Trust the Process

I’m a bit late with today’s inbox note. I’ll skip the prologue and get right into this week’s thoughts.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. - Genesis 3:15

Most theologians agree that in this passage we find the first promise of the coming Christ. The seed of woman (usually regarded as a reference to Jesus,) will crush the head of the serpent. Though the serpent will strike at his heel, woman’s offspring will ultimately crush the tempter. This sentiment is echoed in many of Paul’s writings. He repeated says that “God has placed all things under his [Jesus] feet.” (Eph 1:22, 1 Cor 15:27, Heb 2:8).

This is the first time God shows us a glimpse of his plan for the redemption of mankind. This was the first indication of his glorious plan to pour out grace to all of mankind. After the promise, it would be another 77 generations (4,000 years) before God’s plan of redemption was manifested in the flesh on earth. Another 77 generations before mankind would see any tangible proof of God’s plan coming to fruition.

Why did God take so long to do his thing, here? What was going on across those 4,000 years? What was he doing and why was he taking so long?

While God’s ways aren’t like ours, he has been gracious enough to reveal some of his ways to us through his word. And, I think he’s revealed some of his purposes for this 4 millenium gap between his promise and the proof of it through the narrative of his word. Not only that, but I think this revelation about this 4 thousand year gap is instructive to us in our lives:

As elaborate and intricate as his designs are, I think God’s timing in the coming of Jesus boils down to one word: process.

We live on earth. Space and time define our physical realities. We race against the clock in just about every aspects of our lives - our jobs, our families, even our liesure is set against the backdrop of time. This isn’t God’s reality, though. God is the author of time. Just like the author of a book, he lives outside the time oriented reality he has created for us.

If God lives outside our time oriented reality, it makes perfect sense that he is never in what we would consider a “rush”. God doesn’t have a clock to punch. He knows everything. He has everything well in hand. He has set everything into motion. He has no uncertainty. Because he is all knowing and all powerful, he is obliged to take his time in working out his plans. He is obliged to take his time to reveal himself. He is obliged to work every meticulous detail without skipping a step. He is obliged to delight himself in his processes!

So many times in our lives, our time oriented mentalities cause us to be impetuous. We make irrational moves and countermoves to beat the clock. We skip steps - often times, thwarting our own attempts to get to point A or point B in our lives. God doesn’t do that. God values processes far too much to skip steps!

Last week, I wrote to you about the great privilege of prayer and the unique invite we have through Jesus to pray persistently. Many of us have been praying about people, places and things for long periods of time. Sometimes we think God isn’t answering. Sometimes we think he isn’t moving quickly enough. Sometimes, much like Mary the sister to Lazarus, we think “if God would only move on this, NOW!” 

Whatever it is that you may be seeking God about these days, I want to encourage you to continue to engage him in prayer. Don’t give up. Keep going back to the throne of grace with your request. However as you approach God with faith and trust to answer you, I want to encourage you to also trust his processes.

Over and over again throughout the scriptures we see God answering people’s prayers. However, he doesn’t usually go about it in conventional ways. He doesn’t come on the schedule we prescribe. He doesn’t come in the ways we expect. He has his way of doing things. 

These days, I’m praying for more grace to be appreciative of God's methods - not just the outcomes. I’m praying that God will create in me a heart that is joyful in patience. I’m praying that God will give me a heart and mind that looks to him in all things, trusting steadfastly in the efficacy of his processes.

Critical Questions:

• How does time effect my decision making?

• How would my decision making be different if I had all the time in the world?

• Can I think of ways that God has answered my prayers, but through unforeseen means?

• When I ask God to do things, do I also subconsciously think he should do them a specific way or at a specific time?

• Have I missed God moving in an area of my life or in response to my prayers because I was caught off guard by his process?

The Plan

I hope your weekend provided great opportunities for rest and relaxation and that you are having a fantastic Monday! I’ll dispose with my usual pleasantries and jump right into this week’s note.

Here we go.

I cannot possibly tell you how far reaching my mom’s influence is in my life. I often find myself quoting her maxims. If you look closely, you’ll find my mom’s influence on the way I do business, the way I see the world and other people, how I take on projects and so much more. My mom was and is a pretty tough cookie, but the lessons she taught me as I grew up stuck.

Probably the most influential thing my mom taught me was to have a plan. She would always tell me “Have a plan - and not just one plan. Have a plan A, B and C!” That’s how she always does things. She always has an idea of the direction she wants to go and how to get there. My mom has really impressed upon me a penchant for planning. Because of her, planning has become something that is very important to me.

As I’ve gotten closer to God and gotten more intentional about reading and thinking about his word, I’ve discovered that plans aren’t just important to me. They are important to God! The more I read the Bible, the more clearly I see that God has an intricate plan for each one of us.

Reading the book of Jeremiah, I was really struck by how often God talks to Jeremiah about his plan. Jeremiah starts off his writing telling us that God had a plan for him - an intimate and amazing plan. Jeremiah says God spoke these words to him:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

- Jeremiah 1:5

Not only does God reveal that he has an individual plan for Jeremiah, he also tells Jeremiah that he has a plan for his people. Later on in the book he tells Jeremiah to pass this word along to the nation of Israel:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

- Jeremiah 29:11

Reading this book has been really interesting to me. What I’ve found is that God’s plan is often hard to swallow. His ways are so much higher than ours. While we often find ourselves wondering why he does things the way he does, we can’t possibly hope to understand all of the intricacies of his designs. His plans are bigger (and sometimes much more tiny in detail) than we can conceive.

Maybe this is why he so badly desires and pleasures in our complete trust in him. Maybe this is why he is so offended by our impetuous actions - our planning and moving without him. Maybe this is why he warns:

Woe to the obstinate children," declares the LORD, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin

- Isaiah 30:1

What I’ve learned from my time with God over the past weekend and the reading of Jeremiah is that God’s plan is infinitely important. In fact - it is the ultimate in importance. Because of that, my planning should always consist primarily of consulting God’s plans. This require an ever deepening humbleness to come under the directorship of God and subordinate what I want to what he wants. His plan is bigger and ultimately important. My plan better fall in line or the results of my planning will be ultimate failure.

As we go into this week, let’s pray together for God to outpour more of his grace into our lives. In that outpouring, let’s pray that we find grace to be more trusting and submissive to God’s plans. Let’s pray that we can learn to create our own plans in such ways that they always advance his plan. 

My mom's right - planning is very important. I'm just starting to understand just how important it is! 
 

Questions:

• How do I construct my plans?

• Do I ever consider God’s plan when I am constructing my own?

• Have there been times when my plans have ultimately failed? What was I planning toward? Did I consult God’s plan in those instances?

• How do I go about synchronizing my plans with God’s?

• What is the role of humility in my planning?

In Living Color

How's your Monday? Mine is off to a fast start! The weekend was GREAT for me! I had an opportunity to perform for some  20,000 people in Virginia Beach this past Saturday! I'm still on a high from the whole experience! If you're a social media person, my pictures from the whole event are on my Instagram. This week's inbox note is rather personal. I hope you won't mind. 

On Friday I sat down with a friend of mine who is pastor. Over a delicious lunch of friend chicken, green beans, cabbage and macaroni and cheese we talked about life and some of the things we had both been experiencing recently. After a while, the conversation took an inevitable turn toward God’s word. My friend Bryan talked about the Bible in a way I’d not heard it discussed before and it really started me thinking. 

Bryan said the Word of God gives us the ability to live life in full color. I have to admit, as Bryan talked about this I was intrigued, but I also found myself asking, “what in the world does that even mean?”. I walked away from lunch with a lot of questions. What was this full color life? Was I living it?

Over the weekend I thought about it some more - this living color Bryan had talked about. My mind kept striking on the same Biblical reference, the b section of John 10:10

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

If Jesus comes that we might have life, then it makes sense that we should have him first - and I know that comes by faith. So, I trotted over to Hebrews 11 - the hall of fame for men and women of faith - to investigate a little more about this colorful, vibrant and full life Bryan said the Bible opened for us. Then I started to see it - the common thread in all of this.

Reading through the Hebrews 11 chapter I saw a pattern. These people ran after God with reckless abandon. They took on what seemed to be ridiculous assignments from God. They leaned away from their own understandings, their own emotions, their own pride and ran toward God’s purposes. In the process, their lives became bright and vibrant. Their lives were made vivid by faith! What Bryan said was beginning to make more sense, now! I was beginning to see. One more scripture came to mind:

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

- Romans 10:17.

The vibrance of these people’s lives originated in hearing God’s Word - whether he spoke it to them directly, or they heard it through another channel. It says so right there in the Romans verse! So, here it is, all laid out for us - the way to live a full and vibrant life: 1) hear God's Word 2) trust God's word 3) lean away from yourself (your plans, pride, and practicality) and into him. 

I began to think of all the times Jesus told his disciples not to worry about this or that. I began to think about all the impractical things God called people to do. This was the vivid life Bryan was talking about! But, what about me? What about my life? Am I living the vivid life of reckless abandon to God?

I have to be honest. No. I’m not. Well... not really. Sure, there's some color here and there, but I've not yet come to any kind of place that could be described as spiritually vibrant. These days, I don't think a whole lot of us are! We are conditioned to love our comforts and our safety and our security. We say we count on God, but a lot of the time we only pay lip service to mountain-moving faith. Sad but true - if not for you, then me!

The good news is, I’m getting closer and closer to that life of vibrance! Everyday I see new shoots of color springing up as I pray and read and hear from God. My faith is growing! He is teaching me to rely on him. It is beautiful, but not easy and very uncomfortable sometimes. Nonetheless, Jesus says this is the good life. I’m beginning to see it that way, too, more and more.

I’ve been reading a biography about George Mueller, a German preacher who opened orphanages in England in the 19th century. He began his ministry of rescuing orphans with two purposes: 1) to see to it that orphan children would have a place to grow and learn that was safe and suitable, and 2) to prove that faithful prayer worked.

Mueller started his first orphanage with little more than a shilling to his name. He never asked anyone for money. He promised God that he never would. He only prayed for what he needed and God provided it. Sometimes God took care of the needs of the orphanage week by week. Sometimes he did it day by day; even hour by hour, but he never failed. Mueller’s orphanage would expand from one house with 30 children, to two with 96 children to three with 150 children - all this within the first 5 years. Before it was all done, George Mueller would build orphanages to house and care for more than 2,000 children at a time. He never asked anyone for a penny. He proved his point. God is faithful! Talk about a colorful life!

I feel pulled toward this kind of vibrant life. God hasn’t given me any grandiose George Mueller instructions, like “build an orphanage.” However, I know he is preparing in me a deep trust in him. I’m praying about things with a new gusto. Some of these things I’ve been praying about for weeks, months - even years. Not until now have I been to a place where I am truly starting to rest in God to do these things. Not until now have I begun to surrender my ideas about how things should be done and when and how it should look when it is being done and how it should look afterward.

What I am finding is that with every little bit I surrender, I see a few more shoots of color in my life. My hands are less full with plans and schemes and worries. This isn’t to say that I don’t have to work hard or think. Quite the contrary. I think even these first few steps toward this this vibrant life reveal that trusting God establishes the work and intensifies the focus required to do it. It is teaching me to work with what is before me today. It is teaching me to follow Jesus’ advice and let tomorrow be tomorrow.

In the ears of the world around us, this kind of trust in God rings as foolishness. God’s word gives us a heads up that this kind of life will always sound foolish to people without faith. But we who have even the slightest embers of trust in God are invited to step out of the gray of the world we live in. God invites us to step into the vibrance of his kingdom - the kingdom that Jesus over and over again declared is right here, at hand. 

David raised his cup and gave a toast, extoling the deliciousness of life given to absolute trust in God: 

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

- Psalm 34:8

Blessed, indeed! Everyday, I relish those words a little bit more. Everyday I trust him a little bit more. Everyday he lets me taste just a bit more of his goodness as he draws me! I join David in his toast to the astonishing goodness of God! I raise my cup with him saying those same beautiful words, “Taste and see!”

Here’s to the good life! Here's to a life in living color!

Questions:

• How do I define security? What makes me feel secure?

• Can I think of instances where I’ve taken incredible risks on a whim or impulse, knowing I was wrong? If so, how / why is my response to risky instructions from God different?

• What are my biggest barriers to living a truly colorful life? Impatience? Doubt? Pride? Something else?

• Can I think of something God is calling on me to do right now that I am resisting because it doesn’t make sense to me?

• Who do I know that I can look toward as an encouraging example of living life in strong faith and utter dependence on God?

Dirty Jobs

Happy Monday! 

I took last week off from writing to relax and reflect on Memorial Day. I hope you found time to do the same thing last week, and I also hope your Monday is off to a fantastic start already!

I don’t have TV service anymore, but when I did, I used to enjoy watching a show calledDirty Jobs. On the show, the host, Mike Rowe traveled around the country and even the world discovering strange, dirty, disgusting and messy vocations. As disgusting as each of these vocational duties were, they were all necessary jobs - jobs that not many people would want to do, but needed to be done, nonetheless.

In the book of Isaiah we find God giving his prophet a commission to go to the king and people of Israel with some very bad news. We might describe the task God gave Isaiah as a sort of “dirty job.” Not many people would have been willing to deliver this kind of message - but it had to be done. God chose to use Isaiah because he was humble enough to take on the task with a posture of obedience.

By the time we get to chapter 6, God’s great displeasure with the state of Israel is very clear. God is angry because Israel has walked out on him, turning their backs on the covenant he had established with them. The Israeli people were deep in sin. They’d even reduced the sacred practices of sacrifice and worship to empty gestures - just going through the motions. God was furious and in chapter 6 he sends Isaiah forth with this message to Israel: 
 

He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

Isaiah 6:9-13

If I were in Isaiah’s shoes I would have felt as if God was sending me to do a dirty job! We have to know that Isaiah wasn’t exactly excited about going to the people and leaders of Israel to tell them “God says he’s going bring pain, hunger, exile and misery on our people.” The orders he received were very uncomfortable. Still, he obeyed.

The truth is that doing God’s will is not about our comfort at all. It is about his design and his purposes. This often gets lost in our self-help, new-age oriented theology. When we listen for God’s instruction we must keep in mind that we exist for him; not the other way around. Any comforts we receive are gifts; not entitlements. Above all comforts, God’s purposes must be our objective. We must get our hearts to a place where they are ever-ready to do God’s instructions, whatever those instructions might be.

Isaiah’s example here is striking, and his response to the commission God has given him shows exactly why God chose him to do this assignment. The only question he asks is:“For how long, Lord?” He doesn’t haggle. He doesn’t ask God for a deal: “If I do this, can you do ____________ for me?” He doesn’t plead. He doesn’t remind God how uncomfortable the assignment will be. He doesn’t run from it. He simply asks God how long his judgement would last, and goes forth to do what he’s been told to do.

Oh, to be like Isaiah! How awesome is his example of humble submission to God! As we set out into the first week in the month of June, I’m asking God to give us spirits that are as humble and obedient as Isaiah was. I’m asking God to break those things in us that are prone to rebel and seek comfort and seek pathways of least resistance. I’m praying for increased faith that will allow us to bear up under uncomfortable assignments and uncomfortable positions.

I hope you’ll join me in praying for these things this week. I hope you’ll pray with me that God will give us every spiritual resource we need to faithfully and obediently answer his call - even when that call is to do dirty jobs!

Questions for this week…

• What is my perception of God’s purposes in my life? Are those purposes for me or are they for him?

• How do I respond when God directs me to do things that are uncomfortable?

• What is my definition of obedience? Is obedience simply about doing what I’ve been instructed to do or does my attitude about what I’m doing have any relevance to my definition?

• What kinds of dirty jobs has called me to do?

Resistance is Futile

Good Afternoon!

I’m so sorry for the late email today. I hope wherever you are you are enjoying a day that is as beautiful as the one we are enjoying here in Richmond. The sun is out and there’s a crisp breeze in the air. I’m planning to take a few moments later to go out take it all in. Before I get outside to enjoy the sun though, let’s talk about resistance.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah. We’ve grown up hearing about Jonah’s stubborn resistance to God’s instructions since our earliest days in Sunday school. We’ve heard about the big fish and the three nights Jonah spent inside the gigantic animal’s stomach. We know the story, I’m sure. Yet, there are some finer points to the story I’d like to highlight in today’s email.

1) When we resist God’s instruction we bring storms to other people’s lives.

Verses 4-6 of Jonah 1, tell us that God sent a huge storm as a response to Jonah’s disobedience. (Notice it doesn’t say he allowed it. He SENT it.) The storm didn’t just affect Jonah. It affected everyone on the boat he was trying to to escape upon. Jonah’s disobedience at the very least made everybody’s life on the boat uncomfortable. At worst, Jonah’s resistance put the lives of everyone about the boat in danger.

How often do we choose to resist God’s instructions, taking up with people, places and entities as places of refuge while we try to do things our own way? These verses call us to look at these decisions more closely. They call us to remember that our decisions to be disobedient don’t just affect us. When we go in the opposite direction of God’s instruction, we put other people in discomfort and sometimes in jeopardy.

2) God’s grace and mercy are not ours to distribute. He distributes them as he wills.

Jonah’s disobedience was based on his judgement of Nineveh. He assessed the people of the city and decided they didn’t deserve grace. The story starts off with Jonah’s response to God’s instructions and is revisited later on the story as well. Jonah’s mind was made up. Nineveh didn’t deserve mercy! The people were far too evil to be recipients of God’s grace!

How many of us do this? We may not go as far as Jonah to say people are “too evil,” but most of us do try to put the stop on God’s free flow of grace from time to time. How many of us pass judgement on others, thinking to ourselves “they don’t deserve…(fill in the blank)”?

Jonah’s story makes it clear that we don’t have the right or the authority to decide who gets grace and who doesn’t. Grace is not ours. It is God’s. When he sends us as instruments of his grace it is not up to us to be judge and/or jury. Our job is to follow instructions and be the gracious instrument we have been assigned to be. 
How does this apply? Whether it is hiring someone that doesn’t quite “look the part” or making a decision on whether or not to give money to a homeless person on a corner, or resolving a rift in a friendship, we are often guided toward decisions that are counter intuitive. We are often guided to extend grace in ways that don’t make sense to us. We have to remember in these spaces, if God guides us to do something - the grace we’re extending isn’t ours. It is His!

3) There is nothing we can do to thwart God’s plans. Period.

Whether we like it or not, if God wants something done it is going to be done. If he wants us to do it, we will do it. We can resist. We can fight. We can run. But ultimately, what God wants, he gets. Period. He is sovereign.

God makes this clear over in the book of Isaiah:

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

Isaiah 46:10

I don’t believe God forces us to do anything against our wills. However, I do believe he knows how to change our wills. He knows how to bend us toward his purposes and the Bible is pretty clear about the fact that he doesn’t shy away from putting us in circumstances that push us toward his purposes. For instance, he gives us choices like these:

“would you rather do as I have instructed, or spend your life in the belly of a fish?”

What would you decide? …Exactly. lol!

When it comes to the will of God, we do best to realize that he is sovereign and in absolute control of everything in the universe. I totally agree with the theologian R.C. Sproul who says “there is not one rogue molecule in the universe.”

This week, let’s take a look at our lives closely and seek to find what kinds of instructions God has given us. I don’t think we’ll have to do to deep of a search. Most of us are acutely aware of the directions God is giving. Let’s check our responses to God’s instructions. Have we been obedient? If not, let’s dedicate some time this week to resolve to stop running. Let’s try to get in line with what God is doing. Let’s lay down our judgements about situations and outcomes and just do as we’re told by our Heavenly Father.

After all… resistance is futile. 
 

Questions! (I love this part!)

• Can I see any area of my life where my disobedience is costing other people? Am I bringing storms into other people’s lives by resisting God’s instruction?

• Am I an open conduit of God’s grace? Do I use my own judgement in distributing his mercy or do I rely on his purposes and reasoning?

• In what kinds of ways do I resist God’s instruction? Do I acknowledge what he says and run in the other direction? Do I try to “confuse” myself about what he has said? Do I try to hide by doing “good” in other areas to compensate for disobedience?

• Why am I resistant to God’s instruction and what does my disobedience to what he has instructed me to do say about my faith and trust in him?

Father Knows Best

Good Afternoon!

There is snow on the ground here in central Virginia! Imagine that - in the middle of March! God certainly has a way keeping us on our toes, doesn't he? Hopefully your Monday is off to a fantastic start. Wherever you are and whatever the weather is there, I hope you're being safe!

I had a conversation with a coworker this morning that coincides perfectly with today's inbox note. My friend was telling me about her son. He's a 9th grader at a school here in the Richmond area and is having a bit of trouble with finding motivation and passion towards... basically anything. Like any good parent, my friend is doing what she can to help him find something to inspire him. She's encouraging him to try new things and pushing him toward things that might awaken some kind of drive and motivation. 

For his part, he isn't liking his mom's approach very much. He's at that age where indifference is the disposition that's "cool". So, his mom's push toward different experiences and opportunities is met with resistance. He asks her "Mom, why do I have to do this? I don't want to!" 

When her son replies this way, it aggravates my friend. She wants her son to understand what she's trying to do. But how can you effectively explain to a teen that it is important to find passionate paths early in life? How can she make him see that he needs to devote his energies constructively if he is to ever make something of himself? Her teenage son isn't likely to grasp all of this. All he sees is what is right before him. He does not yet have a concept of the future or what he will need to be successful in that future.

Because his perspective is so limited by his lack of life experience, my friend has to put her foot down with her son. When he asks why he has participate in the things she pushes him toward, she tells him, "you have to do it because I'm the adult here and I'm looking out for your best interest. I know what's best for your right now."

My coworker is a great parent. She's doing the right thing. She's disciplining her son and appropriately using her authority as his mother to direct his life in a positive direction. Our Father God takes a similar approach with those of us who are his children.. Hebrews 12 highlights this fact:

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 

Hebrews 12:9-10

Through the twists and turns of life, it is easy to lose sight of this truth. God is our Father and our role as his children is to submit ourselves to his direction and discipline. Just as my friend has a much broader understanding of life than her son does, so too does our Father God have a much broader perspective on our lives. Greater still, God has the supreme perspective of all time and creation, knowing exactly what is coming down the road for us, what challenges we will face and what pitfalls await us on our paths. Knowing this, how much more should we submit to the Father? 

My friend has warned her son about rebelling against her discipline. She's made it clear to him the more he resists the more it is going to cost him. God's discipline works the same way. We can rebel against his direction and discipline all we want. We only hurt ourselves. Ask Jonah. No amount of our own resistance will ever serve to thawrt God's divine plan. His will will be done.

True. It is hard to submit. Everything in our nature and our culture tells us that submission is for the weak. Our egos tell us there is nothing and no one with more authority than self and our society feeds this ideal. Its true, all of us struggle - at least from time to time - with god complexes, wanting to assume autonomy for ourselves. Freud was right about this: our egos do in fact want to be God. Submission is not a part ofour natural psychology. 

But, if we are new in Christ, then we are to be conformed to his way. Over and over again we see in the gospels that he deferred to his Father's will - even unto the cross. Of course, Jesus never needed to be disciplined. He was without sin. But his example shows us how to submit to God's discipline nonetheless - "not my will by thy will be done."

This week, let's seek out areas in our lives where we might be resisting God's discipline. Let's look to spaces where we can sacrifice our wills on the alter of God's grace. For this we know - our Father knows best! 

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  

Hebrews 12:11

Here are our questions for the week:
 

• What does it mean to submit?

• Do I really belive God knows more than me?

• Do I have spaces in my life currently where I know I am being rebellious against God's leadership?

• Are there places where I know I've spiritually rebelled in the past and can see where my rebellion has been costly?

• How would might my current circumstances or state of mind look differently if I had responded in those places with submission instead of rebellion?