So I know this really cool guy...

God is really cool. Like, seriously. And He really doesn't get a lot of credit for it.

You know what I think sometimes we forget? We forget that God isn't like us. Ha. That's a wonderful thing.

What I mean by that is, God isn't as fickle as people are. He's not going to abandon us for others. He doesn't play favorites. He won't love us one day and ignore us the next. He's never going to pull the rug out from under us or throw us under the bus, if you will.

You probably already knew all those things. I did too. But sometimes that doesn't really play out in our lives. My question: if we know that God is all these amazing things, why don't we trust Him more?

Okay. If you're anything like me, at this point, in the back of your mind, you're like, "Psh. I trust Him. Maybe other people have trouble with that..but not me."

I get that, because that's what I would normally say. But we have to wrap our minds around the fact that every time we worry, we're not trusting God. And I mean every time.

George Whitefield once wrote, "I fear upon examination, we should find that most of you have not so much faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am persuaded that the devil believes more of the Bible than we do. He believes the divinity of Jesus Christ...nay, he believes and trembles, and that is more than thousands among us do."

Does that stand out to you as much as it does to me? The devil trembles. And he doesn't even like Jesus. Jesus isn't even on Satan's side. So how much more should we tremble when we think of His power, and even better...His providence?

The truth is, God wants to (and does) take care of us a lot more than we let Him, or expect Him to. In every circumstance, He will provide. A lot of times, we say that God is interested in the small things just as much as the big things...but we don't realize how small. Seriously. He cares about every single, tiny detail in our lives, and if we just trust Him with it, He'll take care of everything. Trust me, when you're worrying about something, it's a lot easier to give it to Him than worrying about it yourself.

In the end, God does a lot more than we give Him credit for. But you know what's great? He loves doing it. He truly loves taking care of His kids. And that makes Him pretty cool.

Secret Agents pt. 2

So...secret agents. I wrote a post on it a few weeks ago (keep scrolling down to read it), but God put it on my heart again today, with a slightly different perspective.

Jeremiah 9:3 says, "Lies, not truth, have grown strong in the land. They go from one evil thing to another. 'They do not know who I am', says the Lord." Uh, was this written in 2011? Because this definitely sounds like our culture today. I am no exception to this verse. I was reading it today and realized that this definitely can (and sometimes does) apply to me. But again, I ask...is that "secret agent behavior"? Am I just blending into the world, not making any effort to be different?

The truth is, the world has a lot of dirt and grime and slime in it. And whenever we sin, we're just adding to that. Obviously, I know who God is. You know who God is. But if we act like we don't...well, what's the point of knowing who He is, then?

Lukewarm Christianity is rampant today. As in, today, July 8th, 2011. And it was yesterday. And it has been for a long time. But that's really, really not how it's supposed to be. Colossians 3:16 tells us to "let the message of Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives." God isn't just supposed to be a piece of our lives. He and His message are supposed to fill our lives, every area. Completely. This isn't about being cool, or looking good. Honestly, sometimes it does make you look cooler to act like you don't care, or to go along with what the world is doing. But that's not what it's about.

God doesn't call us to look good or be cool. If anything, He calls us to be weird, and look different. At least, to the world's eyes. To His eyes, though, we are pleasing, and beautiful, when we follow Him.

Seriously, I'm tired of being an undercover agent. I don't want to keep pretending I don't know who Jesus is. I'm turning in my badge. Will you join me?