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February 9 - May 19, 2020
Jesus never asks us to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He calls us to a life of faith, not a life of comfort. Instead of coming to him for a safer, easier, stress-free lifestyle, the Son of God challenges us to risk loving others more than ourselves.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. —psalm 139:23–24
But following Jesus was never supposed to be safe. He promised his followers they would face trouble (see John 16:33). Jesus warned those who faithfully served him that they would be persecuted just like he was (see John 15:20).
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23–24).
Jeremiah flat out says you—along with me and everybody else—don’t have a good heart. In fact, not only is your heart not good, but your heart is wicked and sinful in all its ways. The prophet said, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jer. 17:9 NLT).
What we fear matters.
And I’m continually sick of my safe prayers. I can’t stand another day of my self-centered Christianity.
Our fears matter. Because ultimately, our fears show how we’re relying on our own efforts and not trusting in our Savior.
Your greatest fear may point you to your best chance at making a difference in the world. You need God for every moment of every day. Everything you do of value is born out of his heart, his power, his grace.
the pathway to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear.
consider what others have told you about you.
if more than two people that you love and trust suggest you have a problem, you should recognize that you have a problem and deal with it immediately.
Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
On top of considering what others have told you, also consider what you’ve rationalized.
If someone is suggesting a change in your life and you bark back, instead of barking, you would be wise to listen.
I’ve found that the more convinced I am that I’m right about something, the more likely that I’m wrong.
Denying the truth doesn’t change the facts.
“Daddy,” she said, gently correcting me, “I’ve chosen not to use the word enduring. Enduring is a passive response to something that is happening.” I hung on every word as my precious daughter gave her pastor-daddy a spiritual lesson. She continued, “I’m embracing this whole situation. With everything in me, I believe God is using it to help me know him better and help others know him too.”
Let your fears drive you to God. The fear of God is the only cure for the fear of people.
If we pray only for protection from trials, then we rob ourselves of our future maturity.
A. W. Tozer, who said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”
But it’s in the giving of our lives that we find true joy.
“God, I trust you so much. I know that you love me, that you are always working in me. If you want to do something more in me, then do it. If it’s painful, then I welcome the pain. If you want to use trials to make me stronger, build my faith, make me closer to you, then use them. God, do whatever it takes to free me from my love for this world. To crucify my love of comfort. God, break me.”
But when we are broken together, bonding goes deeper than we can imagine—especially in the family of God.
What if rather than avoiding brokenness we embraced it? Welcomed it? And even prayed for it? “God, break me.”
on the other side of fully trusting God, there is a blessing that cannot be found in comfort and ease.
True brokenness before God isn’t a one-time event; it’s a daily decision. Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31 NKJV).
Being broken isn’t just a moment in time born out of a painful event. It’s a daily choice to die to pride. To crucify lust. To destroy selfishness. Rather than living a life of ease, it’s a choice to live a life of faith.
You see, God never calls perfect people. God calls imperfect, flawed, weak men and women just like you and me. He simply wants people willing to be vessels, and he invites them to use their lives to make a difference for him.
Elijah, who battled depression.
God’s call prompts you to live beyond yourself, to not just be about your own comfort but to completely surrender to his bidding. To go. To serve. To build. To love. To fight. To pray. To give. To lead.
When God prompts us to do something, we’re tempted to tell him all the reasons we aren’t his best person. We don’t know enough. We aren’t talented enough. We aren’t good enough. There are so many others better qualified for this than us.
“Here I am. Send me” (Isa. 6:8b NLT).
But before we can encounter God, it often helps to deal with the sin in our lives.
When we see how good God is, we become acutely aware of how good we are not.
until we see ourselves as sinners, we’ll never fully understand Jesus as the Savior.
We will see our sinfulness in full only when we embrace God’s holiness.
(Isa. 6:7). Imagine the power of the moment. Isaiah has never been more aware of his guilt, his sin, his shame. And with one touch from God’s being, his sin was gone. Forgotten. Forgiven. First, unconditional grace. Then, uncontainable gratitude.
Embrace it. If you are “in Christ,” your self-centered decisions are forgiven. Your anger—forgiven. Hatred—forgiven. Bitterness—forgiven. Boasting—forgiven. Jealousy—forgiven. Envy—forgiven. All your sins, your evil thoughts, your greed, your hypocrisy, your filthy gossip, your secret lusts, your pride, your ingratitude, your materialism, your unbelief—all forgiven and forgotten by the grace of our good God.
When you cry out to God for forgiveness, he doesn’t remember your sins. They are gone. Forgiven. Washed away. And forgotten. In the same way that the coal removed Isaiah’s guilt and sin, the blood of Jesus takes away ours.
Grace. Changes. Everything. We don’t bring anything. Jesus brings everything.
Search me. Break me. Send me.
How do we live submitted to God when our flesh wants us living for ourselves? How do we overcome our selfish tendencies and live selflessly for Christ? The answer lies in daily submission.
When you start to avoid what hurts you, what happens? Over time, your spiritual side grows stronger. And your selfish side starts to die.
I believe God asked me to simply do one thing daily that takes faith. Every day, no matter what, at least one faith-filled act.
What if you told God you were available? And you looked for at least one opportunity daily to do something that required faith? Instead of living a meh life, small acts of faith teach us to depend on God. They draw us close to him. They build our trust.
Such openness is the essence of this dangerous prayer. When Isaiah experienced the presence of God, he became aware of his own sinful brokenness.
So take a moment and do a prayer audit. Think about everything you prayed for recently—not your whole lifetime, just the past seven days. Consider writing on a notepad or typing a memo on your phone and listing all the different things you petitioned God to do in the last week. Take a moment and give it some thought. Do you remember? What did you pray about? What did you ask God to do?
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land,
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If you truly want to make a difference on earth, you need power from heaven. If you want your life to matter, it’s time to pray big, bold, audacious prayers.
