Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard

Nothing is more dangerous, more compelling, more freeing, more radical, more real, more satisfying, more powerful than a person holding a smidgen of faith. A sincere faith in Jesus and all He wants to do around us wakes us up, rattles our lives, shifts every perspective, issues hope in pain, and ignites purpose.

Our confidence comes from believing God can do anything , then stepping back and letting Him.

Striving is stealing our joy, our moments.

If I were your enemy, this is what I would do: Make you believe you need permission to lead. Make you believe you are helpless. Make you believe you are insignificant. Make you believe that God wants your decorum and behavior.

Healing and wholeness are found only when we step into the rushing stream of forgiveness, of intimacy, of connection.

We were made for wonder, but we've settled for entertainment.

Vision and rest and work and joy and Jesus and difficulty are meant to coexist. But too often, caught up in our own cycle of striving and numbing, we lose sight of the beauty and grand story unfolding.

It is so refreshingly backwards to admit our weakness, rather than defend and cover it.

When you have nothing to protect and nothing to prove

What if we stopped doing things for God and started doing them with God?

My thought life was just completely consumed with food and what to eat or not eat and when to work out. My brain hovered there as if it were stuck on a TV channel, with no remote and no way to turn it off or switch to a different program. It had never occurred to me that this was sin that needed to be confessed and that God has given me the power to "take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)" I remember the day those words leaped off the pages of my thick dark-green study Bible, soon after I learned I was pregnant for the first time. I reread and reread them. In shock as I realized that my thoughts were mine to control. It was the first time I got on my knees and confessed my addiction to my image and my worship of control. I asked God to help me take my thoughts captive. The concept thrilled me. Maybe it was possible to escape this prison of self-hate and control

When we have a clear, wild vision, • we truly need each other and find relationships, • we feel a part of something bigger than ourselves and find acceptance, and • we recognize our need for God like never before, and we find His love in ways we never have before.