We have been tricked, y’all. Lied to by the world.
We have been told that we can write our own stories-
we have been inspired to,
coached to,
pushed to.
But can’t we see that’s not entirely true?
Can’t we see that even the “prettiest” life pictures we build up around ourselves, can’t fill us with all the security and all the sense of worth we’d hoped it would?
{The great news is that God offers those freely!}
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Can’t we see that there are some “plot twists” that we are NOT in control of?
When we die. When loved ones die. When people get sick. When jobs are lost, when business dries up, when the economy totally tanks. When the whole world goes crazy. When COVID.
{The great news is that, despite any of those things, we don’t have to go through “rock bottom” alone. And that, at the moment we feel hopeless, we find an EVEN GREATER hope!}
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We have been told that if we don’t build our own kingdoms, we will spend our whole lives helping someone else build theirs.
{The Truth is, that’s the very best thing that could happen to us! Embracing who we were made to be- both daughters/sons AND servants in HIS Kingdom. Trading in the “rent is due daily” life for the knowledge that the rent has FOREVER been paid by Jesus, but that we still g•e•t to use our gifts within his Kingdom, which is fulfilling!}
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And we have been told that if we are savvy enough, or helpful enough, or convincing enough, or educated enough, or kind enough, or if we pay enough for special “insider training”- not only can we build our own kingdoms instead, but that others will WANT to help us build ours.
But the thing we are forgetting to take into account?
None of it matters, if it’s not for Him.
“If God doesn’t build the house,
the builders only build shacks.
If God doesn’t guard the city,
the night watchman might as well nap.
It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late,
and work your worried fingers to the bone.
Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?”
Psalm 127:1-2 MSG
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“Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.
Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection.
If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing.
If your work passes inspection, fine;
if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over.
But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.”
1 Corinthians 3:9-15 MSG
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Y’all. I’m a writer.
I tried my whole life to write a story
I could be proud of,
others could be proud of,
He would be proud of.
Turns out- simply embracing the story He had been writing for me all along, {as I was trying to edit and fancy up and “plot twist” and all that}, has been the very best.
I don’t like surprises.
I like to be in control.
But control comes at the cost of heaviness.
Anxiety is the grinding, the rubbing,
of our own plans and control against God’s.
When we learn go with HIS flow,
the anxiety goes too, for the most part.
And the moments of it that still pop up are simply reminders that we are trying to do our own thing again.
I’m learning to let him be the author.
He’s much better at it than I am!
From Full 