Launching into Lovely

 

If you are being stretched out of your sedentary life, God is preparing to launch you into new territory and counting down to take off!  Stretching happens when we are faced with people, circumstances or changes that challenge our comfort zones.  When we recognize the tension, don’t resist it or resent it, REJOICE in it!  Willingness is the attitude that our Heavenly Father is after.  Resentment is a heavy payload that keeps us stuck in old ruts and barren places.  Irritations that are not touched by His grace are like volatile fuel leaking out under pressure in danger of exploding before we even leave the launch pad.     It is normal to want circumstances around us to change, but oftentimes it is our inner attitudes that God is most concerned with.  His stretching times are LOVELY places to discover the true rest in Christ, but we cannot land in the place of rest until we are launched into God’s great expanse beyond our own small world.  When you realize God is FOR you, you won't fear what happens TO you because you know God is working IN you."    Spiritual growth depends on two things:  first a willingness to live according to the Word of God;  second, a willingness to take whatever consequences  emerge as a result. ~Sinclair B. Ferguson Much of my learning to follow Jesus is unlearning to follow myself.  ~Burk Parsons