GraceCreates

by Jon Walker

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)

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Developing patience comes through the learned skill of seeing other people the way God sees them. Practicing patience teaches us to keep looking toward the things above, where we witness God working in the most difficult of circumstances or within the most difficult of people.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently” (Romans 14:1 MSG).

Patience comes with practice. Most people can muster patience when it’s convenient; the real test comes with the stress of time slipping away, or when someone keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

Patience comes with cost. Patience requires that you trust God’s timetable, setting aside your own quick-fix agenda, your rights and demands, not in a sense of co-dependent weakness, but with the sacrificial strength of the Jesus-life within you, where you sync with the deep, mysterious, ancient love of the Creator.

Patience comes through God’s love. Patience may cost you all the love you have, but that’s okay! God has more love in his love-bank than our minds could ever conceive (1 Corinthians 6:9–10), so give all the love you have, God will give you more and more and more as you keep giving every ounce of love away. Can’t do it? Of course, you can’t. “I can’t; God can.” Allow his love and his patience to flow through you.

Jon Walker is the author of “Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day.” This article is copyrighted 2010 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

by Jon Walker

So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. Genesis 45:8 (NIV)

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Today, in the story of your life, you’re in the middle of a sentence, and you may find yourself paused in a painful place.

But today is not the end of your story. You’re paused on what my Jesus-mentor Steve Pettit calls the holy “but God” of a sentence. For example, you’re hanging by the end of your rope, but God extends his hand at precisely the right moment to pull you from peril.

You find this divine “but God” sentence structure throughout the Bible:

•    Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but God used it to preserve the Jewish race.
•    The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, but God sent Moses to lead them to the Promised Land.
•    Jesus dies on a cross, but God used that very moment to deliver us all from evil.

Every one of us reaches a point in our lives where we wonder what God is doing, but God then does something unexpected and marvelous. You don’t know what’s behind the “but God.” You can only, in faith, believe it is exactly the best thing God could give to you.

Count the “but God” moments in your life where he provided for you or delivered you from a difficult situation. The apostle Peter tells us to keep telling our God-stories over and over again, to encourage each other.

There’s an old gospel song that says, “I just took a look at the back of the book.” You may not be able to see to the end of the sentence, let alone the end of your life story, but you do know how the story ends: God wins, the demons die, and we spend eternity with our heavenly Father.

There’s no but about that!

Jon Walker is the author of “Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day.” This article is copyrighted 2010 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

by Jon Walker

I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands . . . .” Daniel 9:4 (NIV)

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Sovereignty simply means God has the right to rule. Submission simply means we agree we have no right to rule.

Ignoring God’s sovereignty allows us to live within a mythological universe where we are lower-lords ruling feudal lands where independence and self-reliance are worshiped as gods (Judges 17:6).

Like junkies, we need our mythology-fix to hold the illusion that we can do what seems right in our own eyes while still saying we belong to God.

But truth cannot allow mythology to masquerade as reality, and so when we ignore the sovereignty of God, we’re swarmed with the locusts of worry and doubt. Fists of fear pound mercilessly at our door and, like chalk on the boards we used to call black, fingers of alienation and accusations scratch at our windows.

When we say, “I can make this happen without you, God,” we steal God’s right to rule, like Promethean protégés intent on outwitting the Almighty. We think we’re stealing sovereignty only to find out our mythology is a lie, one that smells of evil embers from hell.

We can’t do Jesus-life alone, independent of God. When we abandon our mythology and submit to the sovereignty of God, only then do we become fully human, energized by the Holy Spirit to face our fears and to bring comfort to the world.

If you live like God is a fantasy, a mythological power you can call upon in crisis or during mid-terms, then Yahweh won’t seem real to you (i.e., God is real; you’re just not living according to that truth).

Jon Walker is the author of “Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day.” This article is copyrighted 2010 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

by Jon Walker

We should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:6–7 (NIV)

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When my oldest son was two years old, he’d sometimes push away food, making a face and saying, “I can’t like it.”

“I can’t like it” implies my son didn’t have a choice, as if he’d been pre-programmed to not like something, no matter how hard he tried.

It’s a cute phrase coming from a two-year-old, but not so cute when we say the same thing to God: “Sorry, Lord, I can’t do that because I can’t like it . . . and, therefore, I can’t do it!’’ What we really mean is “I won’t do it.”

Are you with me here? We tell God we can’t change, we can’t handle a difficult situation, we can’t abandon a bad habit, we can’t learn to love that person who has the unique ability to push every one of our buttons every single time.

Yet, we really mean is we won’t control our anger; we won’t stop overeating; we won’t love our wives like Christ loved the church; we won’t respect our husbands as the Bible directs; we won’t love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

We act as if we have no choice; yet, truth says we’ve been set free to make the right choices, supported by the Holy Spirit present and active in our lives.

Paul teaches we do not have to sin. We’re free to walk in godly obedience, free to live the life God intended us to live.

You are free, no longer a slave to sin. You can choose to say no to sin, relying on the Holy Spirit’s strength to help you make godly choices.

Jon Walker is the author of “Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day.” This article is copyrighted 2010 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.