Tag: self-sufficiency

Working Harder is a Lie

- dannalundstrom

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Are you trying hard?  Maybe you are trying to be better, be happier, be a better parent, spouse or friend? Are you exhausting yourself working to figure it all out?  I often forget that I am inadequate and not in control!  I can get myself so spun up trying to figure circumstances out.

There is good news for people like me, and maybe you.  The notion that trying harder will get us where we want to be or bring clarity to problems is a lie from the enemy that we frequently feed ourselves.  Trying harder is based on our sufficiency and strength.  If I am the best I have, I am in trouble.

We were not created to figure life out. Jesus controls when or if we find out.  Working harder does not make you happier, a better person a better (fill in the blank).

The secret is not in striving but surrendering.

 

A Prayer for Replacing Panic With Prayer

- dannalundstrom 1 Comment

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Father when things do not go according to plan as they often do not, I am prone to a default reaction of panic rather than a posture of prayer.  Panic leads me to fear and worry sending me spiraling away from You.  The further I become from you, the more responsible I feel to make life work on my own.  In my busyness to “manage” life, I become so distracted with misguided priorities that I neglect my time with you.  As your word recounts in Luke, call me “out of the kitchen” as you did Martha.  Place within me the heart of Mary that desires to sit fully surrendered at your feet and bask in your presence.  Amen.

Prayer For the End of a Weary Week

- dannalundstrom 1 Comment

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Father, sometimes the end of a week meets me worn.  Your gentle Spirit woke me at 3:30 this morning as you sometimes do. Wide awake and atypically alert, I asked because I knew you had a message for me.  That message was; my battles belong to the Lord.  How easily in my flawed self-reliance I forget to release those battles from my modest hands into your masterful ones.  Remind me God that it is not my capabilities, but yours, that determine outcomes.  As the battles are yours, so are the victories and the seeming defeats.  Sometimes in my myopic vision I feel conquered.  Gift me with remembrance that I am never overcome when I allow you to battle on my behalf.  In all the strife I face, that my friends face, give us the grace to resist self-security and rest in Savior sufficiency.  Too often in my urgency to resolve I engage from a stance of me against Goliath.  I am more than ill-equipped God.  Give me an unshakeable confidence in you that enables me to lay down my weary weapons and surrender my battles to you.  Amen