Obeying the Opportunities God Provides

Sometimes things happen that remind me of how amazing it is to be a part of a local church. For all it's imperfections and the times something happens that brings hurt, there are just as many times when what happens is a beautiful picture of what it should be.

One of those moments happened for me recently. I was having a hard time with something and expressed that. I said it specifically to someone I knew and who knew my story so I didn't have to share the details. There was another person standing nearby who noticed I was having a hard time. They didn't try to get details about what was going on, or join in the conversation. They simply put a hand on my shoulder and spoke a few words of encouragement before they quietly walked away.

I had seen this person around at church before, but I didn't even know their name. They simply took a moment to encourage me when I was struggling and they didn't make a big show of it, or try to get involved in something they weren't invited into.

I didn't fully realize the significance of what they had done until later. But the words they spoke and the fact they would take the time when we didn't know each other played a big part in beginning to change what was going on for me that evening.

It makes me wonder about how I can do the same thing more.

How often have I walked past someone having a hard time and thought about what I could say to encourage them and just kept going?

How many opportunities to bring light into someone's darkness have I just walked by?

I'm not thinking about these things because I want to feel guilty about those times. They're about a realization that I have these same opportunities and a challenge to step into them, instead of walking by them. It takes only a minute for me, but it could be really important to that person.

Whether we know the outcome of our obedience to God in these things or not isn't what's important. The importance is that we follow through. That we listen to these promptings from God as go about our days.

In the time since this experience for me, my prayer has been that God would help me to see these moments where a couple minutes of my time can make a difference in someone's day. And then that I would have the willingness and the courage to follow through on those promptings.

I would invite you to join me in that. I believe it is the way we were meant to live.

Communicating with Grace and Love

The conversations about hot topics in society today are becoming more and more divisive and polarizing. Whether they're being had in society at large or in the church, we're becoming really good at mud-slinging toward those who don't agree with us.

It's made me think about how we should actually be responding.

What does it look like to respond in a godly manner?

How do we respond with truth without falling into the attacking of people that has become so common?

I don't want to get into a political debate about any of the current issues. That's not my point here. I'm not looking at the specifics of what our responses should or should not be. I want to look at what the overall tone of our response should be. How we should be dealing with people whether we agree with them or not.

In all of these conversations our tone must be filled with grace. We have to offer grace to everyone in how we respond. This doesn't mean we shouldn't speak the truth of what God's Word says, but it does impact how we communicate that truth.

Our approach shouldn't be about proving we're right and making the other person feel small or stupid for disagreeing with us. That will close people's ears to what we're saying. We have to communicate our love for all people as we communicate the truth. Yes, this is difficult in a society that equates disagreement with one's view as not liking the person. But, somehow we have to figure out what that looks like.

As vital as communicating this way is when it comes to society at large, I believe we need to be just as careful when we communicate within the church. In our fallen world, we need to speak the truth lovingly and with grace to those within our walls too. Often, we don't know what the other people around us in church have walked through and how something we say might impact them. If we want to be places where people come to find healing and freedom, then we have to be thoughtful in how we communicate.

I'm not saying we shouldn't speak the truth. We absolutely have to. But, if we communicate that truth without grace and love we won't be heard by the people we're speaking to. This is true in everything, but I think it's even more  important when it comes to some the hot topics in our society today.

If we speak the truth in a way that condemns someone for their past in that area, we have actually failed to communicate the truth. Instead, we're communicating judgement. When we speak the truth of God's Word in these areas, we need to be speaking about repentance, forgiveness, and grace alongside. Not as an after-thought, but as part of the truth we're speaking.

Whatever situation we may find ourselves in when these topics come up for conversation, our response should be different than that of the world. Not just because it's what the Bible says, but because we're doing our best to really love others - both inside and outside of the church. It's about following Christ's example, not trying to be right.

Discard Darkness & Armor Up with Light

What does it mean to discard darkness?

How do we armor up with light?

"The night is nearly over and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:12, CSB)

There are a few words in this verse that really jumped out at me when I read them recently.

The first thing was where it talks about discarding the deeds of darkness. Other translations say to put aside the deed of darkness in this verse. For me, the word discard when I read it in this translation was what stuck, rather than saying put aside. I tend to see putting aside as leaving something to come back to it later, but discarding speaks of something more permanent to me.

We should be removing the deeds of darkness from our lives for good. We discard them and they're not there for us to take back up again. They're not something we can go back to.

This isn't easy, but it's necessary. This verse goes on to say what we should take up when we discard the deeds of darkness.

We put on the armor of light. I'd never really thought about light as armor before. Light exposes and reveals, but I didn't see it as something that protects like I think of armor. Light doesn't hide anything.

But, I guess that really is armor against the deeds of darkness. These deeds depend on darkness to hide them from view, so when we take up the armor of light, we expose them for the what they really are. In this way, it does make light armor - it protects us from being deceived into doing the deeds of darkness.

To discard the deeds of darkness, we first have to allow God to point them out to us. We go His Word and we go to Him in prayer and ask Him to show us the places where we are engaged in the deeds of darkness.

Once they've been revealed, we repent of them and turn to God's ways. We choose to walk in His ways, and that means we are walking in the light. Walking in the light is how we armor up with light. We refuse to walk in  the shadows, and instead choose to walk in God's ways and stay in the His light.

Where are you engaging in the deeds of darkness in your life? Are you willing to allow God to point them out?

Will you choose to walk in the light of God's truth and God's ways instead?

More Than Conquerors!

What does it mean that we're more than conquerors?

How is this possible?

Romans 8:37 says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors."

The words "more than conquerors" jumped off the page at me when I read it recently. I've these words lots before, but it was like I was reading them for the first time.

As I looked at the context of this verse, I realized the whole passage is about the victory we already have in Christ! We get to live from a place of victory, not a place of defeat. The passage around this verse (Romans 8:31-39) talks about the victory we have in Christ.

This isn't a victory brought about by what we have done. It's brought about by the work of Christ on our behalf. This means there is nothing that can separate me from it. This victory isn't going away. It is secure.

When we fully understand this, it changes the way we live. It changes how we approach the daily battles when we know our ultimate victory has already been secured. We fight differently when we're not fighting from a place of defeat. We fight confidently when we know the outcome is victory.

It doesn't mean it suddenly becomes easy or that we don't have any battles to fight. We still have hard and bloody battles to fight. It's still messy. But, it does give us hope in the middle of long and difficult battles. A hope that helps us to keep fighting.

What battle are you fighting that you're ready to quit?

Are you fighting it from a place of defeat? Or are you standing in the victory that has already been achieved for you through Christ?

God's Word tells us we are more than conquerors. We get to fight from a place of victory.

Blessing in the Struggle?

I've written a lot about the struggles and challenges of living with an anxiety disorder. I've tried to share honestly about what it looks like. In doing so, I've also started to see a side of it that I hadn't thought too much about before now. In the midst of the daily battle, it's easy to just see the challenges. But, as I've written more about it, I've begun to more clearly see the blessing in it and the way God is using it in my life.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." I've always struggled with this verse - especially in regards to this part of my life. If God is about working for my good, then why do I have this struggle in my life?

But, I've recently come to see that this verse isn't about God only allowing good things in our lives. It's about God taking all that happens in our lives and using it for good - for His purposes. He will take it and use it to bring Him glory in and with our lives.

As I've begun to grasp this, I still don't think I would say I'm thankful for this particular struggle. But, I am thankful that it doesn't mean God can't use me and I'm thankful for what He has done in me through this. I'm sure God could have taught me some of these lessons in other ways, but I know I've learned them, at least in part, because of living with social anxiety disorder.

One of the biggest things I've learned is that there's nothing that prevents God from using you. I know that in my own strength, I can't do a lot of what I do. It's all God choosing to use me that way despite something that would seem to disqualify me from doing that.

I've had to learn to rely on God in a deeper way than I would without this. On the days when I'm really struggling to just keep going, the only way I can do it to rely on God. Sometimes all I can do is pray and trust Him to do it when I can't.

As someone who likes to be able to do it well on their own, this hasn't always been easy. And I haven't always seen it as a blessing. For a long time I saw it just as a weakness. But lately, I've been learning that it's a blessing to be completely dependent on God for everything. It's how we were created to live, and it's a much better way than trying to do it all on our own.