Learning and Leaning in the Stillness

Learning to be content, learning to be still, and learning to lean are all difficult for me. I wonder why I get so easily discouraged sometimes, and then I remember - I have a punk that whispers lies in my ear, "you can't actually be successful in things and remain humble," "do you really think God wants to use someone as dirty and vile as you have been?" or, this subtle, but daily, inflection, "your dreams are too big." <insert angry sigh> The struggle is real folks, real I say. But, as I was listening to a Tony Evans sermon today, I heard him say this, "God's perspective changes the way you look at things.," and I thought, "oh my word, YES, it does, it does!!" So, I wanna take the lies, right now, and see them in light of God's truth.
 1. Success, ability, blessings...none of these are ever about us, they are given by God! Joseph followed after God and God prospered him in his spirit and blessed him in life (just read Genesis 38 and 39.) The key to remaining humble is keeping your focus on Christ and not yourself, or the blessings. “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it  is He who gives you power...Blessed  is the man who trusts in the Lord , And whose hope is the Lord." (Deut. 8:18a, Jer. 17:7) It is all Him.
2. God uses the messy to create beauty, He made us out of dirt didn't He? Rahab, a prostitute. David, an adulterer. Saul, a murderer. Peter, a liar. All called out from the muck of sinful attitudes and lives to be used mightily of God. Shall I continue Satan, really, let the Word put things in the right perspective. I am washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (I Corinthians 6:11) Jesus redeems, His blood cleanses from all unrighteousness. Enough said.
 3. When my dreams are centered in His will, they can never be too grand because it is the Father's good pleasure to give His children the kingdom. It is when I am not looking at things from His perspective that my desires become inundated with the world's expectations, and my ideas of what big and small are become distorted. We are more than conquerors through Christ, (Rom. 8:37) and when we seek to make Him foremost in our lives, nothing is impossible with Him. (Luke 1:37) Nothing.

So, my friends, I end today resting in the great and capable hands of my Father - learning, and leaning, in the stillness.

❤t