Journey Of Faith Blog

• Am I satisfied with my priorities?
• Where will I be five years from now if this continues to be my weekly schedule? 
• What is my aim? What are my goals?
• Is there a need to reprioritize my efforts or reevaluate my schedule?

2. Operate in the present. Every day, you are given 86,400 golden seconds to use. And guess what -- if you don’t use them, you will definitely lose them. Remember again, time can be wasted, but it can never be recycled. So here is a very simple piece of advice: Don’t procrastinate! This concept is biblical. “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).

Haven’t you discovered that opportunities never seem to last? Take coupons, for instance. I remember our son, Scott, trying to cash in a pizza coupon that read, “For a limited time only.” It was so limited that it had expired, and we had to pay full price. If you don’t use it, you will lose it and often suffer loss in the process.

3. Appreciate what’s important. Follow Paul’s thinking as we read in Ephesians 5:17, “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” There is no more important place in which to be than in the center of God’s will for your life. God’s will for your life can be summarized in three words: knowing, growing, and going.

God wants you to know Him intimately, to have a personal relationship with Him. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD” (Jer. 29:11-14a, NKJV).

• God also wants you to grow, to mature and develop in your faith. That’s why He has given you the Bible and His church. “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart” (Ps. 119:1-2).
• Last, we need to go and tell others about Him and His love for us. “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ ” (Matt. 28:18-20).

These are the basics, the important things, and when you don’t have the basics in focus, all the rest of life seems just a little out of balance.

4. Regulate the pressure. I do a lot of flying and whenever I get on the plane I hear the same thing, “Ladies and gentlemen, our cabin has been pressurized for your comfort.” The way I understand this, (despite the fact that my engineer friends say that I don’t fully get it), is that they are putting air into the plane to maintain the fourteen pounds per square inch necessary to keep us comfortable. Whatever the external pressure may be, the internal pressure must be the same or the cabin will collapse.

Paul in essence says that we should fill our lives with the Spirit of God and allow God’s presence to regulate the pressure.

I can almost hear some of you asking, “How does one become filled with the Holy Spirit?” If you’re a Christian, the Holy Spirit already lives inside of you. Allowing Him to have control of your daily life is a commitment you make every day. First you need to understand that this is something God wants us to do. In Ephesians 5:18, we are told to be “filled with the Spirit.” God would not ask us to do something that He does not show us how to do. So we then can take the next step of asking Him to fill us, based on His promise in 1 John 5:14-15 in which we are told that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” This is a straightforward proposition: Ask of God something that you know is His will, like being filled with the Spirit, and then you can know that He not only hears your request, but will also answer it because what you have asked is already His will. In practical terms, a person can pray a prayer similar to the following:

 Lord Jesus, I have been in control of my life, but I now want Your Spirit to be the One who runs my life. I am giving You all of my rights. Please take control of every area of my life. Whenever I am tempted to take back control, please point that out to me and help me have the courage and strength to resist successfully any temptation or desire to take control again of my life.

Show me how to live on top of my circumstances and not under them. Help me keep my eyes on You, Lord Jesus, instead of on my problems. Let me see You, Father, as the One who can and will meet every need of my life. Let me be sufficient in You and not in my own abilities and strengths. Help me to have the right balance between living in Your control and exercising diligence as I respond to each facet of my life. Whenever pressures come that have been unbearable or debilitating before, show me Your perspective -- anything I’ve been doing wrong or thinking improperly. Then show me how to correct my faulty actions and thoughts so that I can continue to walk in Your Spirit’s control. Thank You that You want to do these things in my life even more than I do. Remind me of that when my faith gets weak.

You can live successfully in any and all circumstances, including the severe pressures that come with the Rat Race. The choice is yours. Depend upon your own strength and abilities or depend on the Holy Spirit flowing through you, who keeps you anchored to the Lord and the solid Rock of Jesus, and keeps you “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

On the journey with you,
Pastor Glen

The Rat Race is no place to slow down, relax, and have fun. There is always one more task to accomplish, one more job to do, one more committee to guide, and one more compulsion to fulfill. People caught in the Rat Race see fun as being counterproductive. They believe that no one gets anywhere in life by relaxing. Fun is at the bottom of the priorities because it demonstrates one’s inability to enjoy work and excel. People who are caught in the Rat Race inevitably get very tired, but they have so fooled themselves that they see exhaustion as a badge of honor: “Look how hard I’m working. What a good person I am to sacrifice this way for those I love.” Their self-esteem gets massaged along with their tired feet, and their aching back and neck. This warning sign leaves little space for fun, inspirational reading, physical exercise, prayer, hobbies, or anything else which hints at veering away from the day’s priorities.

Consider the following statements. The more “yes” answers you get, the less healthy fun you are allowing yourself to have.

1. No one gets anywhere in life by relaxing.

2. Even when I have time, I’m too tired to do anything fun or relaxing.

3. My state of exhaustion makes me feel that I am worthwhile.

4. My work is more important than my own personal comfort or desires.

5. When I rest, I feel guilty.

6. I never feel that I accomplish enough, even though I am exhausted all the time from the long hours I put in.

7. I don’t think that taking time off to have fun would relieve my stress.

8. Laughter should not be part of the workplace.

9. I often have work with me when I eat a meal.

10. I take a “To Do” list with me on vacations.

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to have an easier time making decisions than others? If they make a mistake, their world doesn’t fall apart. They would rather do something wrong than to do nothing at all. Other people have trouble looking at a menu and choosing what they want to eat for one meal. These are the ones who get caught in the Rat Race of indecisiveness.

Make Better Decisions

Because we are human beings, we have a great potential for error. We wait too long; we pay too much; and we will make wrong decisions. In order for us to enjoy life the way God intended, we need to examine some of the principles outlined in Scripture for decision making. There is no clear cut formula in the Bible because there are so many different types of decisions. But God gives us distinct principles that can make the decision making process much simpler.

Principle #1 – Request wisdom from God. I have found that when people face confusion in their lives, they react in one of three ways. 1) They may panic. They are not sure which way to turn or which choice to make. Life becomes a series of anxiety attacks. 2) Some people will ponder. Many find relief in never making a decision. They do not want to face life; they just want to think about it. These are the people who hope the problem will just go away. 3) A third option is to pray. James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). God Himself tells us that the wisest thing we can do is to ask Him for wisdom.

Principle #2 – Rely on God’s provision. In James 1, we read, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt….” In other words, expect an answer. Trust that God did hear your request; now rely on His provision.

It appears in the decision making process that first we must ask the right person – God -- then we must ask in the right way -- in faith, believing and not doubting. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Evidently, if you are to receive anything from God, you have to believe in advance that you are going to get it. That’s faith!

Principle #3 – Rest in your decision. James moves us beyond doubt, saying, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-8).

Principle #4 – Relate to the facts, not your feelings. Feelings are a major part of life. We need them, but we cannot always rely on them. The best piece of advice I have ever received goes like this: Never make a major decision when you are tired, depressed, sick, or emotionally stressed. As a pastor, I will never make a major decision on Monday. If pastors lived their lives solely on emotions, most of us would resign on Monday. It is hard to be logical when you are emotionally spent or upset. So you shouldn’t walk out of your marriage when you’re depressed. You should never change jobs because your boss is angry with you. You must first look at the emotions and examine the facts. Ask God, then make the decision.

Principle #5 – Re-establish your life on the Bible. James 1:22-25 reminds us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does.”

Do you really want the wisdom of God in your life? Then you will need the Word of God in your heart. I hear people say all the time, “I asked for wisdom to make this decision, and I didn’t get it.” What I would ask these people is, “How often do you read your Bible?” I have discovered two important guidelines concerning God’s will for our lives. First, God’s will is found in God’s Word. If you are not reading your Bible, you will not discover God’s will for your life. Second, God’s will is never contrary to God’s Word. Many have asked, “How can it be so wrong, when it feels so right?” I’ll tell you why. Feelings are unreliable. It’s not enough to go to church on Sunday, anticipating that you will receive enough spiritual nourishment for the remainder of the week. You will forget the majority of what you hear anyway. How can we retain what we hear?

James 1:22-24 provides three tools we can use to hold onto God’s Word longer and thus provide a firmer foundation for the decision making process:

Study the Bible. By the one who “looks intently into the perfect law.” Get into a Bible study, join a small group, do whatever it takes to get into the Bible and it into you. Memorize the Bible. No, not the entire Bible, but portions of it which will revolutionize your life. Be the one who continues to do this, “not forgetting what he has heard.” Do what you learn in the Bible. Be the one who does what he hears -- “he will be blessed in what he does.” Follow the Bible, put it into practice, and trust that it will truly change your life.

Making decisions is an important part of climbing out of the Rat Race and back into God’s Royal Race. He will not make all of your decisions for you. He has given us the freedom to decide. He does, however, desire your decisions be based upon His wisdom. We are told in Psalm 119:105 that “Your [God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” In Jesus’ day, they didn’t have flashlights with batteries that keep on going and going. So how did the people walk in the dark? They had tiny lamps that would not allow the oil to slosh out. They would light the lamps, and then strap them to the front of their shoes. As they took each step, the light would shine just far enough ahead so they would be able to keep walking. The Bible is this kind of light. It is not a high beam that shows us everything that will happen up ahead over the next ten years. God doesn’t want us looking that far ahead because we’d panic. He wants us to live one day at a time. One decision at a time -- and He has promised to give us the wisdom necessary for each step we take.

On the journey with you,

Pastor Glen

BEYOND THE RAT RACE

Warning Sign #1 - Brownouts

I once lived in the city in the high desert where the draw on the electricity would be so great in the summer that periodic brownouts would occur. The lights did not go out. My digital clocks didn’t start blinking. Nonetheless, you could sense a difference. The lights grew dimmer. People in the Rat Race have these same symptoms. There is such a draw on their thoughts and attention that they seem to forget recent conversations and events, not because of memory loss, but because of preoccupation or overload. Here’s a little quiz to see if you are prone to brownouts…

Answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions:

1. I wake up with headaches in the morning and begin my day with aspirin at least two days per week.

2. I find I’m easily discouraged and feel like crying over the silliest things.

3. I’m always tired. I don’t feel creative and have trouble concentrating.

4. I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I just don’t want to start the day.

5. I don’t get as much done as I used to. I feel mentally exhausted.

6. I just want to be alone. I don’t look forward to coming home.

7. I have no hobbies; I don’t have the patience or the energy.

8. I get mad too often. I lash out at my friends and family.

9. I get that “uptight” feeling in my stomach at least once a week. Antacids usually solve the problem.

10. I could use a neck or shoulder rub every day to help me get to sleep at night.

11. I’ve been making some bad decisions lately. My friends tell me I need a vacation.

12. I just can’t sit still. And when I do, I feel guilty because I have so much to do.

To score this tool, simply add up the number of your “yes” answers.

0-3 Brownout? What’s a brownout?

4-6 I possibly have a brownout once or twice a year.

7-9 I’m prone to brownouts; I struggle with my schedule.

10-12 Brown is my color! I’m a card-carrying member of the Rat Race!

Learn Your Limits

I am not the man I used to be. I no longer enjoy playing loud video games; they now make me dizzy. I used to stay up until midnight or one o’clock with regularity, studying and writing, but I’ve found that as I have “matured” (this is the baby boomers’ terminology for aging), I need at least six hours of sleep or I will be a waste the following day. All this to say, I’m learning my limits, which will help prevent warning sign number one, brownout.

One of the reasons we get trapped in the Rat Race is because we have not learned to set limits. Many of us don’t even know what our limits are. In fact, we don’t even like limitations. We see them as confining and the result of personal weakness. However, learning our limits will prevent much of the pain of brownouts, the first warning sign of a life trapped in the Rat Race. Dallas Willard shares a great insight in his book In Search of Guidance, “We all live at the mercy of our ideas.” These ideas affect every area of our lives--from our relationship with God to our relationship with those we love on earth.

Learning your limits implies that you have learned something about the real you. The tendency of people who struggle with the Rat Race lifestyle is to begin doubting their capabilities and strengths by questioning everything else from relationships to career. There are seven patterns of thinking that will cause problems because those involved have overextended their personal expectations and limits.

Thought #1 - I must be approved or loved by everyone. We all want to be loved. This is a natural desire but the healthiest way to experience love is to allow God to be the primary source of your life. Let His love for you be what satisfies your heart and let His indirect love as shown through others be an added dimension of His loving you. In this way, you look to Him to supply your needs--yes, even your need for love and acceptance. Others always disappoint us and fall below our expectations. When we look to others to meet our needs, we leave ourselves wide open for the hurt which inevitably comes.

Thought #2 - I must continually be striving to be the best in order to be happy. If this describes you today, it is a good thing you didn’t have this philosophy when you were learning to walk, to talk, or to ride a bike. People with this philosophy should hang up their car keys when they get their first ticket or have their first accident.

We must learn to redefine success. People who focus on accomplishments as their source and standard of happiness are doomed to be ruled by circumstances for the rest of their lives. Our happiness needs to be centered in God, in who we are in Him, in knowing that He is approving of us even when we make mistakes. Give yourself the freedom to fail. God does.

Thought #3 - I must blame others for my mistakes so that I can get ahead. All of us make mistakes. No one, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, is infallible. Blaming others for personal mistakes or bad decisions will never accomplish what we subconsciously hope for. Blame will never result in less stupidity on your part or that of the other person. People who are in touch with reality admit their mistakes, accept them, and will not allow the mistakes to become a catastrophe or lead them to feel worthless.

Thought #4 - Life is terrible when things are not going the way I want them to. When our lives revolve around ourselves--our wants, our desires, our plans--we are vulnerable to falling into the trap of self-centeredness and its resulting dissatisfaction. Two self-centered people will seldom be satisfied in any given situation because one of them may have his/her goals blocked by the other. That is why God wants us to be centered on Him, not on ourselves or our circumstances.

Paul gave his whole life to sharing the Gospel, yet he often found himself in difficult positions--shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned. He could have said, “Why aren’t things going more smoothly? I’m doing God’s will and following His plan.” But he didn’t let events determine his feelings. He says in Phil. 4:11, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Only when we realize that He alone can satisfy us, and can make sense out of our lives, can we rest in Him when things don’t go the way we thought they would.

Thought #5 - I have to do whatever I see that needs to be done or whatever others ask of me. One of the great traps of the Enemy is to get us so busy--so tied up in doing, doing, doing that we have no time for God, for our family, for rest, or for other important things in life. This is one reason God so clearly tells us that He is there for us, helping us sort out the good from the best. One look at the life of Jesus shows us that He did not do everything there was to do. Only one of the many sick at the pool of Bethesda was healed by Him. Why didn’t He do more? Because He said, “I do only what I see my Father do.” He had learned to seek the Father in prayer, to get His instructions for the day, and then to do only those things that the Father had for Him to do. We need to do the same. By so doing, we will save ourselves the stress and pressure of taking on much more than the Lord ever meant us to have.

Thought #6 – There are many things to fear in life and I dwell upon them continually. Life is complicated and unpredictable and fear is one of the basic tools of the Enemy. Those who try to live life apart from the Lord indeed will find it a fearful, overwhelming prospect. But those who trust in the Lord and have their minds fixed upon Him will have the perfect peace that we are promised in Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” When we fix our eyes on the Lord and learn to see things from His perspective, we will find that our fears are not based upon anything but the Enemy’s desire to keep us in bondage and steal from us the joy of our salvation. Remember who your God is and who you are in Christ the next time fear tries to pull you into its trap.

Thought #7 - I must constantly rely on myself if I am ever to get ahead. Our society thrives on independence. As with so many things in the Christian life, what we usually see as strength, God sees as weakness. Paul expressed it this way: “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10b). How can this be? It is simple, yet ever so hard to put into practice, especially if you have a lot of talent and abilities. God’s ideal is for you to be a servant, to be strong through weakness by letting His Spirit, rather than your own strength be the vehicle of accomplishing through you the good works He has established for you to do.

The mind or our thoughts influence whether or not we have brownouts. It can either help us avoid pressures or cause us much more pressure. If people are always complaining and looking too much at circumstances and not at their Lord, who has promised to meet all their needs, then indeed they will have a constant and real struggle to survive the Rat Race. Jesus is our example. This is why no trap can capture those who keep their thoughts under the control of Jesus Christ as He asked us to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Choosing to look to the Lord for His provision, avoiding negative self-talk, repeating Scripture, and praying can all be instrumental in avoiding brownouts.

On the journey with you,

Pastor Glen

Tired of hearing about materialism? Tired of being accused of it? In our never-satisfied culture, materialism is not only a way of life; it is part of the American Dream. Turn on your television or open a magazine and you will see ads and commercials trying to convince you that you need more “stuff” to be happy. We live in an environment which thrives on the “if only” syndrome. If only I had a bigger paycheck, then I’d be happy. If only we owned a nicer home...if only I had that car…if only we lived in the correct place, wore the right clothes, and enjoyed vacations at the choicest spots, then we would be happy. Too many people struggle with “destination disease,” desperately hoping that their lives and families will be better when they arrive. Most reach the middle of their life crying out, “Stop the world, I want to get off!” or “Get me out of this Rat Race!” But they are afraid of stopping their world or making radical changes—fearful it will suddenly throw them into a worse situation. So they stay in their Rat Race and suffer, getting more and more frustrated as their life races out of control.

What Is the Good Life?

We must all come to a point of evaluation. What do we expect out of life? How will we measure success? How much of ourselves will we give to the ones we really love? What is the real driving force behind this void, this emptiness that we are facing? As we consider the danger of measuring our success and happiness by the things we possess, we would do well to note the four ways that materialism will hurt us.

1. Materialism generates worry.

Matthew 6:25 reminds us, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” Whatever you focus your attention and your time on, will generate worry. Better said…the more stuff you have, the more things you need to take care of.

2. Materialism wears you out.

Proverbs 23:4 says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.” Haven’t you noticed that when you are finally getting a little closer to “keeping up with the neighbors” that they refinance and you get further behind? Part and parcel to this Rat Race existence is the pace of life created by our inherent desire to attain. The very speed of it wears people down.

3. Materialism creates dissatisfaction.

I am convinced that our desire to constantly get more is a ploy of Satan to create a desire that is satisfied by self and not by God, who alone is able to meet all our needs. This is why the Lord tells us to be content with what we have. God knows we can never be satisfied by things or the constant pursuit of possessions. “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’ ” (Hebrews 13:5, NASB).

4. Materialism promotes depression.

In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul shares, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” When we find ourselves comparing our lifestyle, our income, and our accumulations with others, we get depressed. Too often the Enemy has been able to take us down a detour, making us think happiness is just around the corner if only we will buy a certain thing. But if you are anything like me, you will have found over and over again that the “blue bird of happiness” flew the coop just before you bought this thing you could not live without. Truly, only the Lord can satisfy our souls. He alone can give us the significance, meaning in life, and the satisfaction we try so hard to find in “things.” Our goal of the truly good life only comes when we put others before ourselves, saving before spending, and giving before receiving. This is one of the key principles that God reinforces throughout His Word in such passages as Ephesians 4:2-4, 29 which tells us to “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called.…Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” On the journey with you, Pastor Glen