Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Kyle Idleman from his book, Don't Give Up (p. 109). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) The whole thought by Kyle is, “Fix your eyes on Jesus, because Jesus is better; he is superior to everything and everyone else.” Yes, yes, I do believe that.   He really is! Kyle goes on, “The words translated as ‘better’ and ‘superior’ show up fifteen times in the book of Hebrews (that is a book in the NT of the Bible). The original readers would have mostly been first-generation Jewish Christians. They were facing persecution for their faith, and culturally they were being ridiculed and opposed. So, the message that ‘Jesus is better’ was a message given to encourage them not to go back, not to give up. “If you read through Hebrews, you can make a list of everything that Jesus is better than. Jesus is better than the law. Jesus is better than traditions. Jesus is better than the pro

A thought by Kyle Idleman from his book, Don't Give Up (p. 101). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Wow, that’s a good thing to think about, isn’t it? Kyle says, “Have you ever tried to pray about your anxiety, then, a few minutes in, you feel the anxiety increase? You think to yourself, This isn’t working . “That’s because in our prayers we often tell God about our anxieties but never get around to telling our anxieties about God. When our prayers are filled with thanksgiving, we are telling our anxieties what we have to be thankful for. Anxiety has a way of blinding us to God’s blessings, but thanksgiving opens our eyes. It’s a proactive way of attacking anxieties. “When our prayers are filled with supplication, meaning that we make our requests known to God, we are telling our anxieties that God is on our side and can carry the weight.” Kyle goes on, “David models this for us in his

A thought by Kyle Idleman from his book, Don't Give Up (p. 91). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Anxiety has the potential to cause us to give up and what ifs can be a major cause of our anxiety can't they? “Kyle says, “ What if there’s another terrorist attack? What if there’s a shooting at my child’s school? What if the economy collapses? What if I never find someone to spend my life with? What if I can’t get pregnant? What if I do get pregnant? What if our marriage doesn’t make it? What if I don’t get accepted?” Kyle goes on, “Sören Kierkegaard wrote a small book called The Concept of Anxiety . There’s one line in there that always pops up in psychology and philosophy classroom discussions: ‘Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.’ “For the record, he’s not talking about the kind of freedom we mean when we talk about our freedom in Christ—freedom from guilt and sin doesn’t ma