I Wish I Didn't Worry.

“Obsession over self leads to exhaustible anxiety. Obsession over Jesus leads to peace.”

I worry far too often. Does my outfit make me look funny? What do people think of me? Did I hurt someone’s feelings? Am I making my parents proud? Does God want me to be single forever? I admit I worry. The problem with this is “worry is a sin in that it proves we doubt God’s character.” I’ve heard JP say it before and truly believe that “the opposite of loving Christ, is loving self.” We are our own worst enemy. If we could take our eyes off ourselves for just a minute and fix them on Christ we’d allow peace to come into our lives. If you look back at the worries above, they are all about me... I realize I have some work to do. What about you?

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 4:4-8

I can remember many times saying to friends, “I wish I just didn’t care. I wish I didn’t worry.” As they have continually pointed me to the cross, and I’ve drawn near to God, he has provided such unexplainable peace. I used to be filled with worry and anxiety, but I’ve grown in the area of trusting in who God is and who I am in Christ. I’ve gotten much better at letting go and letting God, no longer trying to will my way through life and chasing after “mine”.

Part of that worry has played itself out in that I know many people, but very few people actually know me. Or as Matt said on Tuesday, “Many people know about you (thanks to Facebook), but few people know you.” Even as I blog each week and have shared parts of my testimony there have been many times where I feel that yes, people know about my past, but does anyone really know what I am feeling today? PRAISE GOD for faithful friends who have come along side me and spoken truth into my life. Friends that have taken the time to just sit with me, listen, and pray. Friends that don’t care to gossip or talk about meaningless things, but rather talk through what truly matters…how am I doing? How is my relationship with Christ? What is God teaching me lately? Praise God for brothers and sisters in Christ.

Do you have those friendships? Are you in community? Better asked, is your own pride, fear, insecurity, getting in the way of allowing others to speak truth into your life? Or even worse, is pride, fear, insecurity getting in the way of you drawing near to God? You’ll find peace there if you can get past yourself.

Father, I pray for those reading this…each and everyone. I pray that they would know they are sons and daughters to You their King! I thank you that we have never walked alone and that you continually are there waiting for us to turn around and trust you. God you are good, faithful, loving and worthy of all our praise. I thank you that we do not need to worry, you’ve got us, and you are continually growing and making us closer to your image. I pray that we wouldn’t worry and become distracted by work, relationships, and our own selfishness, but that we would trust in You always. Christ you are all. You are enough.

www.theporchdallas.com

Don't Be Distracted.

“For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…” –Philippians 3:18-20

Writing this week my heart breaks as did Paul’s in his letter to the Philippians because a majority of us are “living as enemies of the cross of Christ” without even realizing it. Here’s a question for you, and take some time to think through this and be honest with yourself:

How many of your decisions are based off of making yourself happy? How many are based off of glorifying Christ?

I think far too often even our efforts to please others, make them happy, have them like us can often be in opposition of glorifying Christ. We’ll do and say things just to have others like us, get promoted, or be talked about knowing that it is not glorifying to the Lord. Then we justify it because it “wasn’t that big of a deal” or it made someone else happy/feel better. We are distracted by our physical appearance, social status, careers, and dating relationships that following Christ falls down to the end of our “to do” list. When Paul says “their stomach” it means their appetite or their desires. We get so distracted by the “get mine” mentality of what we want or what this world tells us we need that we lose focus of what really matters. It's scary how quickly we become "enemies of the cross". We trust God with our eternity and say we want Heaven, but don’t trust God with today and live to glorify Him. How crazy is that? What a humbling thought to realize how much time I’ve wasted thinking/worrying about myself instead of spending more time growing and learning about God. The God I get to spend eternity with.

It’s tough. I mean it. It has been tough to look into my own life and realize the areas that I have continued to live in a way that is not glorifying to the Lord. I so easily get distracted by things that truly do not matter. Have you ever worried about something and let it upset/bother you so much, and then a couple months/years later realize it was so stupid to worry about that? Focus on the things that matter, the things that matter for eternity. Turn off the TV, get in the Word. Stop gossiping about people, pray instead. This week has been so much sweeter as I’ve focused on things for eternity, and slowly all the distractions start to fade into the background of the great light that is Christ in my life. I know I can't change on my own or flip a switch and stop being distracted, but I've seen that when I come to Him...He changes me. It is awesome.

I loved David's question to us on Tuesday night, “What did you do this past week that matters for eternity”?

My prayer for all of us is that when asked that question we could daily say that we are doing things for Christ, doing things that matter.

“The strength to live for Christ today is knowing that he is coming tomorrow.”- David Marvin.

He is coming back and, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” –Romans 21:4

“Don’t make much of yourself; make much of your God.” He is what matters. This is not our home, our citizenship is in Heaven. Don't be distracted.

Praying for you all~

www.theporchdallas.com

Wait for the Lord.

I went to my friend’s wedding not too long ago and her maid of honor gave a toast at the reception that really stuck with me. She said that my friend Bree was a perfect example of what it looked like to live out Psalm 27:14

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

I sat there in that moment and thought through am I truly living out this scripture? Do I wait for the Lord?

To be honest, I could use some work when it comes to waiting. I hate waiting in line, waiting for someone to call me back, waiting at the doctor’s office, waiting in traffic...waiting is just not fun. It seems like it is much easier to just take action and will our way through life than to be patient and wait. As I’ve dated I have often called Bree to chat about frustrations when things don’t work out with a guy or work out the way I would like them to. She always ask me this, do you trust God? Do you believe God has best for you?

My answer is, YES. Then I need to be strong in the Lord and take heart knowing that he is faithful and his timing is different than mine. I need to wait for the Lord.

I have found that true strength is found in waiting for the Lord. Our society would tell us otherwise because we have gone into instant gratification mode. The mode of do what you want now and deal with the consequences later. We settle for decent or good because it is right in front of us, rather than hold out for best. The lack of patience though is often the cause of many of the worst sins and regrets in life.

“We think it is being strong to take action and move ahead, but often that is the weakness of the flesh. It takes more courage and strength to just hold back from action and let God work according to his time table rather than ours. Waiting can be the hardest thing we can do, and we have to be strong in faith to do it.”

Our Bible is filled with scripture about waiting for the Lord (See: Psalm, Proverbs, Isaiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Titus, Jude, Revelations), and examples of people who did wait for the Lord (See: Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Job, Prodigal Son’s father, Paul, etc)

God himself is an example of waiting. He has not come back for judgment yet because he is patiently waiting for all to repent and come back to him so that we will not perish. Praise God for his patience with us and that the final judgment has not come.

We all have things that we would like to happen now. Maybe it is a relationship, a new job, a pregnancy, someone to forgive us, but whatever you may be waiting for be STRONG in the LORD, take heart, and know that God’s got you and is up to something even greater than you can imagine.

Bree waited patiently for the Lord and he answered and brought her a great godly husband. I can tell you though that even if that hadn’t happened yet she would still be waiting patiently with full trust that God is good and knows best. I praise God for the example that she has been to me of a godly woman and pray that I too would wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.

Do you wait for the Lord or do things your way?

Do you trust God and believe that he has best for you?

In Love With Jesus.

I’ll admit. I used to have Christianity as an accessory in my life. Christ definitely wasn’t the first thing I thought of when I would wake up in the mornings, nor did I look to Christ to guide my life and satisfy me. I was on my agenda trying to accomplish as much as I could in trying to win the approval of others whether it be for a relationship, my parents, or to gain a better job.

It’s funny how we cling onto our past accomplishments and like to talk about them like it actually matters. Living in the “good ole days” or the “glory years”. My resume or life on paper would look pretty good: graduated college in three years, Masters degree, successful job positions, know some pretty well to do people, and have gotten to go to some cool places, and experience fun events. From the outside looking in things look pretty good. The problem is I was always searching for something that would satisfy. All those things just left me wanting something more, something that would make life worth living for…"complete me," like Jerry Maguire would say.

I’ve found what’s worth living for in Christ Jesus and Him alone. I can say with full confidence the past two years have been the best of my life. Hands down. It hasn’t been because of any worldly accomplishment. It hasn’t been because I am working the dream job. It hasn’t been because I found an amazing man. It is because I have fallen in love with Jesus. I truly do agree with Paul when he says:

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ…” –Philippians 3:7-10

Unfortunately, “we pursue pleasure in the moment and we don’t hold out for the ultimate. So we continue to sell ourselves short. Our desire for pleasure is not too great. Our desire for pleasure is too small. We settle for good, when we should wait for best.” This has played out in my life in the form of relationships. I guess you could say that is my Achilles heel. Instead of holding out for a great Godly man I have far too often settled for the attention of whoever was in front of me now. I still struggle with this some, but as I’ve focused on Christ it has been so so so much better. God has grown me, and as I am more in tune with His word I am able to stay strong in holding out for best and not settling for good.

I thank God for the time that I have had being single. I have taken the time to allow God to restore me and make me new by dealing with hurt, pain, and shame from my past. I am finally free from the things of my past that owned me. I clearly see that all the other things in my life that I thought were so great only distracted me from the love of Christ. Now when I wake up in the mornings instead of starting to think about all the things I have to get done, or worrying about a guy, I pray. I thank God for this day and ask him to use me in some way. I pray that I wouldn’t be distracted and that I would:

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

What do you think about when you wake up?

What do you spend most of your time thinking about? (Yourself, your job, a guy/girl, your to-do list.)

Honestly, do you have Christianity as an accessory in your life? Or do you want Jesus more than you want anything else in this life?

This is my prayer for us all: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” –Hebrews 12:1-2

Far too often I see that we would rather have others approval and affirmation over the Lord's, and we settle for good rather than holding out for great. When we do this it shows our lack of trust in the Lord, and that should be our sign that we still have things to work on. Thank God that he is patient with us, even when we are extremely impatient with him and his timing. God is faithful, even when we are not. Praise Him for that truth.

“We don’t love God for the way He makes us feel. We love Him for who he is-his character.”-JP

The truth is there are sometimes where we don't feel like loving God because of our circumstances. Feelings change constantly, His character does not. James 1:17 TRUST HIM.

Praying for you all~

Ally

And just for fun here is Joey from friends with "How you doin": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc2Z7CL4Cv0

www.theporchdallas.com