Good posture

Want to be healthy and avoid injury? Pay attention to your posture.

I mean your spiritual posture.

Wherever God places you, whatever he gives you to do, two things:

1. Bow down.
   See God's majesty. Recognize his worth. Remember that he alone is all-knowing, all-powerful, and good. Surrender. Trust him.

2. Take hold.
   God is offering you everything you need for this moment. Take hold of it. Stretch out to receive it. Jump up to pull it down. Possess it.

Bow down and take hold. This is faith.

How many times have I bowed down, but failed to take hold of the grace I've been promised—moving timidly in my own strength?

How many other times have I taken hold of something God has given me, without first bowing down—and the 'tool' intended for blessing has become a weapon in my hands?

Pay attention to posture.

Born poor, reborn rich

At our church, we practice a discipline called My One Word. Each year we ask God for a word by which we will look for his work in us for twelve months. This year my lens-word is possess. 'Possess' is about taking hold of everything God gives me in Christ Jesus.

Four months into the year, I make three observations:

1. I think the word is too big. It's like Christmas morning when you receive too many gifts—when you want to stop opening and fixate on the gift you just unwrapped. But everyone else in the room is prodding you to move on.

2. I've seen again that I was born poor and reborn rich. Apart from these 'gifts' I could only feel disconnected, ashamed, fearful, insecure, unstable, rejected, vulnerable, insignificant, hopeless, victimized, defensive, and unsettled—that is, if I couldn't find something to distract me. But now I have moments—more and more moments—when I get that I've been reborn into 'old money'—family wealth and security, connection, acceptance, and power, going way back.

3. There's an ever-present danger of focusing too much on the 'gifts' and too little on the Giver.

Eight months to go with this word. And a lifetime to possess these gifts.

Pyrite

“And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”

— 1 Samuel 8:7 ESV

Israel wanted a king like everyone else. Someone to tell them how to live. Someone to lead them into battle. Someone the other nations would notice. Someone they could identity with and be envied.

But God wanted to be their king. And he wants to be ours.

We must resist the temptation to chase celebrity. And to rely on men to tell us how to live. To wait for another to motivate us to good works. Jesus is the risen Christ. He lives. He sits on the throne. And he invites us: "Come follow me." He's given us the Holy Spirit, his word, and direct access. To reject these is to reject him as king.

"My glory I will not give to another." (Isaiah 48:11)