Thursday, December 3, 2015

Own Your Life Chapter 9


Sorry that I am just now getting up to Chapter 9 on Own Your Life but things have been a bit crazy around here.  I was going to do it last night, but I wound up falling asleep at 8:30.  Running after 5 kids makes you a little tired sometimes...just a little.  :-)  Anyway, let's discuss learning to take risks and owning your faith.

I loved the story of Sally's first mom's conference and how they stepped out in faith and God met their needs and more.  I love that they prayed and stepped out in faith and God did so much with the women there.  She said it best with "I believe God wants each of us to have the privilege of living by faith and watching Him work.  It is His desire to respond personally to all of us who are His."  Yes, we are not our own, we are His, and we are called to do His work.  We all have our own stories and dreams, but we must seek His will for us first as we leave our mark upon the world and on the people around us.

"Satan hates it when we hold fast to God and wait on Him to provide for our needs."  Yes, Sally brings it home there too.  She goes on to say "Then there are the naysayers, those voices that tell us we are foolish for choosing to take a risk by living by faith."  She really convicted me too when she said that "If we are going to focus on pleasing God by faith, we must realize that we will not always be able to please others."  Raising my hand...guilty of being a people pleaser here.  Yet, I am trying to work on that one.  Further conviction came as she said "When we choose to navigate our lives using fear, formula, or flesh, we set ourselves up for deep disappointments--and limit what God can do in and through us."  I am guilty of doing that again, although I have been trying to pray over my fears and trust God that He is taking care of us and making the choice to choose peace.

"Living the Christian life by the flesh is utterly exhausing and eventually wears us out."  Guilty again.  I keep telling myself that I need to pray about everything and follow in obedience with what He is guiding me to do.  I don't know how many times I forget to pray first before making quick decisions.  And how many times I set my wheels spinning and wind up totally stressed out or freaked out that I can't move and I just get stuck.  I am in the flesh at those moments...I forget to put prayer and God first and then follow in obedience to His will.

I loved her stories of how they stepped out in faith in certain areas and what God did in those circumstances too.  Faith is truly an act of trusting God to work in each of our circumstances and believing that He will in His time and that He truly knows what is best for us.  "No matter what our lives hold, God wants to work through the details and circumstances so that we will have a story of faith to tell throughout all of eternity."  We just need to pray about it all and trust Him with it.  God wants to bless us and He wants us to go to Him.  He wants that intimate relationship with us.

"Faith is a legacy you can pass on to your children as they observe the choices you make to believe God."  Yes, I want to pass my faith on to my children and give them hope of things to come.  I want to raise my kids to be "His warriors" and to own their faith as well.  I need to live by faith and show them how to do that.

Lord, help us to have an increase in faith and to wait patiently for Your personal miracles reserved uniquely for those of us who will take the risk to believe.  Amen.

I will share a little story...the week of Thanksgiving we were off to Goodwill.  I told my son that we needed to look for a winter coat for him while we were out and about.  He said that he wanted a Nike coat.  I told him that the chances of us finding one were pretty slim, but we'd look to see what they had available.  The first store we went to, barely had anything.  He was disappointed.  I told him that we were going to another store.  We went in and I found 2 coats in his size.  I had to smile as I realized that the red one was a Nike coat.  He was happy.  Later, that day, he got upset about something  and I sat down and talked with him.  I told him that I thought it was totally cool that he asked for a Nike coat and that God had provided that for him.  It brought him out of his little fit that he was in and back to being thankful.  I'm still thinking about that incident and it reminds me that God does provide....even in the tiny details.  How awesome is that!  My only mistake is that we should have prayed about it first and I shouldn't have said that the chances of us finding one were pretty slim...when me of all people should know that God can do anything.  Everytime I look at his coat, it will be a reminder of what God truly can provide...He cares about even those tiny details.







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