If the new vision is from God, then everyone involved will know it. To let go of control is to give birth to vision.
If the new vision is from God, then everyone involved will know it. To let go of control is to give birth to vision.
The most reckless act of faith yet.
God won‘t waste a thing. Even hard can be good, if it makes us more like Him.
I can let go of trying to make it all work, of creating my own Kingdom, of proving myself or killing myself trying. I can let go of escape routes and back-up plans, excuses and false promises, measuring and diving my energy and my time. I can let go and let God be all He promised to be.
God is not part loving, part graceful, part peaceful, part forgiving. Instead he is all loving on top of all graceful on top of all peaceful. He is not divided up so we each get a piece; we get all of Him, all the time.
Striving towards what you believe is ahead requires faith. Faith gives birth to dreams we might be the only ones who can see, dreams that God planted in us to fulfill. The best stories come from steps we take just outside of what‘s comfortable or expected.
Maybe change is reversing the worlds impact on and destruction of who God made you to be.
Reckless faith has to be okay with risk, because whether there‘s victory or not, there‘s always growth. And growth is good.
Is this how Jesus is with me? Does He see the places I put myself out there and want me not to feel pain? Or does He know good growth sometimes comes from hard lessons?
Does it bother anyone else when you read something and you know it to be true, but you yourself totally suck at implementing it into your life?
That‘s this for me right now.
Grief is not making believing in this truth an easy task.
We can say yes to pressing into hard stories, knowing He‘s given us all we need.
In a hard story, we have the privilege of reminding ourselves and everyone involved: Jesus is the lifeline in bloody waters.
Jesus forgives, Jesus directs, Jesus comforts. He provides answers, He convicts. This is His job.
“....there is only one shelter to rest under, and there is only one Savior who died on a cross. Anything I offer, I do so as His ambassador. He does the prompting, calling, empowering, rescuing, and saving.”
If we make room for Him, He‘ll come with whatever is needed into the bloody waters of our lives.
I don‘t know who of you needed these truths, but I know I did this morning. 💜
A redeemed life, no less than the highest mountain, is a marker pointing to the Creator. Who but God can rebuild us into something stronger, using even the weakest part of our past to strengthen us?
There is a promise that God will work on our behalf, despite the circumstances and the other characters in our story—a promise the Enemy doesn‘t get the last word, and the scar we‘ve incurred doesn‘t define us. It‘s a promise that whatever we might be experiencing today is just one chapter in a story He is writing and the story isn‘t over yet.
Looking for God‘s work in the middle of hardship isn‘t about dark or light, it‘s not about mood or personality; it‘s about wisdom. It‘s not an attempt to brush over what is painful; it‘s an exercise in finding perspective, context, and hope.
I had a choice to learn how to pick up what felt heavy and watch it strengthen me, or let things in my life pin me down. It‘s more than looking on the bright side of things—which somehow implies when we grieve a loss or a sin, we are living on the dark side.
If God doesn‘t come through in the way I want Him to, it should expand my view of faith, not shrink it. It means there is something else going on, something I can‘t see or understand, and I have the opportunity to be swept up in it.
He came to give us life to the full. He is infinite and wild. He is fascinating and crying out for us to participate in a life He has designed specifically for us.
He is the Author of life and can redeem and write any story He wants, in His timing, however He chooses. It‘s my job not to control, worry, manipulate, or fuss.
Argh!!!
I knew it was only a matter of time before I had my first point of tension with this book.
This statement. Just no. It‘s human nature, part of the human condition to want to (or actually) throw in the towel, walk away, pout and get frustrated!!! Christian or not. Even as Christians, we are not exempt from those feelings and experiences.
It‘s not childish to experience such things. It‘s real life. Ya feel me? #fightme 😤
Over and over again, God teaches me that for those with reckless faith the story is never over.
The Bible teaches us we are a part of the kingdom of priests, which means I represent the God I love and serve.
He has given us a purpose and a path that is sure. Even though we might stumble, our future is always secure in Him. He is always there to remind us what we are capable of; all we have to do is say yes to trying again.
The voices from the peanut gallery that sound condemning and shame-based either don‘t have freedom themselves or don‘t usually find themselves with the ball at the last minute in the game. We can‘t give their voices or the inner critic in us more power than the Truth as God speaks it.
In these moments it is important to listen to the voice of God and to the people around you who love you. They say, “You are capable. You are gifted. You are loved. You are not your mistakes, you are not your missed shots or failed attempts.”
Sometimes we fall short of our standards and expectations for ourselves. Lies and insecurities come rushing in. We forget that God has called us, equipped us, given us promises, given us gifts. We forget what we are capable of.
If faith could fit in a frame, the way a painting does, then we might get tired of looking at it after a couple years. But faith, as it grows, keeps demanding a new and larger frame to be housed in.
God, in His mercy, gives us the ultimate redo, and He asks us to extend that same grace to others.
It is our job as Christ-followers to help people understand more about who God is and be a representation of what his character looks like. 💜
We can‘t just be recipients of His grace and goodness;we are also to be conduits or vessels of that goodness to others. All Christ-followers have a calling, and I don‘t mean the particulars of where we sense God asking us to be or serve. His larger mission is for us to put Him on display.
We don‘t all start out on the same block.
A convicting passage about our tendency to judge others too quickly.
So what‘s to be my response? Say yes to His strength, connect with others, listen, love well, and in doing so, lighten the burden in His name, and not my own.
God asks us to be present in hard stories, to make room for Him to heal. He asks us to and work with strength not our own. He will use us, not for the sake of the work, but for the chance to love. When I‘m tempted to carry what‘s not mine, I remember how easily I can make it worse without intending.
When we invite God into the story, we can‘t always predict the outcome—there isn‘t a formula, or an easy answer. But when we listen and step forward to say yes, we see Him as a Reconciler, Rebuilder, Redeemer, Restorer, and Repairer of all things. Some of those stories are messy and will never be resolved and tied with a bow, but a reckless faith shares without reserve how God has worked and then leaves the rest to Him.
That is what reckless faith does—it propels us faster and harder towards God‘s plan for our lives.