Not my own....
I'm feeling pretty confident today. That confidence isn't my own, per se, and I'd kind of like to explain what I mean by that.
If you saw the sports headlines yesterday on social media, you probably saw something about the things RGIII left behind in his locker on what was, most likely, his last day as a Washington Redskin. Y'all know the Redskins are my team and I don't know if RGIII ever got a good break after he got hurt in 2012. NOBODY could have played behind that offensive line in 2013 and 2014. This year was better and Kirk had a good year. But the football thing isn't germane to the story.
RGIII left behind two things in his locker. The first one was a picture of a road and on the top it said "I can do all things". There's part left off that photo: "through Christ who strengthens me". On the bottom the words from Romans 12 were there as well. It talks about running a race. Tomorrow I'm gonna share the 7 rules for running your race from Chuck Swindoll. Today though, we're focused on confidence that comes not from us.
The other thing RGIII left behind was a list of his own rules; very Biblical principles from a young man who is grounded in faith. The last one summed up his situation nicely. In the end, it was about him and God, not him and the fans, him and the journalists, him and his team, his coaches, and the owner. Just him and God.
I have that kind of confidence today. I have confidence that Jesus is working things out for me. I've been praying hard for some things to change in life for me. I KNOW they will. I've been praying about the "when". It's not that I can't wait. I can. The wait is killing me for lots of reasons, though.
The reason I can wait is because the strength I need isn't my own. It's God and I can lean on HIm. He has my heart. He has my life. I saw a little video yesterday that summed it up nicely. This woman's life is visualized as a stool. She gives it Jesus, who tells her if He sits on said stool, He gets to call the shots. The woman immediately starts sliding him off the stool (at one point the guy playing Jesus in the visual metaphor tells the woman he's "one-cheeking it here". After climbing up the back of the stool and around it, she finally pushes Him off the stool. It was a great metaphor for how we don't give Christ our all.
Giving the Lord lordship over our lives sometimes isn't easy. There are times I wanna still drive the car but I'm not gonna go anywhere near as good as He's gonna take me. I know that. It takes strength to trust that sometimes I just don't have. So I have to borrow some from God. Lately, I've had to borrow a lot from God's strength. I've had to tell myself "no" to a bunch of things that on the surface looked pretty good.
That strength didn't come from me, but in those times, I turned to God for help and He showed up. He does that a lot.
My life doesn't make sense a lot of times. And I'm really counting on God to show up and do that miracle I'm waiting for. I believe in His promises and His timing. But in the mean time, the status quo hurts. One of the biggest lessons I've had to learn is from watching the results of the unintended consequences of one STUPID choice I made. Never in a million years, did I think I would get a second chance at making the right one nor did I expect that when I did that it would take as long as it's going to for that second chance to become the reality I want it to be.
It takes strength to fight the battles I do each day and last night, I ran out of strength. I just told God that either way, it didn't matter what happened. As long as I had Him, I have enough. In essence, whatever part of my heart I might have been withholding from His lordship. In my weakness, in my tiredness of fighting battles, in all of that, His strength was evidenced in my weakness because I didn't quit. I didn't give up. I just told God I was tired.
This morning, I'm confident. I know that I will get where I'm going because whatever I hadn't surrendered, I did. I'm confident in knowing that when that plan comes together, I'll be able to fulfill my part of it. Not in my own strength, but in God's.
I can't do it on my own. Neither can you. How is Jesus helping you today? I'd be interested to know.
If you saw the sports headlines yesterday on social media, you probably saw something about the things RGIII left behind in his locker on what was, most likely, his last day as a Washington Redskin. Y'all know the Redskins are my team and I don't know if RGIII ever got a good break after he got hurt in 2012. NOBODY could have played behind that offensive line in 2013 and 2014. This year was better and Kirk had a good year. But the football thing isn't germane to the story.
RGIII left behind two things in his locker. The first one was a picture of a road and on the top it said "I can do all things". There's part left off that photo: "through Christ who strengthens me". On the bottom the words from Romans 12 were there as well. It talks about running a race. Tomorrow I'm gonna share the 7 rules for running your race from Chuck Swindoll. Today though, we're focused on confidence that comes not from us.
The other thing RGIII left behind was a list of his own rules; very Biblical principles from a young man who is grounded in faith. The last one summed up his situation nicely. In the end, it was about him and God, not him and the fans, him and the journalists, him and his team, his coaches, and the owner. Just him and God.
I have that kind of confidence today. I have confidence that Jesus is working things out for me. I've been praying hard for some things to change in life for me. I KNOW they will. I've been praying about the "when". It's not that I can't wait. I can. The wait is killing me for lots of reasons, though.
The reason I can wait is because the strength I need isn't my own. It's God and I can lean on HIm. He has my heart. He has my life. I saw a little video yesterday that summed it up nicely. This woman's life is visualized as a stool. She gives it Jesus, who tells her if He sits on said stool, He gets to call the shots. The woman immediately starts sliding him off the stool (at one point the guy playing Jesus in the visual metaphor tells the woman he's "one-cheeking it here". After climbing up the back of the stool and around it, she finally pushes Him off the stool. It was a great metaphor for how we don't give Christ our all.
Giving the Lord lordship over our lives sometimes isn't easy. There are times I wanna still drive the car but I'm not gonna go anywhere near as good as He's gonna take me. I know that. It takes strength to trust that sometimes I just don't have. So I have to borrow some from God. Lately, I've had to borrow a lot from God's strength. I've had to tell myself "no" to a bunch of things that on the surface looked pretty good.
That strength didn't come from me, but in those times, I turned to God for help and He showed up. He does that a lot.
My life doesn't make sense a lot of times. And I'm really counting on God to show up and do that miracle I'm waiting for. I believe in His promises and His timing. But in the mean time, the status quo hurts. One of the biggest lessons I've had to learn is from watching the results of the unintended consequences of one STUPID choice I made. Never in a million years, did I think I would get a second chance at making the right one nor did I expect that when I did that it would take as long as it's going to for that second chance to become the reality I want it to be.
It takes strength to fight the battles I do each day and last night, I ran out of strength. I just told God that either way, it didn't matter what happened. As long as I had Him, I have enough. In essence, whatever part of my heart I might have been withholding from His lordship. In my weakness, in my tiredness of fighting battles, in all of that, His strength was evidenced in my weakness because I didn't quit. I didn't give up. I just told God I was tired.
This morning, I'm confident. I know that I will get where I'm going because whatever I hadn't surrendered, I did. I'm confident in knowing that when that plan comes together, I'll be able to fulfill my part of it. Not in my own strength, but in God's.
I can't do it on my own. Neither can you. How is Jesus helping you today? I'd be interested to know.
Comments
Post a Comment