How to handle the news as a Christian (S. 2, Ep. 24)
Grab your latte & let's chat purpose. Listen In On Spotify | Pocket Casts | Anchor | Apple Podcasts season 2, Episode 24 How to handle the news as a ChristianIt’s been a hard season of news, especially lately it just feels like it’s one thing after...
Rooting Out Pride Part 1 – The Power of Pride
Living purposefully, for a Christian, goes hand in hand with living the way God calls us to live.
It calls us to step into what He calls us to step into, but it also calls us to root out the things He hates. One of those things is pride.
Isaiah 2:12 says very clearly, “For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up–and it shall be brought low.”
James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 16:5 is very firm when it states, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.”
On a very practical level, we can see that pride destroys.
If God HATES pride and if pride brings destruction, it must go. Pride needs to be taken out. Living the way God calls us to live, living purposefully, does not allow for pride.
Don’t Grow Weary In Doing Good
Have you ever gotten tired of doing the right thing? Maybe you’re listening to your conscience, trying to do good deeds or walking in obedience to God. But sometimes it can get EXHAUSTING.
Often we either get no reward for doing good, we get no praise for obeying God and we even get punished or ridiculed for obeying God or listening to our conscience.
It can be hard to, like Peter and the apostles in Acts 5:29, live with the mentality that “We must obey God rather than men.”
Galatians 6:7-10, speaks to everyone who may feel this very relatable way: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
It’s a call to not grow weary. If we sow to the flesh – to earthly or sinful things – we will reap corruption, but when we sow to the Spirit – the things of God – the verse promises that we WILL reap eternal life.
It promises again “we will reap” — if we do not grow weary of doing good.
When We Fail
Sometimes I can’t do it, and I’m not capable. I find myself crying to God because I can’t do it. Maybe I can’t be as productive as I hoped, or maybe I’m struggling to love someone better. Sometimes I keep failing no matter how hard I try. Sometimes I can’t get free from discouragement or laziness. I struggle to conquer battles and accomplish goals. Can you relate? These are all hindrances in my life that root in the fact that I am not as able, strong or “good” as I hoped I was. It’s a scary thing to realize that I can’t do all things or conquer all things or figure out all things alone. But it’s also the most freeing, because that’s exactly when I find that He can.
Stepping Into Freedom
Friend, freedom and purpose go hand-in-hand.
In 2014, Jesus revealed to me in such a new, fresh way that there was FREEDOM in Christ. At the end of 2016, He did it all over again.
I slowly began to realize that not claiming freedom, whatever it be from, was holding me back from moving forward, moving forward and STEPPING INTO things had for me.
Being so stuck in a repetitive, condemning, people-pleasing thought process was pulling me back from stepping into anything else. Not embracing FREEDOM was chaining me down. And when you’re chained down, it’s hard to notice, well, anything else but those chains.
Let No One Despise You For Your Youth
As young people, I think we tend to dwell on pressure rather than purpose. We’re overwhelmed by the pressure to prove – to prove that we have potential, that we’re good at what we do, that we don’t need to have had a lot of experience to have valuable input. Sometimes our youth can feel like such a burden and obstacle that we forget what an invaluable, purposeful gift it is. I’d like you to take a step back with me and evaluate your life for a second. Years from now, we might look into a mirror and wonder where the time went and what in the world we did with it. I think, in the grand span of our life, we may think about these years that we’re in right now more than we realize. How are you redeeming the time? I hope it’s not in frustration, pressure, discouragement, and unholy hustle. Paul famously charged Timothy to set an example in our youth – in speech, life, love, faith, purity. The world has a gigantic spotlight on us, young people, whether we realize it or not. Everyone wants to know how we’ll act and react. Everyone sets an example for someone, but as young people – and especially young leaders, young pastors (like Timothy), young couples, young Christians – we have a little bit of a novel appeal.
How to Be A Light Where You Are
A big problem with where we’re at right now is that we choose not to take the opportunities – opportunities to be a light for Jesus. We refuse to see the chances to share the Gospel because we’re so familiar with the setting and so busy with our own lives.
It’s your choice to live an ordinary life and wait to be sent somewhere to do God’s will, or you can be a light exactly where you are.
Jesus will give you the strength, but our hearts need to be ready and eager to be a missionary for Him wherever that may be.
Where God has you right now is EXACTLY where He wants you to be ministering. Be open to be used.