This week's article is called: Called to Represent
2 Corinthians 5:20 says: "So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, 'Come back to God!'" (NLT)
When we forget our identity as ambassadors, we drift into self-reliance. We start contributing because it makes us look good or because we feel guilty. We put our own reputation at the center.
But when we embrace our role as Christ's representatives, we find a new kind of freedom. Read more here: https://t.co/rxlgpsdOcI
Most of us know the feeling to be in paralyzed by what might happen next. We feel a constant pressure to make the right choice, say the right thing, and keep every part of our lives from slipping. When that pressure becomes a primary motivation, we are living out of a spirit of fear. God calls us to something better. Read my new article “not a spirit of fear, choosing the right internal voice“ click here to read: https://t.co/fA7Tw2FFd0
It is easy to become an expert on the flaws of other people. Most find it simple to see the "speck" in someone else’s eye while ignoring the massive log in their own.
But when the focus is on fixing others, a person is putting themselves at the center. They are trying to manage the lives of those around them instead of being a follower of Jesus.
True faithfulness in relationships does not start with managing other people. It starts with dealing with the heart first. Removing the log is what gives a person the clarity and humility to actually help those around them.
Read more here: https://t.co/YGGFM0mDFj
Life feels full. Your time is thin, your energy is low, and real acts of service keep getting pushed to some future season when things slow down. Maybe it’s time to die daily in your contribution. Click here to read more: https://t.co/GtaGEMRxNM
You want to live a life that genuinely gives to others, but most days it is easier to stay focused on yourself.
Life feels full. Your time is thin, your energy is low, and real acts of service keep getting pushed to some future season when things slow down. Or maybe you have served faithfully for a long time and now you are running on empty, wondering why it stopped feeling meaningful. You know Jesus calls you to contribute, but something in you keeps pulling back toward comfort and convenience.
This is more common than we admit, and it is exactly where everyday obedience matters most. Read more here: https://t.co/oVHJauG77E
Most of us are experts at spotting the flaws in everyone else. We think if they would just fix their side of the street, we would finally have peace. But faithfulness starts with the stewardship of our own hearts, not the management of others.
Faithfulness is not a balancing act. It is an orbit.
When you treat your life like a checklist, you become the primary force holding everything together. But when you yield to Christ as the center, He becomes the gravity that holds your life in place.
Stop working the list and start yielding to the Center today. Read more: https://t.co/YF05IJamGa
We often approach our spiritual growth as a series of disconnected, linear goals. We have a set of objectives for our health, a strategy for our finances, and a list of ways we hope to improve our relationships. While stewardship requires order, we often fall into the trap of believing that faithfulness is found in the management of the list itself.
The danger of this linear approach is that it quietly places you at the center of the work. It reinforces the idea that you are the primary force holding your life together. But the life of a follower of Jesus is not meant to be a collection of tasks to be managed. It is meant to be an orbit.
Read more: https://t.co/YF05IJamGa
Busy and faithful are not the same thing. You can fill every hour and still bury the talent God gave you. The question isn’t what’s on your list. It’s what the Spirit is actually asking you to do.
I write and talk about everyday obedience more than almost anything else.
Not because I’ve got it all together or because I’ve somehow arrived at some perfect level of faith.
I haven’t.
I do it simply because Jesus commands it.
The apostle Paul said it so honestly: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” - Philippians 3:12-14 NLT
That’s where I live, still pressing forward, still falling short, but refusing to stay there.
And the reason I keep showing up to write about the small, daily choices is because Jesus never said we had to be perfect before we obeyed.
He simply said, “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15 NIV).
He told us to teach others “to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20 NIV).
Obedience isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about loving Jesus enough to keep moving in the right direction even when we fall short.
You’re not alone.
We weren’t called to wait until we’re flawless, we’re called to obey while we’re still becoming.
What’s one area Jesus is asking you to go deeper in right now?
Busy and faithful are not the same thing.
You can fill every hour and still bury the talent God gave you.
You can check every box and still miss what the Spirit was actually asking you to do.
1 Corinthians 4:2 doesn’t say be productive.
It says be faithful.
That requires a different question in the morning, not what’s on my list? but where is the Spirit leading me today?
That’s the whole point of the faithfulness is not more to do it’s to say yes what God is actually asking you to steward.
“Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful.” — 1 Corinthians 4:2
John Bevere’s new book “The King Is Coming” is available now and is so good! I completely agree with John that we need to live with a sense of urgency and be ready each and every day to be faithful stewards of everything that God has trusted to us as followers of Christ.
When’s the last time you stopped and asked yourself why you’re actually doing what you’re doing?
Not what you’re doing. Why. Because God cares about both.
I put together a free study called Motive Check. it walks you through four movements in James 4 that expose what’s actually driving you.
Whether you’re performing obedience for the wrong reasons, or you’ve been carrying good intentions that never turn into action, this study is going to get honest with you about the heart behind it all.
https://t.co/5g7sbWkzlx
Money has a way of exposing exactly where your trust actually lives.
Not where you say it lives on Sunday. Where it actually lives on Tuesday when an unexpected bill arrives, when the account balance is lower than it should be, or when the urge to spend what you don't have wins again.
That exposure isn't a problem to fix. It's an invitation to obey. New article: https://t.co/BkKVTWLvNx
These small deaths lead to real freedom and trust. Read the full article: https://t.co/fOblDS1p4S
Take the Circle of Obedience assessment: https://t.co/XyFlpvilCN