your Christian purity, remember that you have the Jesus Advantage that He is able to keep you from falling (Jude 1:24) and that you have the Holy Spirit to guide your every decision (John 16:13).

… If it feels like your life, marriage, finances, health, etc. is now on sinking sand and no longer on solid rock, remember your advantage in Christ. In fact, begin to sing so loud that the devil hears, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand.”

Whatever you do, this week, this month, this year, always, remember that you have, and do make use of, the Jesus Advantage. God is faithful to His word to perform it in your life (2 Timothy 2:13).

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