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Okay, God. What’s My Job?
Let go of control In the last few articles we’ve touched on the idea of letting go of control and depending on God, but today we are going to dive deeper. One of my favorite old movies is Days of Thunder, starring Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman. In one scene, Cole and Claire are in an argument about Cole, Cruise’s character, going back to racing after an accident. Claire, Kidman’s character, tells Cole that “control is an illusion.” Hard to believe that such profound wisdom could come from a 90’s cult classic, but it’s true. The illusion of control trumps us all up at some point. Here are some things to know…
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Okay, God. What’s my Job?
Fully depending on God Surrendering to God seems easy, but as we’ve seen its harder than we think to surrender our will and follow God. I don’t know about you, but in any relationship I find that I do much better when I have a clear understanding of my role. Honestly, I don’t know that I have ever clearly understood role in relation to God, but that is changing. According to Henry Cloud and John Townsend in their book How People Grow, we need to do four things to have right relationship with God. First, we need to fully depend on God, we have to stop controlling, we must give up…
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You Are Not the Boss of Me
Surrendering to God I’m going to confess something. I have lived most of my life in rebellion to God and most people haven’t noticed. You know why they haven’t noticed? I’m nice. I’m kind. I go to church on Sunday. I used to be a church pianist. I have a good job and pay my bills. I don’t watch porn, I don’t drink, and I rarely swear. I’ve had a couple of more obvious rebellions, such as having a child out of wedlock, divorce, and buying a fancy red sports care that screams look at me, but my daily life looks pretty Christian. I suppose my rebellion is subtler than…
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When I Focus on My Problems Instead of God
Whether you have been on your faith walk a short time or a long time, I think at some point we all come to realize that a life of faith doesn’t necessarily mean problem-free life. In some ways, it may even bring problems, as our faith asks us to live a counter-cultural life. We must often live against the grain. Perhaps one of the biggest struggles we have is focusing on our “problem” as if it was the core of our issue. I know I have been guilty of this in my life. I’ve written before about my health issues, which have plagued me in some way most of my…
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A Devotional for the Anxious Heart: 2 Corinthians 4:17
Scripture: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) Thought: God is not unfeeling, but our salvation is important. As such, he will use our difficulties and afflictions to draw us closer to him. It is amazing to think that God wants us with him in heaven. Faith makes our difficulties lighter. When we change our orientation towards heaven, the whole of our experience changes—we become stronger, more capable, more humble. Application: What is my focus? Now or eternity. This life is fleeting, but the one to come is forever. If I focus on that, whatever I experience here…
