Finding Hope / Contentment / Waiting
Finding Joy (Letting Go of Control)
Speaking Truth Over My Life
Being Brave
Failure. Training vs. Trying.
Dreaming
Destiny
Vulnerability
Owning My Story / Sharing My Story
Using My Gifts
Helping Others on Their Journey / Serving
Restoring a Sense of Abundance
Cultivating Rest and Play
Embrace the Season—Waiting on God
If you are waiting on God, you can be fulfilled in the waiting. We were created to wait on God.
He created us to desire and long because He wants us to desire and long for Him.
How do you wait gracefully? Preoccupying myself or waiting on God as a waiter waits on a table of VIP customers? Most of the time, God doesn’t tell me what He’s going to do, but He tells me who He is.
Grace waits actively. Partly because we have an enemy and there is no neutral. Keep the birds of prey off of your sacrifice.
Invest where you are. Embrace the season. The Proverbs 3 woman probably didn’t do all of those things in one day. Stay flexible. Don’t define your life so narrowly. I need to keep myself open to possibilities.
Pursue margin. Don’t use up all your energy, time, and money till you are exhausted. It’s OK to say No. It’s OK to stay home for no reason. Leave a little margin in your life.
Honor the Sabbath. God know you need some down time. Create new neural pathways. Think differently than you do the rest of the week. Fresh thoughts, fresh settings. Put away thoughts till tomorrow that are worrisome.
Don’t try to make something happen or get too busy. Don’t choose the scene of your own martyrdom. Don’t be all about yourself and not about God. Your service is impure because it didn’t come from God. Be OK with being insignificant, fading out, being on the sidelines.
Let the Word trust you with His silence. He may want to wait and not be at your beck and call.
John 11:107 Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick and He purposefully waits two days before going to him.
Soak in the silence. Let it become sweet to you. As you wait, you become the right person.
The Secret of Contentment
Text: Philippians 4:10-23, 1 Timothy 6:3-8, Proverbs 11:24-25, Acts 20:32-35
She Reads Truth <email@shereadstruth.com>
I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.
– Philippians 4:12
Imagine you wrote a book about your life—let’s say it’s a spiritual memoir since those are my favorite and, obviously, I’ll want to read it. What would the title be? Would it be something dramatic and decisive, like “Tales of Triumph” or “Leap of Faith”? Or maybe it would follow more along the lines of “Carefully Calculated Efforts” or “Fully Vetted, Risk Averse, Partially Trusting Hop.” (I call dibs on that last one.)
I’ve never been much of a leaper myself. I’m actually more of an all-out leap avoider. I like to know where I’m going before I get there. If I sense God calling me to something, my ideal scenario would be to send someone ahead to see what I’m really in for. A faith scout, if you will. Someone to take a look at what’s on the other side and send a postcard back with a full report. Then, I could make a properly educated decision: is it worth the leap or not?
If you, too, are a partially-trusting hopper, I have good news! Philippians is essentially that postcard. Paul has gone to that most faithful, gospel-believing, Christ-trusting place where so many of us long to go, and he has sent back a letter to describe his panoramic view from the other side of the journey.
The end of Philippians is the close of what could, for all Paul knows, be his life’s last letter. He has witnessed firsthand the life-changing power of the gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. He has endured sacrifice, struggle, and suffering. And, as he says in verse 12, he knows how to have a little, and he knows how to have a lot. Sitting in prison at the potential end of it all, Paul delivers his final sentiments with profound joy and certainty:
In Christ I have all I need. And, friends, so do you.
At the end of a life of audacious faith, the great apostle has two simple goals: to give glory to Christ, and to encourage his brothers and sisters in the gospel.
Tucked inside Paul’s beautiful litany of faith is the very verse we Christians like to use and misuse to talk ourselves out of those faith slumps we’ll likely write about in our book: “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Rather than tossing that single line out today and ending this study with a with a “Go get ‘em, Tiger” pat on the back, let’s follow Paul’s lead and zoom out a little. Read verses 10-14 again, focusing on the context of verse 13.
Notice: Christ’s strength in Paul produces something far richer than achievement; it produces contentment. Christ’s strength in me fuels something far more significant than my best efforts; it fuels my faith.
Like Paul, we will know what it is to have a little and what it is to have a lot. Like Paul, our story will include sacrifice, struggle, and suffering. And like him, we have been given profound joy and unending riches in the gospel and glory of Jesus Christ. The God who provided for Paul—and for the church at Philippi, as well as for generation after generation of believers who have come before us—also supplies all our needs “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
May His strength be our contentment. May His grace fuel our faith. And may the message of our story be simply this:
In Christ I have all I need. And, friends, so do you.
You Were Made for Something Greater Than Yourself
By Rick Warren — Feb 28, 2016
“Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.” (Mark 8:35b TLB)
Why don’t we feel more fulfilled? Far too many people are asking themselves that question. We’re not happy, we’re not satisfied — in fact, we’re miserable.
Why? In his book Rich, Free, and Miserable, sociologist John Brueggemann shared a great story that illustrated why. Climbing Mount Everest is one of the challenges that inspire people to do something big. Lots of people try, even though nearly 10 percent of the people who do, die in the process. Many of the corpses still line the path up the mountain. Yet people still want to climb the mountain — though it has no real redeeming social value.
A few years back one climber, David Sharp, was clearly in trouble on the mountain. There were 40 climbers who noticed his obvious need but passed him that day. He died on Mount Everest because none of the other climbers were willing to put their personal goal on hold to help him.
That’s us. Our own personal drive to have more, be more, and do more causes us to lose sight of what really matters. But that isn’t how God wired us. Life isn’t about what you make, who you know, or what you do. Life is all about love — loving God and loving others.
Jesus tells us in Mark 8:35, “Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live” (TLB). God wired you in a way that you’ll never be happy unless you’re giving your life away in his work. You were made for something greater than yourself. The Bible calls this your mission in life. Significance doesn’t come from status, salary, or sex. It comes from service. Only by giving your life away can you feel that your life has significance.
Finding Joy by Letting Go of Control
Our JOY level is directly connected to our need for CONTROL. Steve Fry, The Crucible
Exhaustion comes from trying to control the uncontrollable.
The question is not “why was I rejected”, but “what is God protecting me from?”
The question is not “why is this a no”, but “how much closer am I to a yes?”
God’s correction is fine-tuning you for your future happiness. Steve Fry, Belmont Church
God is the god of joy
Joy is found in the Spirit
Joy is a choice–it is a spiritual discipline
Joy brings healing, freedom, and strength
Joy is always birthed from the inside out (not the outside in)
Embrace the spiritual discipline of joy
The secret to joy is this: loving people the way that Jesus did.—Jen Hatmaker, , IF Gathering 2016
God’s peace is joy resting.
His joy is peace dancing.
- F. Bruce
The secret to joy is this: loving people the way that Jesus did.—Jen Hatmaker, , IF Gathering 2016
Share recklessly and watch your joy overflow.—Jen Hatmaker, , IF Gathering 2016
God is the god of joy
Joy is found in the Spirit
Joy is a choice–it is a spiritual discipline
Joy brings healing, freedom, and strength
Joy is always birthed from the inside out (not the outside in)
Embrace the spiritual discipline of joy
What was it like when the disciples experienced joy and the Spirit?
Say God is for me!
God is working for my good!!
Memorize scripture about who you are and agree with God.
Paul’s Secret of Joy Phil 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing”
- “Be anxious for nothing” —the Spirit inspired this statement. Paul would not have written it, if he hadn’t already lived it. Either Christianity works or it doesn’t. (Usually things don’t work for a lack of application.)
- Paul uses the language of joy for more than the language of praise.
- We think of praise as giving God honor, but joy is about taking satisfaction from the Lord. For Paul, joy is against the backdrop of affliction—which is proof that it works. Joy in the midst of pain is a key way out of sin’s power.
- To rejoice is something directed toward the Lord. It is a command: declare God’s reality for you against your circumstances. Wants, needs, and suffering are temporary issues, not eternal. To rejoice is to re-infect yourself with God. As you declare reality, you are transformed; and transformed, you will experience new opportunities.
https://www.facebook.com/PastorDanScott/posts/10207529115080156
Let go of seasons that have ended
Dan Scott June 14 at 3:27pm ·
Yesterday, I went to make a hospital visit. An elderly church member had experienced what was expected to be a low risk operation. Complications during surgery required a drastic response resulting, five weeks later, in the death of his hands and feet. He was not sure he wanted to undergo further surgery to remove his hands and feet and so I went to try to help him and his family make a good decision. As it turned out, the doctor had already informed him that his body was very unlikely to hold up to the infection fighting drugs that would be required, even if he survived the operation.
I wanted to console him and his family. Instead, I found them at peace, even serene. As a trained and experienced mental health practitioner, I looked for depression and/or anger. But no. He was neither angry nor depressed. He had made a mature, rational, and spiritually-centered decision. He was ready to meet God, he said. Furthermore, he was curious about what is on the other side.
His family, standing around his bed, was supportive and at peace as he spoke.
What this good man and his family taught me yesterday is that because nothing is permanent, maturity is about knowing when to let go. We injure ourselves and others trying to hang on to old seasons, to our children as they once were, to our careers as we have experienced them, to positions of authority we have become accustomed to manage and to which we have become personally identified, and indeed, to reputation itself. Aging is often difficult but it becomes even more challenging when we insist on hanging on to the world as we experienced it in our prime, when we keep grieving over the loss of the body and abilities we once had, or when we rage against our diminishing place in the world. Paradoxically, by hanging on to these disappearing things, we grow increasingly ridiculous, embittered, and toxic; resulting in even greater loss to our life and our relationships.
Joy and influence lie in the opposite direction – letting go of seasons that have ended, of people we cannot please, and of dreams that drive us to ignore life, friends and God.
Yesterday, a man in one of the most dehumanizing situations I can imagine, handed me a map for walking through loss. When one has mature faith, he can surrender even life itself if he must, and do it with peace and gratitude.
After that, smaller changes, which, whether we like them or not must come our way, seem much easier to manage. Courage, as it turns out, is not always about grabbing hold of life and not letting go. Sometimes, courage is about doing the opposite. Wisdom is about knowing which response is right in a given circumstance.
Speaking Truth Over My Life
Lent is usually about ‘giving stuff up’, isn’t it? What if you could add something transformational to the traditional?
What if you could give up chocolate and give the money to your favorite charity? What if you could turn the TV off and spend more time helping your neighbor? What if Lent was a preparation for a lifetime of big-heartedness that reflected God’s amazing generosity? Well, that’s where 40acts – the generosity challenge from Christian charity Stewardship – comes in.
Resources for Further Study
Let’s All Be Brave —Annie F. Downs
Annie F. Downs admits she’s not exactly the bravest girl in the world. She still cries sometimes when she leaves her parents’ home in Georgia, she’s never jumped out of a plane, and she only rides roller coasters to impress boys. But Annie knows that courage resides inside each and every one of us, and she’s on a mission to triumph over her own fears while encouraging the reader to do the same.
As a single young woman, writer, speaker, and blogger, Annie F. Downs shares her journey toward bravery with honesty and humor. Using wonderful stories from her own life, contemporary real-life examples, and fascinating historical and biblical references, Annie encourages readers to grab hold of the brave life that they desperately desire.
How often does fear hold us back from the very things we most want to taste, touch, and experience? The call to be brave isn’t just for one person―it’s for everyone. Let’s All Be Brave is more than a book, it’s a battle cry. Annie challenges us to live boldly, she calls us to step into those places that require courage, and she gives us the help to take the next step forward―even when it’s scary.
This non-fiction, essay-driven book opens the door to many different views of courage―nudging, encouraging, and inspiring readers to be brave whenever given the chance.
I AM: The Unveiling The Power of Vulnerability 6 CD Set —Brené Browning, PhD.
Show Up and Let Yourself be Seen
Is vulnerability the same as weakness? “In our culture,” teaches Dr. Brené Brown, “we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” On The Power of Vulnerability, Dr. Brown offers an invitation and a promise-that when we dare to drop the armor that protects us from feeling vulnerable, we open ourselves to the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Here she dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and reveals that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.
“The Power of Vulnerability is a very personal project for me,” Brené explains. “This is the first place that all of my work comes together. This audio course draws from all three of my books-it’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned over the past twelve years. I’m very excited to weave it all into a truly comprehensive form that shows what these findings and insights can mean in our lives.”
Guidance and Insights for Wholehearted Living
Over the past twelve years, Dr. Brené Brown has interviewed hundreds of people as part of an ongoing study of vulnerability. “The research shows that we try to ward off disappointment with a shield of cynicism, disarm shame by numbing ourselves against joy, and circumvent grief by shutting off our willingness to love,” explains Dr. Brown. When we become aware of these patterns, she teaches, we begin to become conscious of how much we sacrifice in the name of self-defense-and how much richer our lives become when we open ourselves to vulnerability.
“In my research,” Dr. Brown says, “the word I use to describe people who can live from a place of vulnerability is wholehearted.” Being wholehearted is a practice-one that we can choose to cultivate through empathy, gratitude, and awareness of our vulnerability armor. Join this engaging and heartfelt teacher on The Power of Vulnerability as she offers profound insights on leaning into the full spectrum of emotions-so we can show up, let ourselves be seen, and truly be all in.
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead —Brené Brown, PhD.
From thought leader Dr. Brené Brown, a transformative new vision for the way we lead, love, work, parent, and educate that teaches us the power of vulnerability.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”—Theodore Roosevelt
Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Dr. Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.
Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity. She writes: “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.”
Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It’s even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there’s a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena—whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for letting ourselves be seen.
Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love –Katherine Wolf
After meeting in college, they got married and moved to Los Angeles to pursue law school for Jay and the entertainment industry for Katherine. Their son James was born in 2007 and six months later, Katherine’s life nearly ended with a catastrophic stroke. Miraculously, she survived and continues her recovery to this day. Katherine share their journey of whole-hearted living and hope in Christ in this book.
The Artist Way —Julia Cameron
Read Chapter 5: Restoring a sense of possibility
The Artist’s Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist’s Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist’s Way for a new century.
Fighting Words —Ellie Holcomb
Whether it’s a dream that isn’t coming true, a stretch of the journey that feels especially dark, or just the basic “busy and tired” each of us braves in the crazy chaos of the ordinary, have you ever faced a season where “life to the full” feels just out of reach, light seems like it it’s just over the horizon, or lies seem to crowd out the truth?
If you’re anything like Ellie Holcomb, the answer is yes. For her in these seasons, God’s Word has been a shelter, a comfort, a song, a balm, and an anchor. Ultimately, it’s been a light that has helped kick back at the darkness of the lies we so often believe. In her debut devotional, Fighting Words, you are invited to come alongside Ellie, as you ponder the power of God’s promises together and speak them into the darkest corners of your soul.
Filled with encouraging and honest reflections, beautifully designed Scripture memory pages, and wonderful questions to help you process, Fighting Words is a place where you can wrestle, respond to, and take hold of precious truths in God’s Word to help you push back the lies that so often consume, distract, and destroy us.
God’s Word is alive. In this devotional, Ellie invites you to steep your soul in the living Word, take hold of it, wrestle with it, bury it in your heart, and watch as it brings about life and flourishing. As you journey along with Ellie, you’ll find that little by little, you’re fighting the lies with the truth, kicking back the darkness, and living in the light.
What would your life be like if Jesus lived it? Imagine the change you would experience in your thoughts, actions, and relationships. Think of the joy and freedom that could transform every area of your life. That’s exactly what God has in mind for you! You’ll find out how in Growth. Through personal study and small group interaction, this study sets you on a path to live out the character of Jesus in this world as only you can. It happens not by trying hard, but by training. By cultivating spiritual disciplines–Scripture meditation, prayer, solitude, endurance, loving others–you’ll discover the joy of being transformed by Christ and the freedom of living each day sustained by his power. Leader’s guide included! Growth group sessions are: Training to Live Like Jesus The Practice of Scripture Meditation The Practice of Solitude Simple Prayer Three Transforming Prayers The Roundabout Way And the Greatest of These Is Love
The Spiritual Discipline of Training vs. Trying —Sheri Dacon, Blogger
Determination and failure leads to success. Read scriptures on failing here.
We all will fail at some point in our life. Failing is a learning experience so we can do better next time. There were many Biblical leaders who failed, but did they dwell on them? No they learned from their mistakes and kept on moving forward. Determination and failure leads to success. You fail and you get up and you try again. Eventually you will get it right. Just ask Thomas Edison. When you give up that is failure.
True failure is not even trying to get back up, but just quitting. You could have been so close, but you say it’s not going to work. God is always near and if you fall He’ll pick you up and dust you off.
Keep on pursuing righteousness and use God’s strength. We must have faith in the Lord. Stop trusting in the arms of the flesh and the things that are seen.
Put your trust in God. If God told you to do something and if something is God’s will then it will never fail.
Lent is usually about ‘giving stuff up’, isn’t it? What if you could add something transformational to the traditional?
What if you could give up chocolate and give the money to your favorite charity? What if you could turn the TV off and spend more time helping your neighbor? What if Lent was a preparation for a lifetime of big-heartedness that reflected God’s amazing generosity? Well, that’s where 40acts – the generosity challenge from Christian charity Stewardship – comes in.