After nearly twenty years of following God, I still find myself returning to books and studies that gave shape to my walk with God. As a fairly young Christian, my men’s small group spent an entire night unpacking these short statements from William R. Newell’s commentary Romans Verse-by-Verse.[1] We spent nearly two hours evaluating each of these pregnant statements to determine if agreed with them. As a nineteen year old, fresh out jail, most of the discussion flew over my head. However, what little I absorbed made a lasting impact on my walk. Periodically, I stumble upon these statements as I read foundational books with young Christian believers. Each time, I find a growing level of agreement with each of these statements.
Read MoreLearning to wait on God
We often view waiting on God as a form of suffering. We tell ourselves, “God isn’t answering my prayers.” But if God calls us to cultivate daily dependence upon him, then we would recognize that few things can bring us closer to God than waiting on him. I found the following quotes from Andrew Murray’s book, Waiting on God, particularly helpful in seeing the value of waiting upon God.
At our first entrance into the school of waiting upon God, the heart is mainly set on the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses our needs and desires for help to educate us for something higher than we were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give Himself and to satisfy the soul with His goodness.
Read MoreThe way up is down
Caption: Chris Froome (left), Geraint Thomas (right)
Most professional cyclists spend their entire careers sacrificing their ambitions while helping others attain theirs. The cycling world refers to these riders as domestiques, which means "servants" in French. They place themselves in service of their team leader. Domestiques' responsibilities include falling back to the team car to grab water bottles and food for their team leader, protecting their leader from the wind by allowing him to ride in their slipstream (saving him about 30% of his energy by drafting), and giving their bike or wheel to their team leader if he has a mechanical issue. Domestiques rarely win a professional race throughout their career. But something unusual happened in this year’s edition of the Tour de France, the world's most demanding endurance race.[1]
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