| I'm officially done with xanga. There, I said it! |
| |
| I didn't realize until this past week how powerful the fear of failure and self-doubt reign in so many of our lives. So many times, we convince ourselves that we're not good enough, that we're not talented enough, and that we're just not capable of doing the big things that we dream of doing. It doesn't seem like it's that much of a force in our lives, -- it just seems like what's logical and realistic, -- and we end up going and doing only what's safe, predictable, and has a high success rate.
It hit me this past week how completely bogus this thinking is. The fact of the matter is, when we tell ourselves those things and say they're not possible, it's not ourselves that we're doubting. It might seem like we are, but I'm realizing how much sin is involved in that process. When we doubt ourselves and say we're not capable of big things, what we're really doing is pointing our fingers at God and telling Him straight to His face that He's a downright liar. We're telling Him, "You're not that powerful, You're not that big of a God, and Your Word isn't truth." We're telling Him all that talk in scripture about being able to move mountains with just a mustard seed of faith is a lie. We don't even believe He can take a little peon like us and do something amazing with them, let alone all those other amazing things. We really think that He's only capable of forgiveness and love, and that anything beyond is out of His capabilities.
It seems like it's just a small hindrance for us, that it doesn't have that much of an effect on our lives, but you know what? If you look around at the sorry state of the world, you see just how powerful it really is. The exact converse is true, too. If you look around at the amazing things that are happening in the world, you'll see just how powerful faith is. In a gathering of a small group of us at this conference I just went to, we had a 16 year old that is writing his fourth book and is helping to end slavery, three guys either barely in college or still in high school building clean water wells for people in Africa, and a million dollar non-profit organization that started with just three guys who wanted to film problems in Africa with a couple camcorders... and the crazy thing is, they're just normal dudes. There's plenty of other amazing stories I could tell you just like that, too, but my point is that the only difference between them and so many of us is that they didn't doubt that God was capable of doing immense things with their lives.
You know what else is crazy? That same Holy Spirit that works in them, the same one that filled thousands of people with a few fish and a couple loaves of bread, and the same one that stopped thunderstorms with a snap of Jesus' fingers is the EXACT SAME Holy Spirit that works in us, too! It's living right inside of us, and it makes us capable of absolutely insane things we can't even dream of. Every single one of us that has it is capable of amazing things, and there's absolutely NO reason why God can't do something crazy with our lives as a result. The Holy Spirit doesn't only work powerfully in a few of us. It can do ridiculous work in all of us.
So let's stop thinking God isn't big enough and realize what He's capable of! Let's cut the crap of thinking how we're not good enough at this or not good enough at that. It doesn't matter! God could make the greatest President in the history of the US with a shoe if He wanted to (I mean, He took a little shepherd boy and made him king, didn't He?), and there's no reason to believe we're not capable of the seemingly impossible dreams He gives us. With God working in us, with our hearts saying I'm going to let You do Your thing, and with faith that's the size of a mustard seed, it's already a done deal. He promises that we're going to do even greater things than His Almighty Son did, which seems crazy, but we have the actual evidence in front of us. It's just a matter of whether we let Him or not. All it takes is a little mustard. |
| |
| I was rummaging around for a while trying to find this old entry, but I finally found it. Have to keep things in perspective, don't we?
|
| |
