Where God's Word Meets My Mess
I believe God has convicted me that, deep down in my soul, I treasure these people and things more than Him. Yes, I still know Him. Yes, I still love Him. Yes, I still belong to Him. But I've been chasing my fleshly desires.
Now, of course, this is the perfect opportunity for me to make up a great story about how I’m cherishing my single life and how I don’t need a man. I just need my career…or gal pals…or Jesus. Right? But the truth isn’t nearly as complicated as those made-up reasons.
In Bible study, we focus on answering the questions in the book. In Sunday School, we discuss prayer requests about our travels and job transitions. In small group, we talk about the weather, sports, or politics. But, believers are not going to grow in their faith by talking about the weather, sports, or politics.
We all struggle to find our identity in Christ alone. We all want to find our value in something we achieve, and we want others to notice our achievements. But Christ notices us—even without our achievements.
There are so many things I need to do that I’m not doing. I need to do more, try harder, be better…but I’m not. If I set New Year’s resolutions for 2019, I’ll set myself up to fail. I can’t and won’t live up to my standards—or even God’s standards. As soon as I look away from my list of resolutions—or maybe even while I’m still writing them—I’ll fail.
I know it’s hard to be honest in a high-and-mighty Christian society. It feels like the Christians who set unrealistic goals for other Christians never talk about their sins and their hardships. It causes us to wonder if their struggles even exist. Friend, just because people don’t talk about their issues doesn’t mean they don’t have issues. Not only am I guilty of inwardly judging others for their sins, but I’m also guilty of hiding my sins from them.
Even with the people we know…with the people we trust…with the people we are supposed to be unified with…we try to hide. We are silent. We conveniently forget to mention that we are struggling.
I couldn’t focus on the task at hand: doing devotions. Even though I try to do them regularly, I don’t always meet that goal. And I certainly have trouble focusing while I do them. So why do I bother? Why do I even spend time with God at all? What is the real reason I have quiet time? The real reason I have quiet time is to...
Beauty is about attitude, not size or shape. We don’t have to squeeze into a size zero to be beautiful. (In fact, most women can’t!) We don’t need to wear an extra small to be valuable. Real beauty is accepting our size and our shape.
I place too much emphasis on my bank account. I am a hoarder when it comes to money. I don’t want to give or even tithe, though it’s silly when I really think about it. My money isn’t even mine, yet I save it like it is.
I hate spending money. If I could, I would save every penny that I earn or receive. But what good would a bank account full of money do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. My penny-pinching behaviors make no sense, but I continue to pinch pennies nonetheless.
How should we respond to the people who are different than us? After all, aren’t we supposed to treat everyone equally? Aren’t we not supposed to judge people? In a word, yes.
I'm quick to note the sins of society and my friends and my family, but I’m slow to note my own failings. I don’t realize how much I sin in a day, but I do it more times than I can count. I don’t realize how many things I think, say, and do that displease God.
The to-do list is never ending. I feel you. There’s always more to do. As soon as you feel satisfied because you finished a big job, you realize there are six more “big jobs” to do. Isn’t every job a big job? Why can’t a task take five minutes instead of five hours? I don’t have the perfect solution to make your life less hectic, but I might have a reason why we’re so busy.
Recently I posted about how we need to let go of our calendar lives and wait on God’s timing to know what the future holds. However, there are some things you can do while you’re waiting for God to show you what’s next. Here’s a simple list of things a young adult can do to figure out what’s next...
