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Stop Focusing On The Finish Line And Run The Race

Stop Focusing On The Finish Line And Run The Race

Has life punched you in the face so much that you’re ready to give up?

There’s this huge temptation that will permeate your space where you (and others) will convince you that you’re finished. That somehow life is too difficult and will fuel this overwhelming feeling to quit before you’re done.

So many of us confuse quitting with failing.

Though my own battles I can assure you that everything God wants to start inside of you He wants to finish through you. The question is, how much inside of you is not finished yet? Some of us have our deepest regrets because there’s so much unfinished stuff inside of us.

Life continues to erode at our will to continue to move forward and somewhere along the way we lose our resolve, our determination, our courage, our faith and convince ourselves that we’ve lost our opportunity…and we quit. We often step into the narrative that if God wanted it to happen, it would happen, right? How many of us think this way to protect ourselves?

God never has a crisis of faith…He just has a crisis of us!

—Erwin McManus

Let’s step into the story of Caleb, around Joshua chapter 14 where we find him refusing to quit when everyone else was done. Joshua and his leaders have stepped into the promised land and have seen battle after battle and conquest after conquest. We pick up in the story line where Joshua is at the end of this era and begins to divide the land up.

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. —Joshua 14:6,7

Many of us want to camp out on the facts alone, but we forget that the facts are always wrapped up in us. Ever wonder how two different people come back with the same facts and walk two different paths?

…but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” —Joshua 14:8.9

Caleb is reminding Joshua of when Moses sent them out together to spy on the land and they were the only two that came back with a good report. All the others didn’t want to go there because they were afraid of what they saw and convinced themselves that there was no future there.

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.) Then the land had rest from war. —Joshua 14:10-15

There’s something here that I don’t want you to miss, “…then Joshua blessed Caleb!” Not sure you caught this, but Joshua blessed Caleb by giving him territory that was still at war. That seems a bit crazy, doesn’t it? Joshua blessed Caleb by giving him another battle that he could step into. So often we think that when God blesses us, He gives us peace and makes things easy for us. So, what have you resolved to? A land of peace where battles don’t exist or a space in turmoil where you can bring the peace?

Caleb shouts out with volume and vigor, “I’M NOT FINISHED YET!” — and neither are you! I’ve had to battle through being born with a broken leg, growing up daily being bullied, sexual abuse, divorce, and a bout of skin cancer, etc. And I have resolved myself to a place where I’m still standing because I’m not finished with facing life’s obstacles!

Without the anticipation of better things ahead, we will have no heart for the journey.

—John Eldredge

Before you think about giving up; remember that God left Abraham with his knife raised…ready to plunge into Isaac’s heart (and Isaac waiting for the knife to strike…yikes!); He left Joseph suffering for years in an Egyptian prison; he allowed the Israelites to suffer 400 years of bondage under the Egyptians and leaves those same Israelites backed against the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s chariots bearing down on them. He abandoned Jesus at the cross and does not rescue Him at all. And then there are those of us who are groaning under the weight of life and things that have gone very wrong, waiting for that same Jesus to return and sweep us up with Him in power and glory. We often shout out in our weariness, places of desperation and pain, “How long, O Lord? What the heck!” — forgetting the epic ending to these stories.

So many of us forfeit our future by camping out in the bitterness of circumstances, which just fuels the demand to live in the past. I know life’s tough, but here’s some wisdom I learned along the way; God wants to do something in you and through you. And you must believe that your resolve, your perseverance, your pain, your sacrifice and your wounds are the very materials that God is using to accomplish this. Remember that there’s a contribution that God wants to make through your life, so when you get knocked down, get back up.

If you haven’t figure this out yet, God often calls us to battles where the deck is completely stacked against us, just to add drama to the story. And there is this clear picture, even from God Himself, that He does this to demonstrate His own glory. You need to decide in your own heart that you’re not finished yet and you will continue to run the race! No matter what life throws your way, lean into God, face the battle and never give up!

heartstonePick up a copy of my book, Heartstone: A Journey out of the midnight of my soul.Heartstone is a journey of destiny, a story of a life turned upside-down for the best possible reason. Step into the story and discover what happens when a broken life has a head on collision with a broken world! [WARNING] This book isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for those who have the courage to face life head on and walk it out with God!

July 17, 2019 Filed Under: Life Tagged With: broken, courage, divorce, faith, featured, God, hope, Jesus, journey, life

Why Adversity Can Distress Or Bless

Why Adversity Can Distress Or Bless

Take a minute and think about your life and about some of the greatest lessons you have learned while walking it out. Not sure about you, but the greatest lessons have come through adversity, haven’t they?

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

—Seneca

It’s in the grittiness of life where we have the opportunity to face and overcome adversity which will build character, strength and resilience in us — if we let it. Every challenge and every difficult circumstance we successfully confront in the arena of life strengthens our will, our confidence and our ability to conquer future obstacles. The Greek philosopher Herodotus captures this in his quote, “Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have lain dormant in its absence.

God doesn’t give us overcoming life…He gives us life, as we overcome it’s obstacles.

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March 21, 2017 Filed Under: Life Tagged With: broken, crisis, featured, hope, journey

Why The Resurrection Offers Hope For A Brighter Tomorrow

Why The Resurrection Offers Hope For A Brighter Tomorrow

Having a right set of doctrines is not enough. This truth was put to the test in the trials and storms of my journey, and it drove me beyond my superficial acceptance of the truth into a deeper understanding of God’s very nature.

Did you know that the core of Christianity is not a set of philosophies, a religion, a world view, or even the teachings of Jesus? It’s the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive and He cleared the way for us to have an intimate relationship with the living God. We spend a lifetime in hopeless pursuit of everything else expect God, ignoring that the very heart-cry of our soul is for a relationship with Him.

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

—A. W. Tozer

Do you have a clear and accurate picture of who God really is?

Do you really know God? Do you?

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February 21, 2017 Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: broken, faith, featured, hope, Jesus, life, relationship, story

Worship In The Midst Of A Secular Culture

Matt Redman singing his worship song “10,000 Reasons” live in Times Square, New York. The advertisements in the background are flashing, promoting different products and services, while the crowd sings praises to God.

During a time of such global turmoil in a growing secular culture…it’s just awesome that worship to the one true living God can happen in such a place as Times Square!

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2 Chronicles 7:14

November 22, 2016 Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: courage, featured, God, hope, Jesus

My Thoughts On Our Divided Nation

My Thoughts On Our Divided Nation

Post Presidential election, America is still a very divided nation where people — not happy — with the results of the election have resorted to violent protests. The lives of people living in these areas have been turned upside down, police officers are being threatened, protestors have been shot, many others have been arrested and property is being destroyed. There are some that have been able to keep their protest of the 2016 election civil, but unfortunately many others have spiraled out of control with very few voices calling for peace.

With almost every major urban area in chaos, the divisive rioting is heading towards civil war. The atmosphere is so negatively charged, people need only the slightest “justification” to mark another person an enemy creating “lines” between us and them. Whether its black, white, Christian, Muslim, secularist, atheist, Republican, Democrat, LGBT, fill in the blank ______, we’re extraordinarily adept at creating a framework that allows us to “justify” making another person our target of violence.

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November 15, 2016 Filed Under: Journal Tagged With: broken, courage, crisis, featured, God, hope, Jesus, life

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Things that go wrong can shape us or scar us -Bob Goff

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Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, without walls. -Proverbs 25: 28

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