A Proclamation of the Christ-Follower.

You know what’s more important than my failures?

God’s success.

You know what’s more important than my insecurity?

God’s immovability.

You know what’s more important than my mistakes?

God’s perfect record.

You know what’s more important than my emotions?

God’s faithfulness.

You know what’s more important than self-focus?

Fixing my eyes on Jesus.

You know Who makes all the difference in my life?

God does.

It’s not about my plans, my abilities, my failures, my feelings.

It’s about a God who cares about all of those things, knows me up close and personal, and loves me anyway, despite all my shortcomings.

There is no other name by which people can have peace, love, joy, or salvation.

God is the defining factor, the turning point around which my life revolves.

This is my proclamation. 

I will follow him - all else aside, I will follow Him.  Not because of what I’ve done, but because of what He did for me.

He is the King of Kings, God of all, and yet He thought I was worth dying for.  Nothing will change His love for me, or His power to save. 

I can’t outdo Him, and I don’t want to.  I want to learn how to live in grace.  It’s not easy, but I can do it.  It’s not human, and that’s wonderful. 

I will live in peace with God, knowing that He has great plans for me.  Through thick and thin, joy and sadness, glory and shame, so help me God, I will follow Him.  Not by my strength, but His.  When I fail, He’ll forgive, and He’ll keep me from falling.

I renounce fear, unholy anger, and pride.  I may still slip and engage in them, but they will not define me.  God will.

Thank You, Jesus.  Thank You very much.  So be it.

Who are we watching?

Steps of faith are not easy.  It is odd that even if you believe you are following God and doing what you know He asks, that doesn't always make what He asks easy.  I think that sometimes when God asks us to do something, even if we have the confidence of knowing He is leading, there can still be a sense of trepidation.  It makes me think of Gideon and his exploits.  When God spoke to him the first thing he did was look at himself.  He considered who he was, or rather who he wasn't and began to explain to God who he was.  Good thing, I am sure God didn't already know.  Have you ever felt that way?  You want to go, you want to obey, but you look at yourself or your circumstances and think - who am I?
Gideon thought this, too.  You can imagine how excited Gideon was when God reduced his army down from the thousands to three hundred.  Gideon must have wanted to freak out.  However, what Gideon did not know was that he was about to become as dangerous as he could possibly be.
God reduces Gideon's army to pretty much nothing and then says to go attack his enemy.  Gideon couldn't see it, but via God's power, he was about to lower the boom on his enemy.  God gives Gideon what appears to be a crazy battle plan: run down the hill, blow horns, throw down clay pots, and yell.  Sounds like a formula for getting killed.  But God.  Yes, God confuses the enemy, they run, kill themselves, each other, and in general end up being defeated. Gideon wins, the enemy loses, God is in charge.
So, next time we have trepidation, let's remind ourselves of Gideon.

A Jesus follower

We need to keep our eyes on Him - not the other way around

Life continues to change. Ups and downs, highs and lows, good and bad.  In all of it, God is immutable. Good thing for us.  It is interesting that as life happens, we kind of expect God answer our questions or explain what is going on.  We expect Him to keep His eyes on us rather than the other way around.  We expect God to give an explanation, rather than us trusting that He loves us.  It is a strange thing.  I think about Joseph being tossed into a pit, bought by slave traders, doing time in jail, resisting the temptation of his bosses' wife and never saying, hey God - why are you doing this?  Rather, he kept his head.  Of course he was not aware of the big picture that God was going to use him to save Jacob, who became Israel, who later became the nation that we have today.  Apparently God had a bigger plan.  Joseph was smart.  He kept His head, let God exalt him at times and did not allow himself to be distracted.
I want to be more like that.  I think we would all benefit if we were all more like that.

Genesis 37:12 ...

A Jesus follower