I’m definitely incorporating this into my workout plan!!!
Many of us struggle with constant thoughts of worthlessness, discontentment, resentment, or fear. Those kinds of thoughts are merely temptation from our enemy - he is tempting us to believe lies about ourselves, others, or our King. Martin Luther once wrote, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” We may not be able to keep the thoughts from entering our mind, but we can keep them from staying in our mind—by kicking them out the moment they arrive! Giving in to those thoughts and allowing them to linger in our head allows them to take root inside our heart and begin to control our life. Remember that protecting our inner sanctuary is not just a defensive action; it is offensive as well. And one of the best offensive moves we can make is to set up a guard station at the entrance of our mind. Instead of passively allowing any and all random thoughts to saunter right on in and hang out for as long as they want, we must actively begin chasing away any thought that is not a reflection of Jesus Christ.
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Leslie Ludy, A Triumphant Thought-Life http://www.setapartgirl.com/Devotional/Entries/2011/6/20_a_triumphant_thought-life.html (via tiffanyann) |
A great and wise friend of mine wrote this. So much truth.
maertin:
I always thought that growing up would establish a sense of liberty in my worship that would be inexpressible for words to describe. However, I learned now more than ever before that ‘growing up’, so to speak, often means losing that child-like faith that most Christians strive after.
When I was…
Justina Williams. RIP Sister.
I just recently had a former classmate of mine pass away in a car accident on Friday. As I sit and evaluate and think about it I can’t help but be shocked. Why her? Why now? Justina was one of the sweetest girls I had ever known. She was kind spirited, loving, caring, everything that I thought I could never be. In junior high and high school, I wasn’t the nicest person, but something about Justina made me always want to strive to be better. She was always smiling, quiet, and just had such a gentle soul. She didn’t say much, but when she did it was always something nice and intelligent. Something deep down inside me though told me that it wasn’t her intelligence that I wanted, or even her niceness, there was something else. As the years went on, I became very good friends with her brother Chad. Him and I spent much time together in junior high and high school; therefore I got to know a little more about Justina. Their father was a pastor at one of the local churches, but I never thought much of it. I was in band with Justina until my junior year when I quit band, I however, still had a few classes with her. She still always had her quiet temperament and her soft smile. I still just couldn’t figure out what it was that I wanted, what it was that I saw in her that I so deeply wanted. As time went on, Chad graduated and we began to lose touch when I started dating one of our friends. It wasn’t until a couple years ago, just after graduation that Chad got a hold of me. He had taken a jump off the deep end. He had started drinking heavily in college and thought his girlfriend was pregnant and I was at a loss for words. This wasn’t the Chad I knew and loved when we were younger. As I tried to console him, I just couldn’t help but think what his family would think. Then a few months later I talk to Chad again. He had joined the service and was going to be doing top-secret operations. I couldn’t know where he was going and sometimes not even how long he would be gone, and neither could his family. This was so scary for me and I couldn’t even imagine what Chad could be doing or how his family felt about all of this. Next thing I know, Chad is consoling me. He told me how Justina had told him that no matter what he was in the Lord’s hands. Everything Chad had done or been through, she told him how much she loved him and was there for him every time. Chad and I have luckily been able to keep in touch with short conversations here and there over the past two years, and I still can’t believe the changes that have happened in his life. When I found out Friday night about Justina’s death, I couldn’t help but instantly think of Chad and how he was doing. I was also just shocked at the fact that she was dead. I wrestled with it all weekend at our fall retreat for Cru. Chad and I called each other back and forth from Friday on, not being able to reach each other, until finally on Sunday, he answered. We were only able to talk for about ten minutes, but it was a life changing ten minutes. Chad not only seemed like he was doing great, but he by far surpassed the young man I knew in high school, the one I always remembered. He told me about Justina’s accident. She had been in a car with friends, when the accident occurred, she was ejected from the car. The reason she was ejected was because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt because she gave up her seat for someone else to be safe. What an angel. As she lay unconscious in her hospital bed, doctors and nurses spent hours in her room, holding her hand and stroking her hair. This was out of character for most of these individuals spending so much time with a patient, however, they said when they were with Justina, and they could feel the presence of God. How awesome is that! That God was glorified in her death and that she was still being used as a vessel, even while laying unconscious not able to say a word! It wasn’t until a few hours ago, while I was praying and relaxing, that the Lord revealed to me exactly what it was in Justina that I had always desired and wanted. That was a relationship with Him. To love, and be loved by Him. To forever walk in the light, and no longer live in darkness. To be saved and have eternal life. I never realized how much Justina impacted my life, not until after she went to be in Heaven, with our Savior.
Paul shares it with us: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Paul trusted ‘god to give him strength to endure any situation he faced. In the same way, we can gain contentment when we trust in God’s strength and grace to sustain us through any circumstance. Whether you’re single or married, whether you’re liked, loved, lonely, the key to contentment is trust. Believe it or not, if we are discontented with singleness, we’ll more than likely face discontentment when we’re married. When we define our happiness by some point in the future, it will never arrive. We’ll keep waiting until tomorrow. If we allow impatience to govern us, we will miss the gift of the moment. We’ll arrive at that point in time we expected to provide fulfillment and find it lacking.
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| — | I Kissed Dating Goodbye! -Joshua Harris |
