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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Chris Hodges
Read between
January 5 - February 13, 2018
Knowing our identity is critical. Settling our core convictions is too.
It requires courage to look the Enemy in the eye and stand our ground, so we need to know with confidence what our faith is built on. Convictions are all about the choices we make before we’re challenged. Faith is our ability to act on our convictions when tested.
When culture shifts, our faith will always be tested.
When we’re walking in the purposes God has for us, we go directly against the will and the plans of the Enemy.
Whenever our faith is tested, we must choose whom we will serve.
When culture shifts, you will be tested. But never give in to the pressure. Because it will make you stronger.
Everything great is learned and earned through pain.
We are all going to walk through difficult times—they’re inevitable. It’s how we respond that determines our faith and our rate of growth.
God tests us to refine us—not to punish
us.
Spiritual testing is basically God’s pop quiz, a challenging situation or unexpected circumstance that reveals our potential, growth, and maturity.
They’re not obstacles to be despised but instead are opportunities for advancement. In fact, they may mean you’re closer than ever to doing exactly what God has called you to do.
We can only grow in our faith if we’re tested—it’s that simple.
faith clashing with the culture around us. Instead, we can view that friction as an opportunity for our faith to be tested. Embrace that conflict with the courage of the Lord.
This makes sense because our hearts are the battleground between our trials and our convictions.
When culture challenges our convictions, we must exercise courage—a deep-seated strength of heart—and resist the temptation to conform or compromise.
The same place where Daniel’s, Abraham’s, and Paul’s came from: the presence of God and the Word of God.
I’m convinced the secret to finding encouragement relies on our response—not our reaction.
“Am I responding or reacting?”
However, when we meet him in quiet time alone together, then our perspective reaches a point of balance.
for what we are worshiping we are becoming. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON
We are made to worship, and if we’re not worshipping our Creator, then we’re trying to put something else in his rightful place. This is what we call idolatry: bowing down and offering our hearts to false gods.
line. Again, this isn’t “us vs. them.” But we do need to recognize that our hearts are pursuing different things. That way we can stand strong—no matter how much heat we face.
Music has incredible power to influence our moods and penetrate our thinking.
believe, embrace, and endure—support
Worship is our response to what we value most.
With God, we’re always in a win-win situation.
Through worship, we move from viewing our problems as big and God as small to the exact opposite: because we remember how big our God is.
because we remember how big our God is. Worship restores our perspective.
We live in a society hostile to faith in God.
We face commands from those in authority to do something that violates the essence of our faith.
loom on the horizon. 3. We face serious consequences for noncompliance.
endure cultural and societal punishment for maintaining our beliefs. Considering the life of Daniel, we realize
Culture loves to drive a wedge between our convictions and our worship.
“We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29).
This boldness is what I want for you—and for all of us who follow Jesus and want to stand strong in our bow-down culture: The boldness to stand courageously in the face of an ever-shifting culture. To speak up even when what you believe isn’t popular.
And, as we’ve seen with the disciples, the key to courage always comes back to spending time with Jesus.
Some of the best, most creative ideas have come to me when I pray and listen to God as he speaks to my heart through Scripture.
Courage looks up, stands up, and speaks up.
God’s truth has the power to set people free—this should fuel our desire to connect with others, not a smug attempt to prove we’re right.
Do what God wants, not what people want.
Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time. —OSWALD CHAMBERS
True worship happens when you don’t understand and choose to trust God anyway.
The Faith of Job
A
belief that God is all-powerful.
that despite how irrational, illogical, or impossible the situation seems, God is bigger and more powerful.
But the way I see it, I’d rather have hope in what an all-powerful God can do than certainty
A belief that God is all-knowing.
He is at work right now in ways you can’t see—all for your ultimate good and his glory. Can you dare to believe this and trust him with whatever is weighing on you right now at this moment? A belief that God is ever-present.
