INS week 2 round-up

I'm on the road today - well, actually on a plane - to speak at a women's conference this weekend.  But tonight I'll return to my hotel room, put on my jeans, fix some tea and log on to read your comments & posts.

This was a challenging week of chapters.  It's hard to swallow our pride, or lay down our rights, or relinquish our desire to fight back when insulted. It's stinkin' hard! I haven't always done it. But I've found that when I do go to Christ for my comfort and strength, and trust Him with the situation, I feel empowered.  Empowered even though I'm not fighting back. It's a paradoxical, priceless feeling.

“‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

So what have we learned this week? Stop competing for a share of "the good life." Stop trying to create a name and life for yourself - then you'll find the life He creates for you. That life is going to include humility and service.  It's not always an easy life, but it's a good life under the banner of His name. Besides, let's be honest - it was never easy trying to create life for ourselves on our own, asking God to bless it.

I have a note card taped up by my desk. On it I wrote this note-to-self: "The secret of true gospel change is being convinced that Jesus is the good life and the source of my joy." It's when I lose sight of that that I start comparing, competing and selling out to things not worth selling out to.

Maybe you'll want to write that down too, and put it somewhere you'll see it regularly.

So, got an INS related blog post you want to share?  I'd love to read it.



And if you haven't read Melissa Taylor's last post - it's worth the read.