"I can do it myself!"

Good Morning!

Happy Monday! This seems to be a time of year that a lot of the normal chaos of holidays is over and the New Year's fresh starts might feel like a distant memory. You may be thinking ahead to summer or thinking of future plans and whether or not you are making progress toward a particular goal in your life.

I was listening to a few different sermons and a lot of different pieces came together as I was thinking about this message today.

As humans, we start off dependent, get to where we want to be independent and then actually become independent and then go back to dependent again at the end of our lives. Along the way, we might find ourselves dependent again (like I have during my surgery recovery). Maybe that "need to be independent" is why it is so hard for us to make progress in areas of life/create new habits or feel like we are finally changing something we've wanted to change.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Psalm 119:105

He did not give us a spotlight for our future, but He did give us a lamp for our feet! THAT is critical to take into the depth of our beings. We want so much to know HOW to do everything so that we can be independent and just get it done. He created us to be dependent on Him, EVERY SINGLE DAY! I already know that if He told me "this is your plan for the future and the blueprint for how to do it" I'd take it and run and forget to ask Him, seek Him, thank Him or desire Him. There would be no relationship. I would be independent, running as fast as I can without a thought of Him and my relationship with Him!

In my opinion, the sooner we realize that every single day He wants us to depend on Him, especially in the areas we struggle with the most, the more He will breathe life into us and give us what we need for today. Habits are broken or created gradually. We do not wake up one day and we are overweight or broke or stressed. We took little steps day by day that led to that. In the same way, good habits can replace those bad habits, but it will be day by day. We won't just get the "revelation" of what to do and have all good habits! We will take those baby steps each day knowing that by staying dependent on God, we will have strength for today and exactly what we need to live.

Why is all this on my mind today? We start a new 21 day group called "Project Eat Clean" and I've spent a lot of time studying about habits and how we can get healthy living to "stick." The secular book I've been reading talked about how one of the key elements in programs like AA is faith/believing! Scientists are not happy that so many people witnessed that God is the way they gave up alcohol, along with the group support and replacing alcohol with other things! THAT is why I do these groups! Faith along with Friends (group support) and replacing the bad with good new habits. Of course, these scientists couldn't allow God to be the reason that people succeed, so they boiled it down to their theory that the people just needed to "believe" they could. Well, as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to rely on my sinful/faulty ways of doing things. I'd rather put my hope in the Creator of the Universe who also happens to live inside me giving me the power, self-control and love that only He can give!

...for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7

The sooner we just want God to make us who He wants us to be, the sooner we will DO what He wants us to do! When we focus on letting Him work in us, staying dependent on Him, we will be able to do what we never thought we could do!

May you have a blessed Monday!

Jennie

P.S. Today is the last day to join us for Project Eat Clean if you'd like! I pray whatever you desire that God will give you the wisdom to know what to do. Just ask Him, He is always there to give it to us, but He won't force it on you! He wants us to ask! Dependence again! It's a beautiful thing!