Posted on Monday, April 8, 2024

Figuring Out What’s Next for You

by Josh Reich

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

One of the biggest struggles many people have is figuring out what to do with their lives. Is now the time to get married? Is this the person I should marry? Do we have kids now or have another one? Is now the time to buy a house, retire, start a business, or return to school?

We stress over these decisions because they have life-altering implications.

According to the Harvard Business Review, we make 33,000 decisions a day.

But making the wrong decisions about big and small things is easy. We all fall into various decision-making traps no matter how well we think we are making decisions or figuring out God’s will for our lives. If you listened to my sermon on Sunday, you know that I don’t think God’s will is as mysterious as we make it out to be.

In Galatians 1, Paul gives us a spiritual autobiography that helps us see how to make decisions and figure out God’s will for our lives by looking backward. In it, Paul talks about the importance of personality and wiring, our family of origin and time spent learning and waiting, and the confirmation of others.

4 questions to ask to figure out God’s will for your life.

What matters most. One of the most quoted verses in Galatians is Galatians 1:10, where Paul asks, For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Who are you trying to please with your decisions: God or your parents, spouse, or someone else?

Paul wants us to ask ourselves, who are we trying to please? Many people end up going to school, taking a job, or making a decision related to parenting to please someone. Paul wants us to ask, whose opinion matters the most to us? Many Christians would say, “Obviously, the answer is God,” but is it really in their lives?

Personality and wiring. God’s plan for our lives closely relates to how we are wired to the talents and gifts God has given us. We often overlook these as we think about God’s will for our lives or what is next for us, or maybe you grew up in a tradition that made God’s will sound like an awful punishment. To know what is next, look at how you are wired.

In Galatians 1, Paul talks about the importance of understanding how we are wired to what God has planned for us. Paul was incredibly zealous and driven. When God saved Paul, he didn’t change that part of Paul’s personality; he redirected that passion.

God doesn’t necessarily change our personality, gifts or talents; he redirects them for His purposes.

The personality you have isn’t an accident. The gifts and talents you have aren’t an accident. But many of us miss what God has for us because we want a different personality or talent or don’t think we are as good as someone else. Yes, God molded Paul just like everyone else as he grew in his faith and maturity, but he didn’t change who God created him to be.

I wonder if we would see God move in our lives more often if we were available to be used by Him instead of caught up in how we compared ourselves to others.

I wonder if we would see God move in our lives more often if we were available to be used by Him instead of caught up in how we compared ourselves to others.

This is why Paul starts with the first question in verse 10: who are we trying to please?

Time spent learning and waiting. An incredibly important part of Paul’s journey was the three years he spent in Arabia. Almost every person God uses greatly in Scripture and throughout history had a waiting period. Moses waited 40 years in the desert, Elijah ran out into the desert, David was in the desert on the run from Saul (even though he had been anointed king), Jesus was in the desert for 40 years, and so on.

We overlook the importance of the desert season of waiting. But if we skip this, we will greatly reduce our effectiveness.

If you are in the time of waiting, don’t fret. Look to see what God is teaching you and how He is preparing you. You may not be ready for what is next, or someone else may not be ready for what is next for you.

Many of us miss what God has next for us because we rush what we’re in right now.

The confirmation of others. Lastly, Paul talks about the importance of others confirming what God has placed in you. In this passage, Paul discusses the importance of Cephas and James, two apostles whose words carried much weight.

When you share what God has placed on your heart with others close to you who know you well. What do they say?

While the opinion of others shouldn’t be a driving factor (remember verse 10), it is an important part of figuring out what God is calling us to do.

4 things that might be holding you back in life & leadership.

To figure out what’s next, here are 4 simple questions to ask:

What matters most to me? What excites me and wakes me up in the morning?
How am I wired?
Am I prepared for what is next, or do I need to learn and discover more?
Do the people who know me best and love me the most confirm what God has placed on my heart?

Posted on Monday, April 1, 2024

One Thing that is Harming Your Spiritual Growth

by Josh Reich

spiritual growth

Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash

Every follower of Jesus is trying to grow in their spiritual practices. But what if our personalities get in the way? What if you are an introvert or an extrovert? You are stunting your spiritual growth because you only do certain spiritual practices instead of ones you tend to dislike or find uncomfortable.

I kept hearing people like Jon Tyson and John Mark Comer talk about a book I had never read, “Invitation to a Journey.” They kept saying, “It’s the best book on spiritual formation.” They were right.

There were so many insights that stood out but easily, one of the biggest aha moments came when I read this:

Each of us will tend to develop models of spiritual life that nurture our preference pattern. If extroversion is our dominant preference, we will select models of spirituality that bring us together with other people in worship, fellowship groups, prayer groups, Bible-study groups, and spiritual-formation groups. We will want corporate spirituality and not get as much out of private individualized spirituality. If our preference is introversion, we will adopt models of spirituality that emphasize solitude, reflection, meditation, and contemplation. -Robert Mulholland Jr.

As I thought about my own life and preferences, Mulholland was right. You can see in your own life how you make your spiritual life and practices around the ones you enjoy the most.

Now, that doesn’t mean you abandon the ones you prefer, but it does mean that we need to look at our spiritual lives and see if we are doing what we prefer or engaging in places that are not our preference.

You might wonder, does this matter?

One thing we are often unaware of that harms our spiritual growth.

I would say yes.

If we only do what we enjoy or find comfortable, we will not grow all our spiritual muscles. Much like a weightlifter who only does an upper body workout, eventually, their legs will weaken.

Think about how you experience a church or a community. Based on your preference, it is easy to elevate one practice over another. Maybe you wonder why others don’t do more of _____ or why your church doesn’t emphasize ______. Without realizing it, our preference gets elevated, and we begin to judge other Christians because they don’t do what we think is so important. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important, but we can elevate worship, prayer, or solitude over something else because it has helped us or we enjoy it more than other practices.

This is especially important for pastors to understand.

Unknowingly, for pastors, we create our churches around our preferences and expect others to grow the way we do. So, as a leader, you must know what you are most likely to emphasize, to make sure you are creating a well-rounded process of developing disciples.

One thing pastors are often unaware of in their churches.

Posted on Monday, March 18, 2024

How to Pray When Life is Hard

by Josh Reich

Photo by Amaury Gutierrez on Unsplash

Much of our lives are spent avoiding pain. And it makes sense because no one likes being in pain or difficulty. It makes sense that when it comes to our faith journey, we focus on the parts about joy, celebration, and happier feelings.

But that leaves us wondering what we do with our pain. What do we do when life hurts? When relationships become hard? How do we handle the difficult moments? How do we walk with a friend through difficult moments?

When they happen, we are usually unprepared for them; at least, I am. We often expect God to keep us from those situations and feelings; we expect God to bless our faithfulness when that blessing means ease and things going up and to the right.

But we see a different story through Scripture. We see that while pain and suffering are not God’s original design, they are part of living in a fallen, broken world. No one, including Jesus, is immune to pain and difficulty. We must learn how to navigate those moments and how they shape and impact our faith. God has given us ways to do that through the Psalms of Lament.

According to John Calvin, “The Psalms are the anatomy of all the parts of the soul. There is no human emotion that anyone finds in himself whose image is not reflected in this mirror. All our griefs, sorrows, fears, misgivings, hopes, cares, anxieties.”

The Psalms are the anatomy of all the parts of the soul. There is no human emotion that anyone finds in himself whose image is not reflected in this mirror. All our griefs, sorrows, fears, misgivings, hopes, cares, anxieties. -John Calvin

The Bible has space for our feelings of grief, disillusionment, and heartache, so our faith needs to as well. But many of us today focus on happier feelings in the modern church.

To help with that, I encourage you to write your own lament. A lament has a few parts: Invocation, complaint, affirmation of trust, petition, statement of confidence, and vow of praise.

The Bible has space for our feelings of grief, disillusionment, and heartache, so our faith needs to as well.

Invocation

This is where you ask for help. Here are some questions to consider:

Who are you addressing? This might seem obvious, but we must know who we are addressing. The Psalms of Lament focus on the character and power of God. We must remind ourselves who God is and what he has promised to do.
What are you asking for? Is it for sleep, peace, dealing with fear or anxiety?
This is also a place to remind ourselves of what God has done in the past. List out how God has moved in your life and faith journey or the lives of others. In lament, we often only focus on our pain and grief, so our hearts must be reminded of what God has done.

Complaint

This part can be hard for many of us because it can feel “un-Christian,” but this is an important part of the lament. We have complaints, grief, and heartache to bring before God. He won’t strike you dead. The psalms are filled with complaints. People even complained to Jesus, like when Lazarus died and Martha came to Jesus and said, “If you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died” (John 11:21). That’s a complaint.

It is okay to complain to God in prayers of lament.

Things to think through are:

What is the problem? The issue that you are facing.
What is your complaint?
What do you think God has not done?

Part of the complaint in many psalms is also a time to confess our sins to God.

Affirmation of Trust

This is the place where we look to why we can trust God. What has God promised in his word? As you think of your complaint, what God has promised speaks to that. Here are some examples of promises of God.

Petition

This is the place where we ask God. Questions to help with this part are:

What are we asking God to do?
What are we asking God to heal or to deliver us from?
Be specific in how you are asking God to move.

Often, I think we aren’t specific in our prayers because we don’t want to be disappointed if God doesn’t do something. But we must pray specifically.

Statement of Confidence

This is the place of hope. This is where we say, “God, I know you can answer. I know you can heal. I know you can change this person or situation.”

Vow of Praise

Many psalms end with a verse of praise. Even if God doesn’t do as I ask or on my timetable, I will still serve and praise Him.

How to write your own psalm of lament.

Posted on Monday, March 11, 2024

What if I Can’t Forgive Myself?

by Josh Reich

Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash

One of the things I will often hear from people is, “I know God forgives me, but I can never forgive myself.” Or, “I know ___ blank forgave me, but I can’t move forward. I’m stuck and can’t forget what I did.”

Our past continues to creep up on us and doesn’t stay in the past, no matter how much we’d like it to.

In Genesis 3, we understand how God wants us to deal with our past and the things that keep us stuck. I’m so thankful to Chuck DeGroat for pointing these out.

When Adam and Eve sin, God comes and asks 4 questions:

Where are you?
Who told you?
Have you eaten from the tree?
What have you done?

What gets us stuck, and keeps us stuck, is we start with the 4th question: What have you done? And that is all we focus on or answer. But there is more happening in us and around us that God wants us to face.

And most importantly, God doesn’t start with “What have you done?” So, it is a good idea to start where God does.

In these questions, we find what is broken in our lives, the shame we carry, and the way forward.

Where are you? This is the question about hiding. God isn’t confused about where Adam and Eve are, and He isn’t confused about where you are. He is asking about where we are internally. Why? He wants us to know where we are.

What do you use to hide? It might be your personality, jokes, work ethic, or something else. But all of us do something to hide whenever we feel exposed. Part of forgiving myself is seeing what I use to hide and keep people at arm’s length.

Where did this come from?

Somewhere in your early life, you probably learned what it means to be safe and secure in relationships and have continued to do that again and again in your adult life. But as one of my mentors says, “What worked for you as a little person works against you as an adult.” We need to see what we do to hide, where that came from, honor how that protected us in life, and see how that can keep us from freedom now.

But this hiding might also be the brokenness we carry and our secret sins.

Who told you? This helps to identify who told us about our nakedness and our shame.

What are the voices that have gotten us to where we are? This isn’t about blaming but about identifying our past.

Have you eaten from the tree? This question helps us to identify what we did.

What Adam and Eve did, and our tendency now, was to blame someone else. This is another way of staying safe and distancing ourselves from what we did. We have less ownership and guilt if we can say it was someone else’s fault.

Ultimately, this often leads to regret, shame, feeling forgotten, guilt, and bitterness.

But God won’t let us stay there. He patiently moves forward and asks, What have you done?

As I said, we usually start here, but God doesn’t. We need to get to this question, but this question isn’t the starting point. God wants us to get under the hood of our lives and ask deeper questions before getting to what we have said or done.

But in the goodness of God, He doesn’t leave us standing there with what we have done. He helps us to name it and move forward to freedom.

In 1 John, John writes to his church struggling with sin and seeing themselves correctly.

There was a group in his church that, when it came to sin and struggles, though they didn’t sin, they weren’t sinful (or as bad as our culture talks about it), and there were no consequences to their sin. It didn’t do anything or harm anyone.

Now, no matter what you think of sin, you do things wrong. There’s a good chance that in the last hour, you’ve done multiple things wrong. You may not call them sins. You might call them mistakes or failures or missed opportunities. But (and this is crucial) if we don’t see them correctly, we will miss God’s grace and forgiveness. And if we don’t see them correctly, we will end up with regret, shame, guilt, and eventually bitterness.

This is why John points us to confession in one of the most famous verses in the Bible.

1 John 1:9 is a great reminder: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confession is being honest with yourself and God about who you are and who He is.

Confession is being honest with yourself and God about who you are and who He is.

It is seeing yourself through the lens God sees you, which is the only path to freedom.

This path takes us from comparison, being the victim, and even moping around. It takes us to freedom because, through confession, we can let go. We can drop our bags of sin, guilt, shame, and regret.

Posted on Thursday, March 7, 2024

5 Questions to Ask to Forgive and Let Go So You can Move Forward

by Josh Reich

Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to do when you have been wronged.

But within our culture and churches, there is a lot of confusion about forgiveness, the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and the difference between forgiveness and trust.

In Luke 17, Jesus is talking to his disciples about this very thing, and in it, he raises some important questions we have to deal with: He said to his disciples, “Offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

One of the things that gets in our way of forgiveness and experiencing the freedom that comes from forgiveness is our hearts and inability to forgive and let go.

In this passage, Jesus gives us a few questions to pause and ask the next time an offense happens.

5 Questions to ask about forgiveness.

Did they sin against me, or did I not like it? This is a phrase Jesus uses often, “If your brother sins against you…” Just wants us to stop and ask, did they sin against me? This is the first question we must ask ourselves about forgiveness and reconciliation.

Many times, if we are honest, that person did not sin against us or God; they just did something we didn’t like. Our preferences and desires are not laws of the universe, as much as we think they should be.

Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t say anything. It might be worth a conversation. But it does change how we view it.

Can I overlook this? Proverbs 19:11 says it is “a virtue to overlook an offense.”

This means not everything offensive is worth a conversation. There are some that you should say, “I’m choosing to overlook that.”

Now, what that is for you and me might be different. But we need to ask the question at least.

5 things that help us to forgive and let go of our hurt.

What is happening in me? Jesus says to be on your guard. In other translations, it says, “Watch yourself.” Why? When someone sins against us, we need to ask what is happening in us. Why are we so bothered by that? What button did they push in me?

Often, when an offense comes, there is a lesson for us to learn.

Many times, the reason we find something offensive or are bothered by something is because it connects to something in our past.

How do you know? Does your reaction match the situation? Ruth Haley Barton said, “The more volatile and out of control our responses are, the more we can be sure that we are reacting out of old adaptive patterns rather than God-graced, Spirit-filled responses.”

When we are upset or frustrated or hurt, it is an opportunity for us to look at what is happening in us.

What if they repent? We have to be honest about one reason we don’t go to people who sin against us: we don’t want them to repent.

If they repent, then I have to forgive them. You’re supposed to forgive them regardless, but I have a different thing to face if they repent. Many people don’t bring up their hurt with the other person because if they apologize and seek reconciliation, now I have to face the music and move forward. If I stay put, I can stay mad and not move forward. It gets to stay their fault.

But it isn’t just around repentance that can trip us up now. We aren’t sure what a healthy relationship would look like with someone who has hurt us or someone we have a dysfunctional relationship with.

For example, if you have a broken relationship with your child, parent, spouse, or friend. You know what that looks like. You can navigate their silence, insults, or mean words, lashing out and slamming doors. You don’t know how to navigate the relationship when those aren’t present. What if that stops all of a sudden? You are in a new relationship with the same person, which can be disorienting.

If that person who has sinned against you repents, you lose the upper hand you think you have. You lose the ability to sit in judgment of them like you are. I’m not saying those are good things you are doing, but we all do those things at different points.

What if they don’t repent? We do have to ask ourselves what we will do if they don’t repent. Jesus says, “If they repent, forgive…” Does that mean that our forgiveness is based on their apology? No. Our forgiveness is a choice we make, regardless of what they do. In his great book Forgive, Tim Keller said, “To forgive someone’s debt to you is to absorb the debt yourself. Forgiveness, then, is a form of voluntary suffering. In forgiving, you choose to bear the cost rather than retaliating.”

To forgive someone’s debt to you is to absorb the debt yourself. Forgiveness, then, is a form of voluntary suffering. In forgiving, rather than retaliating, you choose to bear the cost. -Tim Keller

While repentance and reconciliation are always the goal in a broken relationship, that isn’t always possible. The other person may not repent or even be alive to repent. So forgiveness is not dependent on the other person. Reconciliation is, but not forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a choice you make on your own.

And often, when I’ve been deeply wounded, forgiveness will come before I feel like forgiving.

I told a story on Sunday about a situation where I was wounded deeply. Katie and I, before we even had a conversation with the person who hurt us, started to pray for them. She started first, and then slowly, God softened my heart.

5 questions Jesus wants us to ask about forgiveness.

Praying for the person who has hurt me has a way of seeing them the way God does and softening my heart towards them. Now, that doesn’t mean that I am excusing what someone did. But it does help me to see them, myself, and God more clearly.

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2024

How to Grow Through the Hard Times

by Josh Reich

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Every one of us experiences hard times, but we view those hard times differently. Some of us are surprised by them when they hit; others seem to expect them (and they miss the good times when they come); some see them as a nuisance you must deal with; others see them as moments to grow and learn from.

Scripture tells us we shouldn’t be surprised by them. Paul goes so far as to tell Timothy: But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. Throughout history, Christians have debated if they are in the last days. We might be now, we might not be yet. But we should live with the awareness that hard times will come. We shouldn’t be surprised by them. We shouldn’t look for them but see how to learn and grow from them.

That’s what Paul wants Timothy to do. He gives him a list in chapter 3 of things that can lead to hard times. In verses 2 – 4, he lists 19 different sins that can lead to hard times. To learn and grow from the hard times, we must know what can lead to them and what we should be pursuing out of them.

Here is the list:

For people will be lovers of self
Lovers of money
Boastful
Proud
Demeaning
Disobedient to parents
Ungrateful
Unholy
Unloving
Irreconcilable
Slanderers
Without self-control
Brutal
Without love for what is good
Traitors
Reckless
Conceited
Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Look at this list; which stands out to you as you struggle? It is important to know because that area is where we are most prone to fall into temptation, but also the area that can lead to the greatest heartache and difficulty in our lives.

The 19 sins can fall into 3 categories: love of self, pleasure, and money.

Paul gives Timothy a charge on how to fight this:

To fight the love of self, pursue humility.

To fight the love of pleasure, pursue integrity.

To fight the love of money, pursue generosity.

Why do this? Tim Chester says, “All too often, we think of holiness as giving up the pleasures of sin for some worthy but drab life. But holiness means recognizing that the pleasures of sin are empty and temporary, while God is inviting us to magnificent, true, full, and rich pleasures that last forever.”

All too often, we think of holiness as giving up the pleasures of sin for some worthy but drab life. But holiness means recognizing that the pleasures of sin are empty and temporary, while God is inviting us to magnificent, true, full,…

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2024

The Kind of Person God Uses

by Josh Reich

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

All of us want to live a life without regrets. But is that even possible? Yes and no.

The reality is that we will all navigate feelings of guilt, shame, and regrets. The reason is because they are powerful.

At the end of 2 Timothy, Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Imagine getting to the end of your life and saying that. Saying I have done what I was supposed to do. I left it all on the field of life. I kept the faith. I ran my race.

But how does that happen? How do you and I get to where we can say that?

Much of what is in 2 Timothy is Paul telling Timothy (and us) how to make that true in our lives.

In chapter 2, he tells us three things that are true of a person who can say that: they are approved by God, they are pure, and they are a servant.

Approved by God

Paul tells Timothy that a follower of Jesus is one of God’s. Paul says in verse 19: God knows who belongs to Him. What a promise.

Many of us, though, struggle to believe that God loves us. We spend most of our lives trying to earn God’s love, trying to prove ourselves to God, trying to beat our willpower into submission instead of living in the grace of God. This is why Paul says in chapter 2, verse 1: Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Right now, as a follower of Jesus, you have all of God’s love, all of God’s approval, all of God’s attention. There isn’t anything you can do to get more of God’s love, acceptance, and attention.

What would it look like today to live as if that were true?

One of the things I’ve started to do is ask God for help in believing this when I struggle to believe it.

An amazing promise for every follower of Jesus.

Pure

Paul then says that the person who lives without regrets, the person God uses significantly, is pure.

He uses the illustration of vessels in a house; there is gold and silver for a particular use, honorable use, and some things made for dishonorable use.

God uses those who are holy, set apart, different, and clean.

One of the themes in this book is Paul’s saying how he has lived his life without regrets; he has a clear conscience.

One of the themes in 2 Timothy is how to live a life without regrets; to have a clear conscience.

In your life, do you strive for purity? Do you have things to help you have a pure heart, mind, body, and soul?

Servant

The third and final thing Paul says about a person God uses is they are a servant.

All of this connects to the verses before (2 Timothy 2:1 – 13), where Paul says that a follower of Jesus is like a soldier, athlete, and farmer.

A servant seeks to serve their master and Lord. Which is the heartbeat of every follower of Jesus: to serve the will of God.

Do you look for opportunities to serve God and others? Without getting any glory?

3 truths about people who God uses to change the world.

Posted on Monday, January 22, 2024

The Power of Focus

by Josh Reich

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

One of the hardest parts of life is the ability to focus. I don’t know about you, but my mind often wanders, tempted to pick up my phone and mindlessly scroll through Instagram. Staying on task is hard work.

But have you noticed that people who accomplish great things in life and live without regrets (2 Timothy 4:7) can stay focused on the task?

Even when that task is difficult or painful.

But what does that look like when you run from one thing to the next? What does that look like in our relationships with other people and our relationship with God?

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul gives us 3 incredibly helpful images as we think about how hard life should be, what to do when life is hard, and how not to be surprised when encountering difficulties.

Paul tells Timothy that following Jesus and being faithful to finish our race well will be like being a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. Each of these gives us a glimpse of what life and faith will be like, but we often forget them.

3 images that show us what following Jesus is like.

Soldier

Paul says following Jesus is a lot like being a soldier. Soldiers put everything on the line; you are always on in war.

You don’t get distracted in a battle.

A soldier is willing to suffer, knowing it will not be easy, and willing to lay it on the line.

A soldier has said yes before an order has been given.

Soldiers in active service do not expect a safe or easy time. They take hardship, risk, and suffering as a matter of course.

A soldier is always a soldier, just like a Christian is always a Christian.

Which means he doesn’t worry about the things everyone else worries about. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry about food or shelter, but “civilian pursuits” refer to priorities. As followers of Jesus, our priorities must differ from others in the same way that the priorities of a soldier differ from the rest of the population.

Following Jesus takes total dedication.

The reality is few Christians in America will die for their faith. But, the more faithful you are, the more God works and moves in your life, and the more roadblocks and hardships Satan will send your way.

To be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must be dedicated to the battle, committing ourselves to a life of discipline and suffering, and avoiding whatever may ‘entangle’ us and distract us from it.

Athlete

The Greek word in verse 5 for compete here also means “to contest, contend, wrestle and struggle.”

For many of us who follow Jesus, this is often what it feels like, and for good reason. Paul tells us that we shouldn’t be surprised.

An athlete who succeeds has a lot of talent, gifts, determination, and willpower. These are needed to work your body, the sacrifice of working out, eating right, the discipline, the struggle to keep going when you don’t feel like moving.

An athlete’s life revolves around their sport, even in the offseason. They take breaks and rest so they can perform at a high level.

Each athlete for the Olympics during Paul’s time had to state on oath that he had fulfilled the necessary ten months’ training before he was permitted to enter the contest.

And here’s the thing about athletic competitions. I always hear something at the gym: the bar doesn’t lie. This means that whatever is on the bar when you lift, that’s what you can lift. Not, “Oh man, one time I lifted this.” You can’t hide if you didn’t train. You will not have the endurance or the strength. If you haven’t lifted weights, you can’t show up at the powerlifting meet and squat 500 pounds. No amount of steroids or HGH will cover up a lack of training.

In the same way, it will be your dedication to Jesus.

We cannot fake our faith or commitment to Jesus. In the end, it will become obvious one way or the other.

Farmer

A farmer works long, hard hours in the cold, heat, rain, and drought.

He does not work when it is convenient but when he has to. The seasons don’t wait for him. The rain comes, and the sun shines; he doesn’t know when. But he must be prepared to act when they do and make adjustments when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

He has to plant at the right time and harvest at the right time; he must always be ready to go at a moment’s notice, as a storm can come at any time.

While there are moments of excitement, being a farmer is mostly ordinary and mundane. In the same way, while there is excitement and risk in following Jesus, most of our time following Jesus will not be in big mountain-top moments but in the ordinary, often mundane moments of life.

Most of our time following Jesus will not be in big mountain-top moments but in the ordinary, often mundane moments of life.

Walter Liefeld said, “The military image here has to do not with warfare but with disciplined obedience; the athletic image deals less with success and more with conformity to the rules; the agricultural image stresses hard work.”

Paul tells Timothy that finishing your race will require endurance, discipline, and perseverance.

Faithfulness will require endurance, discipline, and perseverance.

No matter what you are facing, whether it is your faith, a prayer you’ve been praying, your career, parenting or marriage, faithfulness will require endurance, discipline, and perseverance.

The power of focus.

Posted on Tuesday, January 16, 2024

When Life Gets Hard…

by Josh Reich

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

All of us have lived through a challenging season. You might be in one now, just coming out of one, or one will be coming next year.

They can happen when we least expect it: a disruption in our career or finances, a child that is hard to parent, a spouse who suddenly becomes distant, a sickness we didn’t expect or plan for, or simply life not going as we planned.

Challenges.

They are relational, financial, spiritual, emotional, and physical.

They know no limits. Challenges have no heart, so they aren’t worried about you and your survival.

The question isn’t if we will walk through them but how to do so. Often, especially as followers of Jesus, we are surprised when difficulties come our way. But we shouldn’t be. Jesus and the disciples all experienced difficulties. Jesus told us we should expect them and prepare for them.

Difficulties don’t mean you are doing something wrong or have sinned; it might just mean you are alive.

Difficulties don’t mean you are doing something wrong or have sinned; it might just mean you are alive.

But what do you do when it arrives? How do you handle the phone call you weren’t expecting or the betrayal you never thought could happen?

If you find yourself in that place or want to prepare better, here are 3 questions to ask yourself:

3 questions to ask during a challenging season.

What is God trying to teach me in this season? It is easy to get angry in a challenging season and blame the person you think caused it. You may be right, but doing that will not help you. Eventually, that will exhaust you, and you’ll still be in a challenging season. So take a day, be angry, and then wake up tomorrow and start looking forward. By asking this question, you begin to understand what God is trying to do, which is helpful because it takes our eyes off ourselves. God does not waste experiences and moments. He uses them for his glory and our good.
What is God preparing me for by having me in this season? Because God doesn’t waste moments, what we walk through today is helpful for tomorrow. Begin looking forward, looking, and asking God for what He is doing.
What is God’s invitation to me in this season? This question comes from Jim Cofield in The Relational Soul: Moving from False Self to Deep Connection. This has been a powerful reminder to me in moments of pain and hurt. Often, in a place of challenge and difficulty, God is stripping away my arrogance and confidence in myself and teaching me to rely on Him.

But how do we move forward in that season? It is one thing to spend some time digging into what God is doing, but how do we live in a challenging season that might last for years or our whole lives? How do we live with the losses that pile up in life?

How to survive a challenging season.

In his book Leadership Pain: The Classroom for Growth, Samuel Chand lists five things we know about God or learn through difficult seasons:

God never abandons us, even when we can’t sense his presence.
Our faith and character are developed most powerfully in times of adversity.
God sometimes delivers us from pain, but he often delivers us through it.
Life’s most defining moments are usually painful experiences.
We do not grow in those moments by default.

5 promises of God to you in a challenging season.

Posted on Monday, January 8, 2024

How to ReFocus in the New Year

by Josh Reich

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash

In 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy: Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

This is incredibly important as we start a new year. Many of us have spent time thinking about last year, growth plans for the new year, praying through, and coming up with a word for the year, all so that we can focus on the new year. This is a great thing.

But Paul tells Timothy to rekindle the gift of God. We don’t know for sure what the gift was that Paul was talking about, but it gives us the idea that whatever it was, it had started to fade or fizzle out. Our passions, drive, and focus can all fizzle out. This is why it is so important as we start a new year to take stock of where we are and where God wants us to be in the coming year. Not so we can come up with new goals or resolutions but so we can have focus as we move into the new year.

How to refocus when we get off track.

Many of us don’t need something new but to be reminded of what we have and what God has entrusted to us.

Many of us don’t need something new but need to be reminded of what we have and what God has entrusted to us.

To help you focus this year, here are 8 questions Brad Lomenick asks in his book, The Catalyst Leader:

What are the 2-3 themes that personally define me?
What people, books, accomplishments, or special moments created highlights for me recently?
Give yourself a grade from 1-10 in the following areas of focus: vocationally, spiritually, family, relationally, emotionally, financially, physically, and recreationally.
What am I working on that is BIG for the next year and beyond?
As I move into this next season or year, is most of my energy spent on things that drain or energize me?
How am I preparing for 10 years from now? 20 years from now?
What 2-3 things have I been putting off that I need to execute before the end of the year?
Is my family closer than a year ago? Am I a better friend than a year ago? If not, what needs to change immediately?

Many of us don’t need something new. We, like Timothy, need to rekindle what God has called us to.

When we do, we can move forward in that power, love, and sound judgment instead of living from a place of fear.

How do we know the difference?

We live from a place of fear when we live someone else’s goal for our lives, fall into what everyone else is doing, and live in a way that doesn’t honor God or his word. Too many people live someone else’s life or someone else’s dream. Timothy could’ve struggled with this very easily. His mentor and spiritual father was the apostle Paul. A man who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and planted many churches. Those are huge shoes to fill. Yet, Paul says, “Don’t fill my shoes. Fill what God has called you to, be who God created you to be.”

In this New Year, fulfill what God has called you to. Be who God created and called you to be.

In this New Year, fulfill what God has called you to. Be who God created and called you to be.