September 19, 2008
Making Life Work! --Issue #008
September 17, 2008
Successful Christian Living brings you monthly information, advice and resources for living a Christ-centered life in every area.
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A Quick Focus to get your started, then:
Addressing fear and finances
1) The Gift of Instability
2) God's Economy
3) Fear and Faith
A Quick Focus
No matter how your day has gone so far, no matter how hectic it is, no matter your state of mind right now - Christ is with you.I invite you to close your eyes for just a few seconds. During that time just allow yourself to know that He is present with you. Let yourself know that He loves you, is there with you because He wants to be, and that He has a plan for not only this day but all your days.
If you find something in the way then clear it up with Him right now. If that leaves no time to read the rest of this then don't read it. Your relationship with Christ is THE most important thing in your life.
When you feel at peace - not that everything in your life is perfect - just that you know He is with you, then I invite you now to the rest of the ezine.
The Gift of Instability
I have a personal trainer that uses instability to strengthen me. No matter the exercise, it is always done in a way that causes me to be unbalanced and to have to use my core muscles to be successful at the exercise. I whine a lot but I am getting stronger. In our lives, I think God does the same thing.Rob ignores my complaining and attempts to make the exercise easier because his goal is to help me be stronger, healthier and be ready for whatever comes my way physically throughout the day.
The Lord also ignores my whining and protesting and gives me spiritual exercises that will strengthen me and prepare me for life.
It is about our core. In training it is our core body muscles in our stomachs and backs that really make us stable and strong. Spiritually it is the core of our hearts and our faith in God that stabilizes our lives and makes us unmovable.
Instability is a gift that causes us to recenter and to tighten the core of our being. God is a generous giver of instability causing us to go back to our core belief in His goodness and trust in His provisions. It points out the weaknesses we still have inside and pinpoints spiritual muscles that need exercise.
For every gift a "thank you" is in order. So, thank you Lord for the instabilities you provide to get us in shape for eternity.
God's Economy
There is a sense of foreboding and underlying panic these days in the USA. Talking heads continually discuss the problems in our economy and give dire predictions for the future. Many people have lost substantial portions of their retirement and portfolio. Jobs have been lost as CEO's stole all of value before escaping the fall of their companies. Many came away wealthy at the expenses of thousands. Obama heightens the issue, building fear to try and get himself elected.What we see in our economy is only a reflection of life apart from God and an invitation to come into His economy.
Everything, all of it, every penny, every stock, every corporation belongs to Him. Everything is His, so everything is under His control. But, since our nation is following in the steps of other nations in the world and turning its back on Him there is a collapse of the moral rights and wrongs that keep greed in check and forbids evil for profit.
God uses the consequences of our greed and lust and lies to try and lead us back to our senses. In God's economy He offers restoration not of our finances, although He certainly could, but of our very lives. Whether the housing market collapses is not the ultimate issue it is whether our hearts have.
In God's economy the motivations for investments, businesses and portfolio's are based not in lust and love of money but in Judeo-Christian principles and it those principles upon which a nation prospers or falls.
As a nation it would be wholly appropriate to pray and ask God's forgiveness and ask for the restoration of our lives in Him. It would be good for us to come before Him acknowledging that He alone is God and that everything belongs to Him. We are just stewards and many of us have done very badly with His stuff.
Fear and Faith
Fear and faith are polar opposites and to have one is to not be living out the other.If I fall into fear in these tumultuous times, then is is difficult to believe that God is good, that He is all powerful, wise, loving, and in control.
If I have faith then it is difficult to fear what is to come next but trust that no matter what it is, the outcome is in the hands of the One who loves me.
That is why in the book of Philippians it says for us not to worry about anything but to talk to God about our need and then to turn our thoughts to what is good and true and right. God loves us. He knows our needs. He is a good Father. He cannot do evil. He knows what He is doing and He is trustworthy with our lives. It is here that we live in that peace of God that passes all understanding.
It is in controlling what we think that fear diminishes and faith increases. The media today tells us that we should fear for the future is uncertain and the worse is yet to come. The truth is that the Lord is still in control and we can rest in His character and His promises. Deciding which of these two messages to believe will determine whether fear or faith takes hold of our hearts.