God Isn’t Finished

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by Max Lucado

 

In the famous lace shops of Brussels, Belgium, certain rooms are dedicated to the spinning of the finest lace, with the most delicate of patterns. These rooms are completely dark, except for a shaft of natural light from a solitary window. Only one spinner sits in the room. The light falls on the pattern while the worker remains in the dark.

Has God permitted a time of darkness in your world? You look, but you cannot see him. You see only the fabric of circumstances woven and interlaced. You might question the purpose behind this thread or that. But be assured, God has a pattern. He has a plan. The Bible says, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). He is not finished. But when he is, the lace will be beautiful.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

His Higher Purpose

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by Max Lucado

 

No moment, event, or detail falls outside of God’s supervision. God is the one who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45 NIV). He isn’t making up this plan as he goes along. Daniel 5:21 (NKJV) says, “The most high God rules the kingdom of men, and sets over it whom he will.”

So if God is in charge, why does he permit challenges to come our way? Wouldn’t an almighty God prevent them? Not if they serve his higher purpose. The ultimate example is the death of Christ on the cross. Everyone thought the life of Jesus was over. Jesus was dead and buried, but God raised Him from the dead. God took the crucifixion of Friday and turned it into the celebration of Sunday. Can he not do a similar reversal for you?

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Rejoice Always

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by Max Lucado

 

Paul urges us to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). Not just on paydays, good days, or birthdays, but rejoice in the Lord always.

Rejoice in the Lord always? “Yeah, right,” mumbles the person from the hospital bed. “How?” sighs the unemployed dad. “Always?” questions the mother of the baby born with a disability. It’s one thing to rejoice in the Lord when life is good, but when the odds are against you? It’s not easy, but it is possible.

Lay claim to the promise of God in Colossians 1:7. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Rejoice in the sovereignty of God. His thrown is still occupied, his will is still perfect. Rejoice in the Lord always. God uses everything to accomplish his will.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Trust God’s Sturdy Grip

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by Max Lucado

 

In one of Henri Nouwen’s books, he tells about the lesson of trust he learned from a great trapeze artist. The acrobat said, “The flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. I have simply to reach out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron.” The flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.

In the great trapeze act of salvation, God is the catcher, and we are the flyers. We trust. Period. We rely solely upon God’s ability to catch us. As we do trust him, a wonderful thing happens—we fly!

Your Father has never dropped anyone. He will not drop you. His grip is sturdy and his hands are open. Place yourself entirely in his care. As you do, you will find it is possible—yes, possible—to be anxious for nothing.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Look Forward

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by Max Lucado

 

There’s a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror: your future matters more than your past. God’s grace is greater than your sin. You thought the problem was your calendar, your marriage, your job. In reality, it’s this unresolved guilt. Don’t indulge it. Don’t drown in the bilge of your own condemnation. What you did was not good, but your God is good, and he will forgive you. He is ready to write a new chapter in your life.

Say with Paul, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us” (Phil 3:13-14 TLB). Your salvation has nothing to do with your work and everything to do with the finished work of Christ on the cross. Rejoice in the Lord’s mercy.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Jesus Takes Away Our Sins

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by Max Lucado

 

Denalyn and I had enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant. As we received our bill, a church member spotted us and came over.  After we chatted a few moments, he took our bill.  “I’ll take this,” he said. Guess what?  I let him do what he wanted to do.  I let him take it away.

Someday we will stand before God.  All of us will be present. All of us will have to give an account for our lives. Every thought, every deed, every action.  Were it not for the grace of Christ, I would find this to be a very terrifying thought.

Yet, according to Scripture, Jesus came to “take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29 Phillips). On that day, I will point to Christ.  When my list of sins is produced, I will gesture toward him and say, “He took it.” Let him take yours.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Grace Set Me Free

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by Max Lucado

 

I can bear witness to the power of God’s grace! I could take you to the church, to the section of seats in the church. I might even be able to find the very seat in which I was sitting when this grace found me.

I was a twenty-year-old college sophomore, living with a concrete block of guilt that had made a mess of my life. But then I heard a preacher describe the divine grace that is greater than sin.  At the end of the message he asked if anyone would like to come forward and receive this grace.  Iron chains couldn’t have held me back.  Truth be told, chains had held me back.  But mercy snapped the guilt chains and set me free.

I know this truth firsthand:  Guilt frenzies the soul; grace calms it! The benefit of being a great sinner is dependence upon a great grace!

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Problem of Unresolved Guilt

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by Max Lucado

 

What kind of person does unresolved guilt create? An anxious one, forever hiding, running, denying, pretending. As one man admitted: “I was always living a lie for fear someone might see me for who I really was and think less of me.  I hid behind my super spirituality but this lie was exhausting and anxiety producing.”

Unresolved guilt will turn you into a miserable, weary, angry, fretful mess.  In a psalm David wrote after his affair with Bathsheba, the king said, “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.  My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4 NLT).

As Paul told Titus, “God’s grace is the fertile soul out of which courage sprouts!  God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone!” (Titus 2:11, 15 MSG).

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

Grace Restores Your Soul

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by Max Lucado

 

Guilt sucks the life out of our souls. Grace restores it.

No one had more reason to feel the burden of guilt than did the apostle Paul. He had orchestrated the deaths of Christians, an ancient version of a terrorist. Yet, Paul gave his guilt to Jesus. Period. He surrendered it to Jesus. As a result he could write, “I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us” (Philippians 3:13-14 TLB).

What would the apostle say to the guilt-ridden? Simply this: Rejoice in the Lord’s mercy. Trust in his ability to forgive. Cast yourself upon the grace of Christ and Christ alone!

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

 

What Sustains Your Belief

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by Max Lucado

 

Many years ago I spent a week visiting the interior of Brazil with a longtime missionary pilot. Wilbur and Orville had a sturdier aircraft! I could not get comfortable. I kept thinking the plane was going to crash in the jungle, and I’d be gobbled up by piranhas. I kept shifting around, looking down, and gripping my seat—as if that would help. Finally, the pilot had enough of my squirming. He looked over at me and shouted over the airplane noise, “We won’t face anything that I can’t handle. You might as well trust me to fly the plane.”

Is God saying the same to you? Examine the truths which sustain your belief in God. Make sure one of them is etched with the words, “My God is sovereign!” Then, be anxious for nothing.

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World