Be Intentional

God is so good all of the time!  As I’ve been praying about this blog series and what God would have me put down on paper, He has already been speaking to me over the last month, preparing my heart as I’ve been in His Word.  He has given me the words “be intentional”, and I simply can’t get them out of my head.  It first stemmed from a study on Romans 13 we did with our Home Group that we co-lead with the Urlachers, but this “phrase” is also exceptionally relevant to my life right now as I transition into a new routine of being a stay-at-home mom after being a full-time working mom for the past 6 years.  In addition, it’s that time of year we all start thinking about what we’d like to accomplish in 2018, as 2017 comes to a close.

Romans 13:8-14 reads, “8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if [there is] any other commandment, are [all] summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love [is] the fulfillment of the law. 11 And [do] this, knowing the time, that now [it is] high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation [is] nearer than when we [first] believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to [fulfill its] lusts.”

When the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 what is the greatest commandment of all, Jesus basically answered LOVE.  “37 Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is [the] first and great commandment. 39 And [the] second [is] like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

If these are the two most important things we can do as believers, HOW do we love God and love each other?  Well, we need a lot of help from Jesus for sure!  If you’re anything like me, it’s natural to think of myself first and how I feel and what I want and how people are treating me.  God always helps us practically apply His Word to our life and the “how” is found right there in Romans 13:12-14 - “cast of the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light”, “walk properly”, and to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to {fulfill its} lusts.”.

Practically speaking, this is where God calls us to “be intentional” and we must be the ones that choose to “walk” and “put on”.  Galatians 5:12-16 takes it further: “13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not [use] liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

We need to intentionally Walk in the Spirit and leave no provision for our flesh!  When we read on in Galatians through verse 25, we understand the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit which will tell us, in any situation, if we are walking in the Spirit or in the flesh.  What really stands out to me here is how we need to be intentional about fighting our flesh and walking in the Spirit. The things our body and minds naturally want are the things which make us feel comfortable, important, successful, and respected, but that’s not putting God or others first and serving our neighbors in love.  How do we put ourselves aside to “love our neighbor as ourselves”?  It’s a constant practice of being intentional throughout our normal, every day lives.

My former boss would ask me about my plan for success and would regularly say that “hope is not a strategy”.  Biblically speaking, God gives us hope through Jesus Christ and we should absolutely rejoice in that hope daily as He is our joy in any circumstance, but it’s not a strategy of how to Walk in the Spirit and grow in our relationships with the Lord.  We need to be intentional. We need to fight our sinful natures daily and put on the armor of light, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Bottomline is, we can’t be in the Spirit without being in the Word of God and spending time in prayer, and we choose how and when to do these things. They don’t just happen. We have to be intentional. When David Urlacher spoke about tithing a few weeks ago, he said “do you tip God or do you tithe?”  Wow!  It’s the same philosophy with our time.  Do we give God our leftover time or hope that we have time to spend with him once everything else on our to-do lists are done?  Or are we intentionally giving him quality time when we are awake, focused, and not rushed?  The Bible is God’s Word that’s alive to help guide us through life.  Remember, God knows what we need before we know we need it, and He knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.  There’s no other life coach I would want!  If you want to hear from God, you need to be in His Word.  Prayer helps us talk to God about our struggles, submit to His will in reverence, and put our minds and souls and flesh in line with His character to become more like Him.  You must be intentional.  Don’t live your life in a way that gives your flesh the advantage, because our flesh is sinful.  Live your life to give the Holy Spirit room to work in your life.

Pastor Matt recently said during a sermon that “the future is simply a collection of nows”.  What’s on your plate today may seem like a bunch of little things and the future may seem overwhelming, but what can you be intentional in today to take baby steps towards who God wants you to be in the future?  Get up 30 minutes earlier to spend time in His Word, start reading one Proverb every day (there are 31 chapters), start reading the gospel of John, read and study ahead of Sunday/Wednesday sermons, listen to GraceFM on your way to work, download some sermons to listen to at the gym, start coming to Wednesday night service, commit to joining a Bible study and put it on your calendar, email someone on staff about questions you have, start praying with your husband or wife every night, fill out a ministry application, listen to praise music while cooking dinner, go to U-Turn, go to prayer night, etc...  Every one of these things can progress you in your relationship with the Lord and will start helping you learn to walk in the Spirit and will align your heart more and more with God’s.

I am not perfect by any means and battle my flesh each and every day, but it is amazing to look back and see how God changed has my heart over time, after being intentional in the seemingly little things one at a time.  When I rededicated my life to the Lord 4 years ago, it simply started with attending church on Sunday and starting to read the Bible for 15 minutes every day.  Now, after being intentional in many of the things listed above over time, God has poured out His Spirit on me (Proverbs 1:23), and I’ve found that walking with Him through the trials and circumstances of life truly brings wisdom and peace (Proverbs 1:7, 33).  The God of the universe is available and waiting 24/7 for me and you to spend time with Him.  Why wouldn’t any of us want that?  I pray this blog has blessed you, and I’m so excited to share my personal journey with you!

Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land?

I love how God will use the little things to help me in my walk with Him. He will use simple examples to speak about what the Word means or to help guide me through something. The other day I was thinking about roller coaster Christians. They are people who are up and down all the time. They kind of ride the waves of life and go where circumstances take them. This is opposed to solid Christians who have circumstances in their lives that suck or can be great, but they have a solid foundation in Christ so they don't fall into traps of circumstances. But as I was thinking about this, God was showing me this in context of a couple of kids' games. Many of you have played one or both or have kids who have played one or both.

 The roller coaster Christian is like the game Chutes and Ladders.

This game is probably the most frustrating game that I have ever played. You can advance quickly in the game, or you can get sent all the way back to the beginning very quickly. In any given turn you can go from the lead to last place. You can get stuck in cycles of up and down. Just as soon as you think you might win, you drop down to the bottom. It is so frustrating! I know that people have walks with Jesus like this though. You don't know where you stand with Him. One minute things are good and you are following after Him, then boom you stumble a little. But it's not just a stumble - it sends you back to the beginning. You are no longer running the race that Paul exhorts us to do, but instead you are trying to figure out where on the map you are. Your life feels like chaos because you don't know where you stand with God, or you feel like He is mad at you for the choices you made. Both of these are symptoms of a life that isn't founded in the Word of God. If you aren't in the Word, you will feel like this. I know this, because if you are in the Word you will know how much that God does love you. You will know that once you are in His hand, there is nothing that can take you from it.

The person who lives their life in the Word following after Jesus is like playing Candy Land.

In Candy Land, you are almost always moving forward. You occasionally draw one of those candy cards that can take you backwards, but every other turn you go forward. You sometimes get stuck on licorice, but you move forward. You always know where you are on the board, and you don't worry about what is going to happen next. You just move as quickly as you can to King Kandy's Castle. The speed at which you advance can vary depending on the cards you draw, but there is way less drama in this game. The race is awesome as you go through cool places like the Peppermint Forest or Frosted Palace, which are like seasons or circumstances in life. But you also go through Licorice Lagoon, which is not a good place to be. (Why people like licorice, I don't understand. I'm sorry if you do.) The person who is founded in the Word of God will move forward. Every once in a while you might go back a little bit and relearn something you already learned, but you are back moving forward again right afterward. Life throws circumstances at you that might really suck, but it doesn't alter who you are or how you run the race. You keep pressing in on the Lord.

Here is the cool thing about it - it doesn't matter which game you are playing, you will finish the race. One race isn't the race that God would have you to run though, and it is way more frustrating than the one that He has called you to. When we go in a direction that God doesn't want us to go, it is like beating our heads against the wall. The other way isn't always pretty or glamorous (or filled with candy), but it is satisfying and fulfilling knowing that I am doing what God wants me to be doing. I am doing what He has called me to do. Even when times get tough, even when things aren't perfect, I can know that He is there with me and is leading me along that nice candy road towards the Father. It is in those days that I know the circumstances and things that we go through in life aren't in vain. God will use them for His glory and His purpose because I am following after Him. That is the only way we make it through some days, is knowing that He is in control.

Which race do you want to run?