Keeping Calm and Carrying On..

I mentioned in last week's blog that I've had a difficult time being here the last couple of weeks because of my SOMD workload and how much I miss my precious family.  I touched a little bit on my family, but I didn't talk too much about my SOMD workload.  In the last two weeks I've been super stressed out with the different things I've needed to get done.  And in the midst of it all, God's really been teaching me to ask for His strength, as opposed to relying on my strength to get things done.  


I was able to teach on identity yesterday morning at church, and I talked a little bit about the fall of man.  We all know the story.  It's in Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve are convinced that they should eat some fruit off the forbidden tree (which we all know was the worst idea ever).  And once they've eaten the fruit, they suddenly know all of this evil that they were never intended to know.  They were no longer innocent to the ways of the enemy.  And all of a sudden man became self-reliant as opposed to God-reliant.  Well, sharing this in church yesterday got me thinking... 


What would happen if we were to act as though the fall of man never took place?  As if we couldn't do anything on our own; we had no other choice but to rely on God.  What if there was no other option, like God meant for it to be?


We wouldn't worry about the amount of things we needed to get done in the day, because we wouldn't know how to worry.  We wouldn't be nervous about whether or not we did well giving a sermon, because we wouldn't know that doing bad was even an option.  We wouldn't compare ourselves to other people, because we wouldn't know what it meant to compare.  I could go on and on, but you get the picture.  It's the perfect world, just as God meant for it to be.


Thinking about this really has me wondering what would happen if, to some extent, I began to act as if the fall never happened.  As though I'm not capable of doing anything on my own.  That I HAVE to rely on God for all of the stresses and hardships I encounter.  Just the way God intended.  Because let's be honest, we all can do things on our own for a season; but at some point it's going to overtake us.  It's going to leave us without any energy or strength to carry on.  And the only way we're going to get back up and carry on is by the strength of God.


So I've decided to take these thoughts on as a challenge, because I've experienced the difference between relying on my strength and relying on God's strength.  And the latter is definitely more life-giving, more encouraging, and wiser than the former.  I'm going to try this out to see if it makes any difference in the way I think about or act upon the various things God's placed in my life.  To really see how well I rely on God's strength as opposed to my own.  


I'll test this and try to remember to let you know how it goes, but feel free to give it a go yourself.  Love you guys and hope you enjoyed your weekend. :)

"Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always."

- 1 Chronicles 16:11 (NIV)