Forged By Faith

Romans 12:15 NIV 20 years ago today our nation was faced with one of the darkest, scariest, most painful days that many of us have ever witnessed or experienced. It was one of those days that left a mark that will never be erased while we're breathing the air on this side of eternity. One of those days that brings about so many different emotions and memories that it can't help but stick with you. One of those days that is all but impossible to put into words. Like many, I remember more details about that day than I do nearly any other day since. Sitting in class watching the daily morning news program they played that brought the news of the attack. The National Anthem hitting a little differently before playing my first football game. Knowing that something big had happened without having any idea of the actual size. Never knowing how big or life-changing of a day it actually was but knowing that something historical had happened. Seeing the headlines and videos and images of...

Exodus 14:14 NIV Stillness almost has this sense of passivity that we're not comfortable with. We think we need to always be on the front lines charging the enemy with as much passion and ferocity as we can muster. Sitting on the sidelines and watching life unfold isn't always an easy thing for us to do. It forces us to relinquish the sense of control that we enjoy thinking we have. The thought of not doing something and just being still goes against this hard-charging, pride-chasing, and glory-seeking mindset that we've been taught to carry with us. But sometimes in life, being still is the best thing we can do. Sometimes taking a step back, catching our breath, and allowing our faith to overtake our ego is more important than continuing to try to force life to submit to our desires. The simple truth is that we don't have much control over how life goes. We can fight and push and wear ourselves out but if it's not meant to be then it's not going to be. We have ...

Romans 8:28 NIV This is one of those crucial verses that I think we all just have to lean on from time to time. Life gets a little crazy. We've seen that fact with our own eyes countless times so far. Things go contrary to what we're hoping and praying for. People betray us and let us down when we've trusted them. The world around us is dead-set on glorifying sin and living carefree. And here we are in the middle of it just trying to do the best we can. It can all seriously start to weigh heavy on our shoulders. That constant barrage of wickedness, confusion, surprise, and uncertainty makes it so hard to keep our heads above the surface sometimes. It's like no matter how hard we're trying to do what's right and keep going in the right direction, someone or something around us is trying even harder to trip us up and knock us off course. As soon as we manage to get through one trial or temptation the next is lying in wait to spring up and do its best to rattle us ...

Joshua 21:45 NIV It's almost our natural reaction to start losing hope whenever we become focused on our circumstances. As we talked about yesterday, we give our current situations the power to drag us into feeling miserable. We look at the discomfort and inconvenience of what we're going through and that quickly becomes all we can see. We don't see the lessons that God is trying to teach us. We don't see the opportunities to grow because of the trials. We only see how much we don't like it and that keeps us from finding any kind of good that we can take away. As I was reading through Joshua last night this verse really just clicked. The people just finished dividing up the land that God had promised them. They had cleared out all the other people and nations that had been living in that land. They had taken on armies bigger and stronger than they were. They had managed to fight through the hard side of God's promises and now they were staring at the fulfillment...

Romans 5:3-4 NIV Much of life is far from fun. We don't want it to be that way. We would definitely prefer a smoother ride. But we don't always get what we want. In fact, as we've all experienced, we often get dealt situations that we wouldn't wish on our worst enemies. And that's not going to change. God never promised us an easy life or some comfortable journey during our time on this earth. But He promised to be with us. And that's a pretty amazing promise to lean on when the seas start getting a little rough. But when we're faced with those trials and tribulations, we often find ourselves wishing things were different. We wish our problems would just go away. We think about how we'd give anything to change what we're facing because it isn't easy or comfortable. But maybe that kind of thinking is only adding to the weariness of it all. Maybe only seeing the bad in the hard days keeps us in this place of misery and disappointment. Maybe a sligh...

Matthew 5:16 NIV We're all looking for good. Well, most of us anyway. These lives in this place are tough, and they're even tougher when we look around and see nothing but hardship, anger, division, and rampant sin. It can become nearly impossible to keep our heads above the surface of all the dark that’s around us. And trying to do so only leaves us worn and weary because so often it takes everything we have. Being surrounded by so much negativity is bound to start pulling us down as well. That's why the message of this verse is more important than ever! As we talked about in yesterday’s post, God has done a lot for us and we owe Him a lot in return. We owe Him the honor of living our lives in the very best way possible. We owe Him a humble heart that is willing to serve Him rather than ourselves or anything else. We owe Him the willingness to rise up above the foolishness of a sinful world to live our lives reflecting His light so that others can find a little bit of hope...

1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV A lot has been done for us. A lot has been given to us. This chance to start over and live our lives for a better purpose than the ones that we prioritized before hearing about Christ. The opportunity to be forgiven for every mistake that we've made. The gift of freedom from the suffering and guilt that our pasts deserve. The chance at a new life spent serving God and not ourselves or our limited understanding of what matters. The list goes on, but it all points to one question that we need to ask ourselves as the recipients of a grace that we can't earn: What are we doing with it? The verse just preceding this one tells us that we are not our own. We are not here to simply focus on ourselves and spend our lives doing what seems good enough to us. Our lives are not about seeking our own personal comfort or pleasure or satisfaction. We were bought at a price, a price that we could not pay and live to tell about it. We were redeemed from the darkness of sin...