One of the reasons we turn to our drugs of choice is that life doesn’t turn out how we think it should. So here’s the $1,000,000 question, “How are you defining life?”
The reality is that we live in a fallen world. What part of fallen don’t we understand? Fallen means broken. Broken is the potential to be hurt or disappointed. On top of that is the fact that we have an adversary who constantly attacks our peace and joy.
Jesus came to bring us life. He didn’t mean that life would be without pain, crushed dreams or hurt feelings. He asked the Father not to take us out of the reality we live in, but to protect us from our enemy in the midst of it (Jn. 17:15). We are in relationship with The God who can and will use our challenges – self inflicted or otherwise – to draw us closer to Him, which is exactly where we should want to be.
Retrain your brain to view reality rightly. Jesus told us to watch for the coming challenges and pray for the faith to Exercise the truth when they come. Challenges should not surprise us, be expected; thus reducing our need for our drugs of choice.
Set Free No“W”ww

An NFL quarterback passes on an important lesson about mistakes. “It had been my mistake. Instead of kicking myself or replaying the interception (not a good thing!), I focused on the task at hand. One thing you learn quickly is that great quarterbacks must have short-term memories when it comes to things like this. Good or bad, you have to be able finish a play, push it aside, and move on to the next one. You can never let a play from the past affect the present. Your job is stay in the moment.”
Jesus has taken care of our past – it’s forgiven. Jesus has taken care of our future – we’ll be like Him. Our job is to stay focused on Him in the present. We’ll make mistakes on our journey to allow the Spirit to replace our sin-stained character with the purity of Jesus’. When this happens we can either waste time beating ourselves up, which means will continue to make mistakes (i.e. take our drugs of choice). Or, we can “fail forward,” which means to learn from our mistakes so we can get up and experience victory right now by Exercising the truth by faith.
Practice today having a very short-term memory. Let go of your mistakes by learning from them so you can stay in His presence and experience victory in the moment.
Set Free “N”owww

I received one of the best compliments I person could ever receive. “Chris, you’ve changed. Before you would have been ancy and frustrated. This time, however, you handled it much calmer.”
This comment came from my wife. The challenge was that my blog’s been down for a month. Since January 14, I was given the “wonderful” opportunity to practice what I’ve been preaching. God can change your life if you use the tools He’s given you.
Each day I couldn’t write I focused on the truths the Spirit gave me. God would fulfill His purpose for my life, not me. Jesus was in control of my future, I wasn’t. The Spirit knew what was behind the delay, I couldn’t. The Father is on the throne, I could never be. I could go on, but the challenge presented an opportunity to let the Spirit replace my “type A” behavior with Jesus. It feels so good!
What’s interesting is that I didn’t even know the change had taken place. In my case, those around me would have had to deal with the “old Chris’” reaction to the situation. It took someone else to see Jesus in me, which is what we want right?
The Word and Spirit of God work! I ask you to praise God for what He’s done in my life, which He can do in yours as well. If you’re currently going through a challenge stop and praise God for it. If you put the tools into the Spirit’s hand, Jesus will shine through you too.
Set Free Now“W”w

Because I missed the football games yesterday I was listening to sports radio as I was driving into work today. The general manager of one of the losing teams had this to say about their loss. “We are going to learn from this loss so we don’t repeat it next year. If we don’t break the game down and learn from it, we’ll end up repeating the same mistakes next year.”
This is a great illustration of the “failing forward” truth behind the Never give up yourself – Jesus’ won’t principle. Though we don’t want to, we will make mistakes until we see Jesus face to face. It will take time to retrain our brains to think through each situation biblically so we can hear Jesus and then do what He says. The question we must ask is, “We will learn from our failures or will we repeat them?” We can fail forward or fall back. The choice is ours.
Let’s choose to let the Holy Spirit draw us closer to Jesus by failing forward toward Him.
Set Free “N”owww

I was watching an episode of one of my favorite TV shows about an officer who, because of the voices in his head of those he couldn’t save, wanted to take his own life. It was his “be tough” advice in one particular incident that led a young boy to stand up to protect his sisters when the bad guys entered their home, rather than hiding along with them, that led to the boy’s death.
The officer kept this secret. When asked how he was doing, smiling he would give the standard line all cops (don’t we all?) give, “I’m good. I’m okay.” Yet this officer wasn’t okay. He couldn’t forgive himself even though it wasn’t his fault. He avoided dealing with the secret that was bouncing off the walls of his mind by staying busy at work and shutting out his wife.
One day he finally retires. With nothing to keep himself or his mind busy he could no longer push it down. The ugly thought came rushing to the surface. It was through the love of his fellow officers that he was kept from pulling the trigger.
The adage that “you’re only as sick as the secrets you keep” is true. Satan wants us to keep saying, “Fine” when we’re not. He wants us to keep thinking, “No one will understand. My problem is unique.” He wants us to keep pushing the destructive thoughts down. He wants us to keep handling our challenges on our own. They’re all lies!
Jesus came to bring life. He came to provide forgiveness. He came to put us into a family that can not only understand what we’re going through, but can also pray us through to wholeness. We’re not to walk this journey with Jesus by ourselves! Pick up and use your biblical tools, one of which is to Walk with other believers, in the power of the Spirit. It’s time to stop saying, “I’m fine” when we’re not. It’s time to find a Bible Impact partner and let the Spirit start drawing us closer to Jesus, where the peace is found, along side them.
Set Free Noww“W”