Anxiety Ain't Fun

Anxiety Ain't Fun
 by Max Lucado

Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs. The sky is falling, and it’s falling disproportionately on you. Anxiety ain’t fun! One would think Christians would be exempt from worry but we are not. It’s enough to make us wonder if the apostle Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.”

Is that what he meant? Not exactly. He wrote the phrase in the present active tense—implying an ongoing state. “Don’t let anything in life leave you perpetually breathless and in angst.” The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional. Could you use some calm? Of course you could. We all could! We all could use a word of comfort and God is ready to give it.

The Greatest Blessing of All

The Greatest Blessing of All MARK BATTERSON “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV) A hundred years ago, a pair of English ornithologists took birds from their mother’s nest on the island of Skokholm off the coast of Wales. They tagged those birds and transported them to various far-off places, then released them to see whether the birds could find their way home to Wales. One of those birds was released in Venice. Despite the tremendous distance (about 1,000 miles) and despite the fact that this species wasn’t native to the region, the bird found its way back home by a path it had never flown — in just over 14 days! That experiment was repeated with even greater distances. Two birds were transported by train in a closed box to London, then flown by airplane to Boston. Only one of the two survived that trip. The lone surviving bird flew all the way across the Atlantic Ocean and found its way back to its mother’s nest in 12 days and 12 hours! Pretty impressive, right? Even ornithologists are amazed by this inbuilt capacity called the homing instinct. It’s the inherent ability to find their way home across great distances, despite unfamiliar terrain. There’s a similar instinct hardwired into the human soul — the longing to be blessed by God. In the words of Saint Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal called it the “God-shaped hole.” Pope Francis called it “nostalgia for God.” Yet despite our innate nature to long for God’s blessings, they don’t always come in our timing. In 1996, my wife and I experienced this “longing for God” when we inherited a core group of 19 people and started a church. There was nothing easy about those early years. It took us three years to become self-supporting. And five to grow to 250 people. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t easy. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way! In hindsight, I call those first five years of church planting a grace period. In law, a grace period is a period of time when a particular rule does not apply. Spiritually speaking, a grace period is when God doesn’t give you what you want when you want it. Why? Because you aren’t ready for it. That’s how blessings backfire! What I learned during those early years of church planting is that God needed to grow me — before He could grow our church. We know God won’t allow us to be tested beyond what we can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Well, God won’t bless us beyond our level of spiritual maturity either. He loves us all far too much to do that. God’s blessings are perfectly sequenced, and that requires great patience on our part. But in that process, we’re conformed to the image of Christ. We’re living in a grace period, every one of us! Certainly, there are blessings we’ve already received, and we’re eternally grateful. But isn’t it awe-inspiring to know God is preparing blessings for you — and preparing you for blessings? And, I might add, He’s preparing blessings beyond your ability to ask or imagine! As 2 Corinthians 9:8 reminds us, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” We cannot reach the full measure of our potential or find the full measure of meaning in life without God. We bear His image. We come from His “nest.” He’s the one who blessed us from the beginning. So, count your blessings. Flip your blessings by blessing others. Repeat … as often as possible! And if you’re experiencing a grace period right now, may you grow in longing to see God’s transformation in you — because that’s the greatest blessing of all. Lord, thank You for preparing blessings for me even now. Thank You for creating me to seek You. I pray for patience in the “grace periods” of life — and a deeper longing to be transformed into Your image. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. Matthew 7:11, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV)

Why God Speaks

Why God Speaks

By Dr. Charles Stanley

James 1:23-25

God is not one to speak in generalities. When He whispers from the pages of Scripture or confronts through a friend's words, the Father directly addresses issues in His children's lives. With that in mind, let's look at His three goals for communicating with believers—namely, for us to:

1. Comprehend the truth. God wants us to learn His ways and principles, to recognize our own frailty, and to identify the needs of others. He does more than offer this as head knowledge—He makes truth applicable to our lives. For example, the Lord assured Paul that His strength was sufficient to carry the apostle through anything (2 Cor. 12:9). Circumstances taught the apostle that God's Word was true.

2. Conform to the truth. Our lives are shaped by our belief system. What we hold as true influences our thinking. In turn, how we think affects our character, conduct, and conversation. God is determined to mold His children into Christlikeness so that they reflect His gospel to the world.

3. Communicate the truth. Every child of God is called to make disciples (Matt. 28:19). Believers can know the Lord and walk in His light but still fall short of this expectation. We must share the gospel by sharing God's truth with others and explaining how His words played out in our lives.

Notice that each goal builds on the one preceding it. Christians are a light reflecting God's glory to this world. We shine brightly by being attentive to God's voice and following His will. And when someone takes an interest in the source of our light, we are prepared to share the good news of Christ.

Don’t Get Caught in the Worrying Trap

Don’t Get Caught in the Worrying Trap
By Jennifer Waddle

Peace, contentment, and overwhelming joy are the real attributes of an abundant life in Christ. But sadly, the cares of this world often overshadow those beautiful sentiments.

Interestingly, right before Jesus spoke about having life abundant, He reminded His followers about the thief that comes in to steal, kill, and destroy. He didn’t share that to burst their bubble or discourage them. He said it to alert them to a very real and present temptation.

Worry is one way the enemy robs us of enjoying the fruitful life Jesus spoke of. If Satan can get us to focus on the stresses around us, instead of focusing on the Holy Spirit within us, he has succeeded in stealing our abundance in Christ.

Worry distracts us from God's truths.
The father of lies wants nothing more than to distract us from the Word of God. From the very beginning, when he challenged Eve with the question, “Did God really say,” Satan has been on a mission to divert our attention from the truth.

Often, when we are caught up in the cycle of worried thinking, we are too distracted to open our Bibles. Yet, that’s when we need God’s truths the most. 

My suggestion is to print out several key Bible passages to have on hand during times of worry. Post them in prominent places and read them often. The enemy doesn’t stand a chance in the light of God’s truths!

Worry is a false comforter.
People who deal with persistent worry have become severely dependent on the anxious emotions they feel. Sadly, it’s almost like a drug that is unwanted but hard to give up.

Worry becomes a go-to source of comfort. Some of us even start to feel empty or lost if we aren’t continually worried about something.

This may indicate it’s time to seek some help. Making an appointment with a trusted physician or meeting with a Christian counselor might be the best course of action for chronic anxiety.

The truth is, worry is by no means a comforter or friend. It is a tool from the enemy to mask the true comfort we receive from the Holy Spirit.

Fill 'er Up

Fill 'er Up
by John UpChurch

“Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” -  Colossians 1:24-26 

Right after I got married, I gave up computer software updates and PC troubleshooting for something a bit more… down to earth, you could say. I needed work in my new hometown, and since employers weren’t tracking me down and forcing jobs on me, I gravitated toward the only available option: construction. With a booming housing market at the time, finding enough to do wasn’t a problem.

But finding motivation was a problem. Going from a specialized, higher paying job in computers, where I mostly sat at my desk all day, to cleaning up cinder blocks, wrestling with insulation, and scrubbing windows—that was quite the humbling thing. Honestly, I’d never had to do any real manual labor in my life before that (yes, I was coddled). The heat and pain and bloodied hands were all new to me.

The first few weeks, after a particularly arduous day of gophering around the jobsites, I’d come home and crash on the living room floor. My muscles weren’t used to the beating they took, and they made sure I knew about it.

Slowly, however, with all the wood slinging and nail pounding and putty slapping, things changed. The nights of carpet collapses became less frequent, and my hands didn’t split open nearly as often (unless you count the numerous times I stabbed myself with a chisel). In fact, I came to enjoy the process of seeing something come together, seeing a house take shape.

My spiritual growth has come in a similar fashion—just without the splinters. At first, the failures dragged me down and beat me up. The rejections when I tried to share my newfound faith stung. The transformation cut deep. But as I grew and as God worked in me, something changed. The pain still stings and the transformation still cuts (that never stops), yet I began to see the pain as an important part of the overall process. Christ is building something in me—and in His Church.

As humans, we all suffer. But as Christians, we fill up on suffering. Sounds bad, but the point is that instead of us letting the suffering go to waste, God uses it for the good of other believers (and our own). He takes the pain and makes it passion, passion that spills out as love for our brothers and sisters.

We each serve as a breathing example of the gospel played out in real life. Our pain and restoration make us a family like nothing else can.

A Prayer for Self-Control

A Prayer for Self-Control
By Dr. Charles Stanley

Heavenly Father, we live in a world which encourages us to indulge in every whim, but you are calling us to rise above us. Please, teach us the virtue of self-control. 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23

The book of Judges tells of a man named Samson, who was so strong he could kill a lion with his bare hands (14:5-6). He possessed physical strength unequalled by any human being. But this could not compensate for his inner weakness.

All of us have areas of weakness. God wants these character flaws to show us how totally dependent we are upon Him. When we handle them properly, they drive us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord. But uncontrolled weakness wreaks havoc in a person’s life.

Samson’s Achilles’ heel was uncontrollable lust. Although he was raised in a godly home and had a clear calling in life, he gave in to his desires and deliberately violated the truth he knew so well. Despite Nazirite laws forbidding involvement with foreign women, Samson pursued a harlot in Gaza (16:1). Later, he met a woman named Delilah, and even though her motives were blatantly treacherous, he gave himself over—heart, mind, and spirit—to sexual indulgence. He was in such bondage to the sin that he ultimately allowed it to dictate his actions, even at the cost of his life.

Before he died, Samson lost everything: his strength, eyesight, and honor. The man who once led his country mightily became a slave to his enemies (vv. 18-25).

What is your weakness? Is it lust, insecurity, fear, greed, gossip, or pride? Personality flaws can be a powerful motivation for good or ill, depending on our response. A proclivity for sin can ruin your life—as it did Samson’s—or drive you to utter dependence on God. The outcome is up to you.

Dear Lord, help us to know ourselves. Teach us to recognize our weaknesses and work to walk in holiness. Let us repent, and follow you in all things. Thank you for your unendeding grace and mercy toward us when we need it most. Help us to trust you with our lives. In Jesus' Name, Amen.