Bold Words & Red Letters

The older I get, the more life I live, the more I realize how timely everything in life seems to play out to be. I don’t mean that certain things happen because you’ve done something to “manifest it” or that it happens because you hit a certain age, but how hindsight, as time passes, you can look back and see the Divine Perfection in God’s timeline.

In moments, we’re often impatient while we ask God to do something. We want what we want, and we want it right now. We think that our 5- and 10-year plan is a must, leaving no room for God to make adjustments, not realizing that He even accounted for our stubbornness in resisting Him when he laid out the master plans for our lives, well before the moment we were even conceived. 

As someone who always tries to “see the big picture” I realize that we will never truly see the big picture, because God is always behind the scenes and going before us working out problems and details that we don’t even know exist. He is not bound by time or space, He is everywhere and working in everything.

For some, reading that may make you feel small, or it may make you feel like you have no control of your life, but it’s quite the opposite. You are BIG enough to the God of the universe that He cares enough to go before you, to protect you from things that you didn’t see coming, and to plan for you better than you could have ever planned for yourself. He gives us free will. God didn’t want robots, He wanted a creature made in His own image to spend life and eternity with, and He gives us the freedom to have likes and dislikes, characteristics that make us who we are, and allows us choices to determine many paths we take in life. But all the while, He is there. He is protective and loving and righteous. He is with us, and even when He may seem quiet, He is working.

When inconveniences happen or we wait for an answer longer than we hoped to, it’s hard to see the good in these things. But I know for me personally, I can look back on many things I didn’t understand at the time and see God’s hand and goodness all over it. The perfection of His timing was something that I didn’t even appreciate in the moments for what it was, a saving grace.

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

We’re human. Circumstance won’t always be ideal, we will wait longer than we want to, we will even be asked by God to do things that we don’t want to or that we can’t see the purpose for at all but trust Him. Like Forrest Frank says, His way really is better.

Today, we saw one example of community with thousands gathering in one place to worship the Lord and commemorate the life of someone who embodied what it meant to be a bold and active member of the body of Christ. It has been overwhelming to see the rising boldness in the Christian community across the country since the death of Charlie Kirk. The body of Christ lost a brother, publicly, and because of that we all sense the call to help step up and continue the work that the Lord was doing through him. But when the adrenaline and freshness of the news fades, as time begins to heal grieving hearts, what will keep us going with the same intensity that this fire has lit in the body of Christ? Our personal community.

As a Christian, there are a lot of important things, of course- faith, prayer, scripture, sermons, worship… but there’s something that many people skip over that I would encourage you to put towards the top of that list and that is community with other believers. People often say that you don’t have to go to church to be saved and no, you don’t… but you should. You are not getting the most out of your walk with the Lord if you’re not surrounding yourself with other people who love Him daily.

Once you become a Christian and put off your old ways, the world still wants you back. Satan wants to win you back over to worldly things so that your influence for the Kingdom is nonexistent. We are fighting a spiritual battle every day, and it’s hard to win a battle on your own even if you know the war is already won for you. Go to church. Keep yourself closest to those friends who are willing to battle with you.

In the gospels you can read the story of the paralyzed man who needed to get to Jesus for healing. We’ve all heard it, but do we pay attention to it? He couldn’t get himself there. And his friends didn’t give up getting him there just because it was crowded and impossible to get in the door. They MADE a way FOR him. Who do you surround yourself with? Are you constantly with people who are indifferent to the ways of the world, people saying that they’ll pray for you but not discipling you, or are your people those who would tear holes in roofs to help get you to Jesus?

Jesus ate with sinners, but he hand-picked his inner circle. Be mindful of the people you allow to be your influence, but never keep yourself from those who need to be influenced by you.  Hand-pick your inner circle, like Jesus did, and battle together for the Kingdom the way that many have before you. Don’t let today’s world and culture convince you that the Church doesn’t need church, that’s just Satan trying to win battles by getting you alone.