The Plumbline

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith." (Henry Ward Beecher) When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. (Psalm 94:18-19 NIV) Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Anxiety doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength." Spurgeon was right - the more we focus on the 'what if' of tomorrow, the more our minds and emotions will spin out of control. That spinning will lead to more and more angst about our imagined issues until we find ourselves crying out to God because our 'footing' is swept out from under us. Our footing is to be none other than Jesus Christ himself. When we give into the worries of tomorrow and the frustrations of today, we are likely doing it because we have allowed our steps to lead us to any other footing than him! When we see issues through ou...

If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? (Romans 8:32 MSG) God put everything on the line for us - what are we putting on the line for him? The more we ponder that question, the more we might just realize we are holding out on God. We are giving him small portions of our time, energy and talent, but when it is all said and done, we are still holding back from total obedience to whatever it is he asks of us. Why? It is too hard? We don't want to let go? We think we know better than God? Whatever the reason for holding back, we need to come to a place of surrender and let go of our justification for any form of disobedience! God embraces us just as we are, but that doesn't mean we should go through life 'as we are'. There is a change of heart that leads to a change in actions IF there has been a genuine welc...