walk by faith – Page 3 – goodchristianfiction

Who Carries Your Burdens?

Posted on January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

I’ll warn you up front that my title is a trick question. The obvious thing for me to write about when it comes to burden carrying is the way Christ will carry our burdens for us, if we’ll just ask Him. So, I’m not going to talk about the obvious. Let’s get real about burdens and how most of us unenlightened creatures cope with the day-to-day ones.

It’s more likely that we go down on our knees and offer up to God the things that knock us off our feet–death, major illness, total disasters–but what do you do with the burdens that you face every day, the burdens that we carry like a backpack every moment, from making sure food is on the table to helping out a neighbor in need?

We’re being honest here, so we have to honestly say what happens with the things we carry. Some of us swallow our burdens, trying to do everything on our list without asking for or even knowing when we actually need help. We fail often, and we subconsciously hate ourselves for failing. But we continue to stuff our backpacks to overflowing with our to-do lists and “shoulds” and guilt burdens.

Or maybe you’re of the variety who likes to share your burdens, not in a healthy, “we’re all in this together” kind of way, but in a defeatist or entitled posture that posits that you are either incapable of managing your own life or else the world at large somehow owes you homage. Your backpack is heavy with the manipulations and self-delusions that enable you to put yourself above others by getting them to do things for you that you really are capable of doing for yourself.

Because you are human and must work at living a life that bears fruit, you are bound to stumble. So, your burdens include all the emotions that go with being human–anger, lust, jealousy, judgment–all roiling around in your backpack like a pot perilously close to boiling over. Whenever your backpack becomes too heavy, if you aren’t doing your Spirit work, you’ll unzip your closure just enough to expel some of those roiling emotions, weighing down the backs of those closest to you with your excess. Or perhaps you’ll just dump it on an unsuspecting stranger.

Christ said that His yoke was light because when you grasp the concept that every morning is new with Him, you throw off the weight of legalism and look straight into your heart. Taking on the burden of the fruit of the Spirit means a lighter backpack. Love, joy, peace, faithfulness–these qualities are much lighter than the pain and crazy that we carry when we don’t let Jesus’ hand hold up our burdens.

So, how do we lighten the loads that we carry? Through prayer. Through knowing what the Bible says. Through observing our daily existence. When we feel the things we carry weighing us down, we have to practice taking them to the One who can truly carry them for us. Only through communication with Christ and His word do we really realize the fruitful existence we can enjoy with fellow believers.

No matter the things you carry, you can lighten the load starting today. Instead of barking at your spouse or kids, pray for patience. And if you must scream, scream at Jesus. He has the broad shoulders to carry your doubt and worry and fear. If you doubt it, read your Psalms for examples of other believers that brought everything to God, and were better for it.

Don’t Let Time Get Away From You

Posted on January 4, 2013January 4, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Have you heard the phrase, “self-fulfilling prophecy?” When I was a child, my dad explained it to me with an example. Once, in junior high school, he was transferring a science project that involved him carrying a liquid-filled jar up a set of stairs. A tiny voice in the back of his mind kept saying, “You’re going to end up spilling this.” Well, sure enough, he wound up tripping on a stair and sending the jar flying.

I’ve always approached the self-fulfilling prophecy from the negative, so to speak, stopping myself from dwelling on bad things that might happen as much as I can to keep from actually subconsciously making those bad things happen. Sheepishly, I admit that I am just now getting around to the empowering idea of thinking about positive things so that I might be able to take advantage of the self-fulfilling prophecy rather than being hurt by it.

I’m not talking about the kind of positive thinking that some people use to try to become rich or be famous. I’m talking about creating self-talk that is in alignment with God’s will for a Christian life. I’m talking about taking advantage of two of the most powerful words on the planet: I AM.

The first powerful use of I AM occurred by the Almighty Himself, when He introduced Himself to Abraham as I AM. In those two words, He declared His omnipotence and purpose. As children of God, we should pay particular attention to our use of these two words ourselves.

For example, if we go around saying to ourselves, “I am tired; I am depressed; I am unhappy with my marriage; I am unworthy,” how can we hope to be anything except exactly what we have declared ourselves to be? When we say something about ourselves enough to ourselves, we really start to believe it. Then, we start to say it to other people. Finally, those people start to believe this about us as well.

On the other hand, what if we started self-talk that is what we hope to be, even if we don’t feel it in the moment? For Christians trying to live the life God intends for us, phrases like: “I am open; I am love; I am kind; I am happy; I am thankful; I am peaceful” make powerful mantras.

Using self-fulfilling prophecy to our advantage also involves really being observant, but not judgmental, of ourselves. I realized this as I thought about my New Year’s resolutions this year. At first, I resolved to tell myself “I am strong,” as often as possible, especially when I was feeling most weak or sad or depressed.

Then, I had a sort of revelation one morning as I was doing my Bible study. On a recent trip, my husband had asked me, “Why do you say OK when I tell you to let me carry something (like the luggage), but then you just keep carrying it yourself?” He’s right. I do do that sort of thing all the time. Why? I think it is because I need to be in control or something. So, do I really need to be telling myself, “I am strong,” when trying to be the strong one all the time keeps me from letting others lift the load every once in a while? No wonder I am always tired!

If I don’t let my husband help with the luggage, can you imagine how I fail to let God help me with the day-to-day challenges I face? When I realized how often I fail to lean on God for the tiny things (He’s too busy for the little stuff, right?), I realized that my mantra for 2013 should be something like, “I am leaning on Jesus,” instead of “I am strong.”

Do you realize how strong I will really be when I master leaning on the One who can handle everything, even the tiny stuff?

So, what’s your self-fulfilling prophecy for 2013? Remember to observe your life, not judge it. Remember to pray about your conclusions. Remember the power of I AM.

Christian Living, Faith

What Drives You?

Posted on September 30, 2012September 30, 2012 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Breathing in faith and breathing out fear.

I heard this phrase on a reality show many years ago, as one of the people on the show was repeating this mantra to himself to help him face a difficult situation, and it really struck a chord, in part because at the time I had just begun doing yoga practice, where the ability to concentrate on one’s breathing is considered fundamental for improving the flow of “energy” in one’s body. Better energy flow equals better health.

I practice yoga in a center that comes from Asian roots, so I have to re-write some of the philosophies to match my Christian foundation. Hence, when my instructors talk about feeling the energy from around me flow through me, I know that energy is actually the Holy Spirit, whom Christ promised to us as our support system until He comes again.

I haven’t been doing as well lately with my mind/body connection or my ability to overcome my own anxieties, so it was particularly helpful this Sunday morning to be reminded that acting on faith versus acting on fear can make a powerful difference in a person’s life. It’s even more powerful than breathing in and breathing out.

What difference does it make when you let fear drive you versus letting faith guide your life? First, let me define what I mean by fear. Fear is facing the world as if you are all alone in it, as if you are in control of everything that happens to you, as if you can somehow make bad things stay away or good things happen if you just do something enough.

There is a good kind of fear, and that is the fear of God, which I’ve always thought to be best understood as a deep kind of respect that comprehends as much as it is humanly possible to comprehend the awesome power and reach of our Maker.

This latter kind of fear can actually lead us to greater faith, the kind of faith that can guide us through life’s tough times and even “easy” moments. Fearing God enough to be guided by faith is what happened to Rahab of Jericho. You can read about her story in the book of Joshua.

Rahab was raised in a community that didn’t worship the God of the Jews, but they knew enough about what the Jews had done in the name of that God to fear Him. When Rahab encountered two Jewish spies in her town, she chose to act on the faith she had in their God’s power by protecting the men in exchange for the protection of herself and her family when the Jews ultimately defeated Jericho.

Rahab was rewarded for acting on faith instead of fear by becoming not only a part of the Israelite community from that moment on, but also becoming a part of that history for all time. Rahab shows up again in the genealogy of our Savior, which means she also was an ancestor to such greats as Ruth and David and Solomon. In the book of Hebrews, Rahab is mentioned again for her action of faith.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Hebrews 11:1 tells us. It takes practice to grow faith. It takes prayer and fellowship and doing things that make us afraid. But the more we take the scary steps, like Rahab did in hiding the Jewish spies, the more we will grow in faith, the more we will find ourselves being guided by our faith in our daily lives.

Want to know one of my steps of faith this week? I tried to write a post yesterday evening, but then I felt that God would give me something better to write if I would just wait until today. If you’d like to hear the sermon that helped me come up with this post, visit the Grace Crossing website.

Christian Living, Faith

God Is Our Hiding Place

Posted on September 14, 2012September 14, 2012 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Actions speak louder than words.

And sometimes, when actions speak so loudly, it’s hard to find words to say anyway.

But there is one place where all the words we will ever need have already been recorded for us, and in times such as these, turning to those words is the most powerful thing we can do.

Do you have your go-to verses? The words that have spoken to you so strongly through your years of faith that they pop into your head whenever you face troubling times?

We all should have them. The fact that we don’t always reflect on them before we act is the reason why grace is our only means of salvation. The fact that I have them but still let anxiety get the best of me is something I’m still working on.

I think we all should write a book with the title “Verses I Am Glad I Have Read.” Better still, I think we all should memorize the verses that would go in our book by that title. My time would be better spent on such a task than many of the mindless things I do during a day. And when actions speak louder than words, then those verses could be louder still.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27 KJV).

Christianity, Faith, Love

Giving thanks through thankful giving

Posted on November 26, 2011November 28, 2011 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

What seems like just a simple play on words could actually be a fundamental shift in one’s life. Giving thanks can be done without much effort. Some of us have said the same prayer over a meal so many times that it has become more of a mantra than a communication with God. There are also daily situations in which we say “thanks” with as much thought as we give to the standard “hello,” or “how are you doing”–not expecting or even listening to the responses we actually get, which are usually equally perfunctory or non-existent.
But just making the attempt to really mean what we say when we give thanks just doesn’t seem like enough in a world where so many bad things happen. If we have the guts to turn on the news, we are bombarded by images of war or protests or economic hardship. The tent cities that most of us have only read about in textbook sections on the Depression have sprung up in our own backyards, haunting reminders of what we too might become but for the grace of God.
If we give of ourselves thankfully, as God intended, we give with intention and love, not to rid ourselves of guilt over having too much, but because we truly care about others and are happy that we have been put in a position where we can be of help.
“No good deed goes unpunished” gives thankful giving a bad name. Even if I suffer a bit because I choose to help, I will never truly suffer if I approach all that I do with the thankfulness of my ability to give that I should have.
As a recovering over-achiever, I find just now that writing about this concept helps me realize that when I think that I am failing just because I haven’t made myself a “big wig” in the present world, driven by capitalism, I should instead be thankful for the opportunities I have had to use the talents God has given me to share and hopefully help others, even if those others count only in a handful, not a multitude. Remember the parable where the shepherd leaves the safe flock to save the one lost sheep? When I am not thankful for what I am able to give–forget about what I achieve from the “real world’s” point of view–I do a disservice to myself and, more importantly, to the gifts that God has given me to share with others, not hoard. I thank Him most when I give away what I have been given, not just bow my head and say “thanks.”
I hope my actions during this holiday season can be those of thankful giving, especially when I am tempted to become too tired or too busy to think about others. And I hope I can give the gift to myself of being thankful for what I am able to do each day instead of getting discouraged or bored with what is required or needed from me.