christianity

You Have a Choice

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I learned a long time ago that people tend to see the world according to their perspective. Negative people only see what’s wrong with the world, while sometimes positive people only see the good. There is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophecy where if you believe in a certain outcome, good or bad, you have a tendency to end up there.

A lot of success in life depends on your attitude. If you’re expecting to fail, you probably will. If you’re expectations are to succeed, the chances are much greater that you will. But I decided a long time ago to take a different road.

I choose to feel blessed because I am. Every day that I wake up is a gift from God.

I choose to feel grateful because everything I am and everything I have is a gift from God. I don’t deserve any of it, but God saw fit to bestow so much on me.

I choose to be excited because I know as a believer that the best is yet to come and that my best life is not now but coming soon.

I choose to be thankful for so many small ways that God shows up in my daily existence.

I choose to be happy. Better yet, I choose joy.

My expectations are all about what God wants for me. To succeed without God is just as bad as failing because it’s like climbing the ladder to the top only to realize it was against the wrong wall. Where you end up is not where you thought you would be.

My choice is to choose joy. Not happiness. There will be plenty of times when being happy is not an option, or at least not an appropriate one, but joy always is. Joy is simply contentment in Jesus. Nothing more, nothing less.

My Prayer (Written by Someone Else)

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“Dear Lord, you are the first of the just. You lived the righteous life. It is because of you that your heavenly Father keeps this world in existence and shows his mercy to us sinners. Who am I, Lord, to expect your love, protection, and mercy? Who am I to deserve a place in your heart, in your house, in your kingdom? Who am I, Lord, to hope in your forgiveness, your friendship, your embrace? And still this is what I am waiting for, expecting, even counting on! Not because of my own merits, but solely because of your immense mercy. You lived for us the life that is pleasing to God. O Lord, you are the just one, the blessed one, the beloved one, the righteous one, the gracious one.

I pray that your Father, the Father of all people, the One who created me and sustains me day in and day out, may recognize in me your marks and receive me because of you. Help me to follow you, to unite my life with yours and to become a mirror of your love. Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

I’m thankful that it’s not my works or my efforts or my anything that will get me into heaven one day. One day, God will look at me and see His Son Jesus. He will see the marks of the nails that Jesus bore for me, and on that basis, He will let me in.

Thank You, Lord, that I am saved by grace through faith. It’s nothing that I did that made me right with You, but only what You did for me. I am eternally grateful. I am eternally in Your debt. May the rest of my life in this world and in the next be an offering of thanksgiving to You. Amen.

Broken Things

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“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever” (Vance Havner).

I think if you’re feeling broken beyond compare, you might just be at the point where God is about to do something incredible in you and through you. I don’t mean that you should beat yourself up and think you’re worthless. I think it’s about recognizing that each one of us has been profoundly affected by the original fall and are broken to one degree or another.

The beautiful part of the Gospel is that it’s for broken people. Not only that, God uses broken people to reach other broken people. What the world wants to throw away, God repurposes for His glory. What the world sees as worthless, God sees as priceless.

I love the verse in the Bible that talks about how God uses nobodies to shame those who think that they’re somebodies. 1 Corinthians 1:27 in the New Living Translation says “ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

That’s me. At times, I have been foolish and powerless. We all have. Face it, we’re nothing apart from the sustaining grace of God. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (at least nothing of eternal significance and value). Even our next heartbeat is a gift from God.

I need to remember that every time I start to think that I am anything on my own apart from God and what He has done in me. Anytime I start thinking that I’m better than anyone else, I need to remember that it took as much of Jesus’ blood to save me as it did anyone else. Who knows what I could have been apart from the saving grace of God?

“You can have my heart, though it isn’t new
It’s been used and broken, and only comes in blue
It’s been down a long road, and it got dirty along the way
If I give it to you, will you make it clean and wash the shame away?

You can have my heart, if you don’t mind broken things
You can have my life; you don’t mind these tears
Well, I heard that you make old things new, so I give these pieces all to you
If you want it, you can have my heart

So beyond repair, nothing I could do
I tried to fix it myself, but it was only worse when I got through
Then you walk right into my darkness and you speak words so sweet
And you hold me like a child, ’til my frozen tears fall at your feet

You can have my heart, if you don’t mind broken things
You can have my life if you don’t mind these tears
Well, I heard that you make old things new
So I give these pieces up to you
If you want it, you can have my heart” (Julie Miller).

How to Pray

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“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes” (Matthew 6:7-13, The Message).

Lately, I find myself praying through the Lord’s Prayer quite a bit, especially when I can’t think of anything to pray on my own. It’s easy to pray through a line at a time and whatever comes to mind next. For example, I might pray “Our Father in heaven, above all that goes on here on earth, completely sovereign over all things yet intimately concerned with all my needs . . . “

You can pray through the entire passage like that. Sometimes, God will bring to mind another verse, like God working all things together for good in the place where you pray for God’s will to be done. Sometimes, I just pray through the Lord’s Prayer without any additional commentary.

It’s not about getting it perfect. I think God hears me just the same when the words flow as when I stumble all over myself trying to pray. The Bible says that God hears even when all I’ve got are groans and sighs too deep for words. Besides, it’s not like I’m telling God what He doesn’t already know.

I think that prayer isn’t giving God new information, but helping me see it from His perspective. I’m taking it to God, and sometimes it changes my circumstances, and other times it changes me in the middle of my circumstances.

I’d like to be able to pray for hours and hours, but I think God’s okay with me offering up short prayers throughout the day. I think the idea is to keep the line of communication open and always have a mindfulness of God wherever I am and whatever I’m doing.

Just a Little Bit of Spurgeon

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“DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Blessed be your name God of all grace, you have revealed yourself to us, you have brought your life to our death and made us alive in you; you have brought your light to our blindness, and made us to behold you; and now you are not only the greatest source of joy to our spirit, but you are all our joy—we have none apart from you. Whatever comfort we find in creation, we know it is but fickle; and while it is there, it comes from you; for all these things are empty, and vain, and void without you. Whom have we in heaven but you, and there is none upon earth that we desire beside you!
Amen.“
“VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) In the first place, this is a very delightful thing. What a gracious God we serve, who makes delight to be a duty and who commands us to rejoice. Should we not at once be obedient to such a command as this? We should be cheerful—more than that, we should be thankful, and we should rejoice.This word, “rejoice,” is not only joy once, but it is joy over again, rejoice! We are to joy, and then we are to re-joy. We are to chew the cud of delight—we are to roll the dainty morsel under our tongue till we get the very essence out of it.”

I think Charles Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers/authors. Even though he passed away over 130 years ago, his legacy still lives on. You can go and subscribe to receive a daily email with one of his prayers and a short commentary on a verse or two. Plus, you get to pray for a different unreached people group every week.

But back to Spurgeon. There’s a reason why he’s called the Prince of Preachers. We have so many of his sermons recorded in print for posterity. Unfortunately, the technology didn’t exist back then to be able to hear his actual preaching, but maybe somebody one day will figure out how to do an AI approximation of his voice. Or maybe not.

Here’s where you can go to receive daily emails from Spurgeon (or more accurately, from people who like Spurgeon a lot and keep his memory alive by posting his insights on a daily basis). Enjoy!

Jesus Is Lord

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“Paul often referred to himself as a ‘slave’ of Jesus Christ. Because we’ve grown up in an American democracy, few of us understand the radical nature of Paul’s description.

Paul was literally saying that Jesus bought him. In His death and resurrection, Jesus paid for Paul. Jesus bought his career, desires, dreams, talents—his total life!

Paul had no will of his own, no dreams of his own. They all belonged to Jesus.

Christians often exclaim ‘Jesus is Lord!’ without much thought to what we’re actually saying. When we say this, we’re saying: ‘Jesus owns us. He’s the boss.’

We’re committed to doing WHAT Jesus says to do, WHEN He says to do it, the WAY He says to do it.

Our lives are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price—a terrible, unspeakable price. And how we live now tells the world exactly what we think of Jesus and His death for us” (Mike Glenn).

I sometimes think that if we truly meant what we said when we proclaim that Jesus is Lord, our lives would look totally different. At least mine would.

Can I live in open sin and truthfully say that Jesus is Lord? No.

Can I be permissive about what the Bible forbids and say that Jesus is Lord? No.

Can I call my own shots and ask God to bless what I’ve already decided to do and still claim that Jesus is Lord? Absolutely not.

Can I sing about the joy of the Lord and then live with a sour face and a sad disposition because my true greatest joy is in something other than God that can be taken away, then shout at the top of my lungs that Jesus is Lord? No way.

If Jesus is my Lord, then I have no rights. What He says, goes. Period. I submit to His will 100%. Otherwise, I’m just paying lip service and I am still my own lord. Not Jesus.

The irony of the Bible is that true freedom isn’t doing what you want because then you become a slave to your whims and desires. True freedom comes from being a slave to Jesus and finding your true self in the process. You’re not beholden to anything or anyone who doesn’t have your best interests at heart.

May we live like Jesus as Lord as often as we say Jesus is Lord. Then more people will want to know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Faithful to Your Call

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“If you live a life of watching and waiting, you will know what kind of call you have. You are not called to solve every problem in the world. Jesus was not called to go all over the world. He was called to be faithful to his own people. Every human being has a call. I work with mentally handicapped people. Sometimes I spend hours with one person, and we barely speak. Does that help people in Bosnia, does that help people in Northern Ireland, does it help people in Somalia? I don’t know, but I think it does. I think that when I am faithful to one person who is given to me, when I am convinced that’s my vocation, then I am doing more than when I am anxiously trying to put out all the fires all over the world. And that gives me peace” (Henri Nouwen).

Sometimes, the greatest gift you can give to the world is to be faithful to your call right where you are. You can do your job well. You can raise your family well. You can serve and minister to those in your small circle where you live, work, and play.

God didn’t call you to fix every problem and right every wrong. He called you to be faithful in a little, so He can trust you with more. He’s called you to be faithful with five talents, so that He can one day trust you with ten.

Sometimes, faithfulness looks a lot like showing up every single day. It looks a lot like not giving up, despite nothing ever seeming to change and the future still looking so far away. But if you show up and stay prayed up, then God will show up. God can take your meager little offerings, bless them, and multiply them to touch the lives of so many more people than you ever could have imagined.

But it all starts in being faithful with your two fishes and five loaves. It starts with being faithful with your small mustard seed. And the beautiful part is that it’s never too late to start.

Awed by God’s Glory

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“The ache of life heals when we are awed by God. 

Wherever the ache of life meets more of the awe of God, we are more healed.
More than any other emotion, what heals us is the awe of God. 

And what is awe really but the glory of God? 
That’s what the research undeniably indicates: God’s glory undeniably HEALS us. 
Our story finds healing where we’re awed by God’s glory. 

If you want to heal more of the losses in your life, make it your way of life to get outside every day to hear what God means to tell you: ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God’ [Psalm 19:1].

That means? That means God sings close over us with spread of sky, God stuns and awes with painted sunrises, God unravels stress with His choreographic dance of stars, God enfolds us everywhere in surround sound: ‘Glory, glory, glory, I am glory and I fill everything with glory so why fill with worry?’

When the heart is full of trouble, step outside to see that the whole earth isn’t only full of trouble, but ultimately is full of His glory.

Step outside and watch the Maker of clouds overhead, lift the clouds within. 

He who breaks the clouds can heal our heartbreak, and the Maker of a million stars can heal every kind of broken heart. 

The river winds on and unknots a tangle of worries, and the grasses surrender and bend in the wind so they don’t break, and ‘God is a sun that never sets… As the air surrounds you, even so does the mercy of your Lord,’ writes Charles Spurgeon, and there is time to look out, to look up, to breathe glory deep into the lungs, and to feel it happen: more healing written into our wounds and our losses. 

The way to navigate loss is to lose all that distracts from the glory of God.

Glory heals and beauty binds up and awe awakens us to God here, right here. 

#TheBrokenWay#TheWayOfAbundance#1000Gifts” (Ann Voskamp).

I think I’m just gonna leave this right here. I think it says it all.

Dealing with Pride

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“For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

In the Bible, you see that pride is not something to celebrate but instead something to crucify. The Bible says that pride goes before a fall. Not just some of the time but all of the time. Why am I sharing that?

Because pride is something I deal with on a daily basis. I am prone to be proud in one of two ways — either thinking too much of myself and my abilities or thinking too little of myself and still keeping the focus all on me.

The antidote to pride, as the old saying goes, is not to think less of yourself but to think of yourself less. That comes from focusing on others more, and above all, focusing on God most.

Very often, I find that those trials God puts me through that I’d rather avoid are precisely the ones I need most. Those are teaching me to put away pride and embrace humility and dependence on God. Every time I think that I won’t make it and still somehow wake up to another day is another reason to lean hard on God.

The ultimate irony of the life of faith for someone like me is that it’s easy to get prideful about my humility. It’s easy for me to boast (even if only to myself) about how much I’m trusting in God. It can become a show where I’m the main attraction. In that case, I’ve missed the point entirely.

The older I get, the more I understand what Jesus meant about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. It means that as I work out my faith, sometimes those qualities that I pray for and long for can come out of me without me even being aware of it. Sometimes, I can see it in others without their being aware of it.

That’s why in-person one-on-one community is vital instead of being isolated and connecting only through virtual and online. But that’s really a topic for another day.

Jesus said that pride isn’t something to boast about but something to put to death. That means that every time I see it rising up in me, I need to take those thoughts and intentions captive and pray for God’s grace to keep me humble and surrendered. That’s when God can truly show up and show out.

The Tick of God’s timing

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I know I’ve said it before, but the voice of fear and anxiety says that everything has to happen right away or it won’t happen at all. Sometimes, anxiety sounds like maybe you’ve already missed it and blown your chance. Or maybe something like God won’t really keep His promises after all.

But as the old song says, the voice of truth tells me a different story. If you can breathe deep and take a moment, you might remember all those times when God came through at the exact perfect time. You might recall how His provision wasn’t a moment too soon or a moment too late.

But sometimes fear speaks so loudly, it’s hard to hear the still small voice over all the shouting. Over all the earthquakes and whirlwinds and fires that try to imitate God’s voice. But there is a Prince of Peace that can tell those winds and waves to be still. There is one whose perfect love still casts out all fear.

The more we live surrendered, the more we get in sync with God’s rhythms and learn His ways and learn to trust His timing. The less we are to give in to anxiety and fear over each new circumstance and setback.

“I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25, HCSB).

That’s a promise. God won’t forsake the ones He declared righteous by the work of Christ on the cross. When He sees you, He doesn’t see a past littered with failure and mistakes. He sees the perfect blood of His Son shed for you and covering you.

You can trust in God’s timing because you can trust in God’s heart for you. Neither will ever let you down. Both are faithful and true.