Running Your Race on Cold Windy DaysSample

I don’t think the devil wants us to get this. He wants us to feel guilty that we don’t have a “perfect” Christian life as the prosperity gospel promises but never delivers. Do you know what I mean, the concept is that God just wants us to be happy all the time, and if we come to church every time the door is open, read our Bibles every day, give tithes and offerings, and go on numerous mission trips and do all the “right” things He will give us the desires of OUR heart and then everything will be perfect. The fact is that God wants us to be set apart and holy and not constantly happy. He wants us to seek HIS heart's desire for us, not OURS. This pervasive prosperity thinking allows us to build our hopes on a false premise that ultimately leads to disappointment and often despair.

I don’t want to debate theology but I will say that I have been seriously walking with Jesus for over 50 years and if there is a perfect life available to a serious believer I don’t have it, and neither does anyone else that I have ever known or read about. If you know someone who claims they do I can tell you something about that person; they will lie about other things too! So if you don’t either it’s ok! Life in heaven will be perfect life on earth is not and can never be. (Genesis Chapter 3) Good yes, yes indeed, life in Jesus IS good. But perfect, no.

Oh, life in Jesus is good indeed! Far better than we deserve and infinitely better than any alternative. Abundant and filled with hope and seasons of joy and peace. But perfect and without tests and trials? Nope, it's not happening. Living in Jesus allows us to rise above the tests and trials and to grow through them but not without them.

Briefly, I hope to live as close to Jesus during dry, dusty, challenging times as I do in the sweetest moments life on this planet can bring, and there are many. The fact is that I grow more and am more passionate in my faith during times of trial and tend to fall back a bit when everything is great. I don’t like pain and suffering or struggling against the world, my flesh, and the devil. I would never ask for them, but they will come until THAT DAY! I want to praise and thank Him in sorrow and mourning as passionately as I do in peace and delight.

Nurturing that hope for me has been found in a daily habit of reading His Word with His Spirit, counting my blessings, and keeping a journal of my thoughts, questions, and insights. To close my time with Him I write a letter to God every day.

For the last 30+ years. I have spent the first hour of each day this way, it is the best part of every day and I’m convinced that it is the foundation of all that I have accomplished that has any real value. I’m living in my eternal sweet spot, and I know it. I have described the process that I use in a book called The Most Important Hour.

You can learn the keys to having your own, Most Important Hour by clicking https://lnkd.in/e-99XFHb or getting the book at the www.c12forums.com website store.