Walking The Walk

"Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust." ~Psalm 40:4 I remember reading a story one time about a little boy.  Somebody had given this little boy a dollar and he was worried that he would lose it, so he went to his dad and said, "Dad, would you hold onto this for me?"  And so his dad tucked that dollar safely into his pocket.  A little while later, the little boy came back.  He'd had second thoughts, and said, "I think maybe I'd like to hang onto my own dollar."  So his dad gave it back to him.  Not long after that, the boy came back again, tears in his eyes, and said, "I've lost my dollar!  Will you help me find it!"   Very often we do the same thing.  We say we trust God enough to commit all of our concerns and our worries and our burdens to Him, only to have second thoughts and take those matters back into our own hands.  Inevitably, we mess it all up, and go back to the Lord with regrets and pray, "Lord, help me!  ...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good  of those who love him, who [ a ]  have been called  according to his purpose." ~Romans 8:28 I was hanging a picture in my study the other day, and I went to my toolbox.  There's all kinds of tools in my toolbox--there's a hammer, and screwdrivers, and sockets, and pliers, and saws, a tape measure, a level, and many, many more.  Different tools for different tasks.   I don't need a screwdriver to hang a picture.  Or a saw.  Or a pair of pliers.  I need a hammer, and a nail.  Those are the tools made specifically to do the kind of work I was doing. And just like those tools in my toolbox, God makes each one of us different, too.  He makes each one of us for a specific purpose.  We have different abilities, talents, and gifts to serve different uses.  You wouldn't ask a musician for advice on your 401K, nor would you hire a plumber to cut down a tree in your yard. W...

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." ~Romans 12:21 We have control over very little in our lives.  We spend a great deal of time fretting over matters that we have no control over.  We worry about what other people think about us.  We worry about the future.  We regret things from the past.   What if we just focused on what we DO have control over?  Wouldn't we be a lot happier? We have no ability to change what has already happened in our lives.  The past is beyond our influence.  And what we see of the future is fiction, because there's no way way for us to know what the future brings. The only thing we have completely under our control is the moment we're in.  What if we focused on that moment?  On this day.  On the decisions before us right now?  Change happens when we make different decisions.  And all that we control is our actions and attitudes right now. What if we decided right this minu...