From the mind of Tim
Was reading some more Proverbs (I highly recommend you trying this, there is some really good stuff there) and found this: Proverbs 24:10 “If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.”
Our problems are not really our problem. Our problem is taking our eyes off the One that made us, has unlimited power, loves us so much He conquered death to free us from our sin. Problems become real when we try to handle them and don’t give them to God.
1) is there something in your life you are struggling with that has caused you to take your eyes off of Jesus?
2) what’s keeping you from giving this situation to God and trusting Him to take care of it?
3) will you step back from the problem, refocus your eyes on Christ, and allow Him to give you victory in this situation?
The Journal of a Jesus Freak (aka Lucy the youth intern)
“You give and take away, You give and take away. Still my heart will choose to say, Lord Blessed Be Your Name.”
I would guess that many of you would recognize these lyrics of the popular worship song “Blessed Be Your Name”. Recently, I discovered a new way of looking at those lyrics. Many times in life, we feel that God gives us many blessing, but then also, that He takes some things away from us. However, it struck me, what if He is actually giving and giving and giving. That it only looks as if He takes away because we simply can not see the greater picture of what God is doing? Have you ever had to give something up to get something better in life? Almost all of us have. Whether is be moving from one town to another, making the transition from jr. high to high school, perhaps falling away from a friend so that we were more available to make better ones. Often times, when we are in the midst of a loss we have a hard time looking ahead into the future to see how it could very possibly be a good thing. I don’t believe that God “takes away”. I think He trades good things out for better things in our lives. What would happen if we stopped looking at situations of loss as, well loss, and started looking at them as ways God is preparing us to better serve His Kingdom?