What do we envy?

It is so easy look around and see people having a high degree of success in their lives that are teetering on the line of ethical behavior, pushing the envelope a little too far, or blatantly taking advantage of others and doing the wrong thing over and over again. If we are simultaneously in the midst of a season of life where we have not felt God’s blessings on our work over the course of a few days, months, or years, it is easy to become envious. It is natural to start to ask, “Am I possibly being a bit too uptight in the way I am going about things? Would it really be all that bad if I was to…”

Leaving our gleanings

When it comes to giving, this has been a guiding principle for me over the last few years. God gave me everything. “Giving” 10% back is just the starting point he has called us to. Beyond that we are also called to “leave the edges of our fields unharvested for the poor and marginalized”.

Questioning the master potter

I frequently catch myself falling into a common trap we see today in our Western World, where I would rather live in a world where bad things don’t have to happen for God to get the attention of his people. I want to create God in my own image instead of remembering that I was created in his. I want to say things to myself and to others along the lines of, “Well, a loving God would…” and then philosophize about how I would do things if I were God and project those items onto my heavenly father.

His praise will always be on my lips!

This is the level of thankfulness and adoration I want to have for Jesus and the sacrifice that he made on my behalf. I want to walk through life with a childlike wonder at the fact that the God of the Universe loved me enough to take on human form and pay the ultimate price for my sins knowing that I could never earn it on my own. I want his praise to always be on my lips.