Godly Goal Management

Whenever goal keeping characterizes my day, I find that I am intense and joyless. Goals make my life hard. They often become an end in themselves instead of useful tools. Goal keeping even becomes a way that I measure my worth; it keeps me focused on the destination instead of the journey.

I’ve learned the hard way that goal obsession is not freedom. Jesus came that I might live a very different way. His purpose for my life is characterized by hopes, not goals. Hopes are not demands, not measurements, not burdens; they reveal direction for my life and show me what to long for. Yet, unlike goals, hopes demand nothing of me.

Living a life set free to hope is living a life of joy.

Excerpted from 101 Cups of Water by CD Baker

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Daily Reflection:

How [ … ]

Under Orders

If I fail to live as I’m instructed, I undermine my own credibility to remind or teach my family to live as they’re instructed. How can I credibly teach others to obey God if I don’t? You and I need to make sure we are obeying as well, and that we are providing a climate where obedience can flourish.

Such a climate begins with our own respect for and adherence to Scripture. We cannot take our cues from our culture. We must return to drink deeply from the headwaters. Christian thought springs directly from the nature of God and its revelation in His Word. Every major tenant of our faith is a matter of revelation not explanation. Each is a mystery to be learned no way other than by revelation. We know what we know by taking Him at [ … ]

The Signature of Jesus

The signature of Jesus, the Cross, is the ultimate expression of God’s love for the world. The church is the church of the crucified, risen Christ only when it is stamped with his signature; only when it faces outward and moves with him along the way of the Cross. Turned inward upon itself in bickering and theological hairsplitting, the church loses its identity and its mission.

Excerpted from The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning

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Daily Reflection:

Is the signature of Jesus stamped on your life?

The Ultimate Designer

In the silence I heard two sentences. The first was “Why don’t you let the church relax and be who I made her to be?” The second was “Why don’t you relax and be who I made you to be?” That was it. As fast as the moment had come, it was over.

I began to cry again. Other than the first moment when I knew I was forgiven and accepted by God, when I was seven years old, I had never heard more liberating words. How simple. How profound. How consistent with all that I knew about God and his love for me. If God had indeed
created me, then why didn’t I trust how God intended to use me? Doesn’t it make sense that with God, the Ultimate Designer, form and function would be totally aligned?

Excerpted [ … ]

Abba

When Jesus taught his friends to pray, he gave them a new name for God: “Our Father.” Addressing God as a father was a radical departure from Old Testament constructs. The Jews lived with a potent mixture of terror and awe when it came to God, with no such familiarity or warmth. He was called Almighty, the One Who Parted the Red Sea, and Maker of the Cloud by Day and the Pillar of Fire by Night. One could not presume to know him personally.

But Jesus expanded our understanding of God, even referring to him as Abba,  meaning “Daddy.” And through Jesus, God demonstrated his Abba love for us. Like a zealous tickler, he wanted us to experience his strong, knowing touch and our joy at the thrill of this contact.

Excerpted from Closer Than Your Skin by Susan [ … ]

Self-Control

…I’m reminded that the strongest dads in the world are the ones who can keep their own anger from kicking out the stalls and stomping around like a wild stallion.

And every time my kids see me step up to the plate, acting like an adult, playing referee to my own anger before I have to get called “out” by an embarrassing display of temper, they see a world-class exhibition of the Holy Spirit—the invisible force of the heavenly Father Himself—at work in my life. That’s when they learn a little self-control themselves, by example.

Excerpted from At the Heart of Every Great Father by Clark Cothern

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Daily Reflection:

How has the Holy Spirit guided you through parenting trials?

A Reflection of the Redeemer

This image of refinement is something God touches on again and again in His Word. He is the true Refiner. We are His silver.

And the fire is the fire of His making, for through His fire our Refiner will perfect an awesome work, a divine work. He will take what is impure and make it pure. He will take what is dull and make it beautiful. He’ll take what is of potential value and reveal its actual value.

He will transform us into treasure.

He’ll refine us in the crucible so that He can see Himself in the silver— in you and me. And so the world, as well as the principalities and powers and hosts of Satan, can behold the triumph of the Redeemer.

Excerpted from As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur

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Daily Reflection:

What in [ … ]

Helping Others on a Miracle Mission

When you and I ask to be sent by God, we are taking His urgent, heartfelt command and turning it into our urgent, heartfelt request. We are coming all the way over to God’s point of view on what we were born to do. We are declaring to God:

I hear Your command, but I realize that hearing and agreeing are not enough. Therefore, I am sincerely asking, God, please send metoday on a miracle mission. And I’m letting You know in advance, when You send me, I willgo!

When you pray this way, God knows that He can call on you, His highly motivated delivery person, at any time. Whether He reaches into your heart with a nudge or simply puts you at the scene of something He wants done…He knows you have already committed to act on His [ … ]

Grace Is All There Is

We can never get enough grace.

If there’s such a thing as a favorite theologian, Martin Luther tops my list. A sixteenth-century German monk, Luther stumbled upon the concept of grace while reading the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans: “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, KJV).

Up until that time, Luther had spent his life trying to atone for his own sins, beating himself and spending hours on his knees confessing his sins, and then agonizing in case he forgot one.

But once the light bulb went on and he realized that it truly is by grace alone that we are saved and by grace alone that we live, he became one of the greatest grace teachers of all time. The just shall live by faith, which comes solely by grace.

As the story goes, someone once [ … ]

The Journey of “Yes”

After reaching a point of desperation and demanding that God show up and provide some direction, my eyes were opened. God wanted me to relax. He wanted me to be me, using gifts he had given me. He wanted me to concentrate on doing things I was good at, things that utilized the best of who I was. He wanted me to enjoy my life and my work for him. So I began to pay attention to the way I was wired. What was I created to do, and what had I been trying to do for which I had no real talent or gifts?

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12 that every believer has been given gifts to serve the body of Christ. He also reminds us that no one person has all the gifts. This way the [ … ]