Keeping track of all the details in life is challenging. How do you track things in your life? Your workload, diet, property care and home chores? What about bill deadlines, healthcare appointments, fun with friends. To stay on top, you need a good tool. Tracking your spiritual development and growth in noble character requires a good tool, too.
I’ve been listening attentively to the news these recent months. Our world sounds weary. And since the globe is made up of individuals – like you and me – I’m guessing you may feel some weariness, too. In addition to managing weariness of your personal life, you likely feel some fall-out from all that’s going on globally. When you are weary, may you be encouraged by today’s content.
This past year has been packed with challenges while the entire world is slammed in crisis. It’s one of those years you look back in a decade and say – “Well, I remember one of the worst years ever – 2020! True, it’s been hard for individuals, for business and industry, and for countries around the world. This global picture is the high view of a big picture. Yet, when you drill down into every person’s daily life, you find even more challenges and crisis. People are under strain. With this harsh reality, there is one thing increasingly clear. Whatever the problem, the process, or the solution – character matters.
A promise is something that cannot change. It cannot morph into something else. A promise can only be kept – or broken. If you can’t make good on a promise, don’t make it in the first place.
We bought a power washer. After borrowing one, we became instant believers. Gone was the greenish mossy mold on the house siding. The deck changed back to its natural wood color instead of the dingy gray-brown it had sported for a couple of seasons. Honestly, the difference was stunning. The cleaning power of water is pretty convincing. And power tools make life easier.
What would our lives be without power tools, not to mention our computers and technology gadgets? How would we ever function if there was a power blackout? We need power.
During this global COVID-19 pandemic, we should be reaching for God’s Power Tools often. His tool box is open with resources for every person. And His tools are free! No rental or purchase fees.
Do you know how it feels to be at your edge? Perhaps you have been living there for a long time. It’s scary to live at the edge of what you can manage, what you can cope with. Scripture gives advice, but – at first read, it feels a little unrealistic. When you read the progressive list from Rom. 5:3-5 (check it out), you instinctively know you can’t do that stuff in your own strength. It’s not normal.
You are who you are, and if you are synced with God, you are what God wants you to be. It may be different than what you had wanted. You may have had a completely different picture in your mind. But if you are synced with God, you have character.