Life presents us with comforts and challenges, often leading us into complacency. I recall a time, not long ago, when I eagerly embraced new challenges and stepped out in faith. Now, I find myself tethered to my comfort zone, cocooned in familiar routines. It’s in these moments of stagnation that we must evaluate our growth trajectory.

The truth that I often need to be reminded of is that there are rules worth aligning myself with – God’s rule. It's only with His rule and reign in my life that I can grow and mature. This is true freedom: growing into what God has intended you to be for His glory and our good!

The Lord is slowly working in my heart to change my need to be recognized, rewarded and repaid, and replacing it with a desire to fellowship more deeply with Christ and experience gratitude in all circumstances. I pray you find encouragement today in the all encompassing lifelong journey of following Jesus.

God intends for us to be sharp and fit for use as well. In fact, God’s purpose for His people is to make us useful for His Kingdom, according to His own good will and pleasure. One of the primary ways that God accomplishes this is through personal discipleship.

When we disregard God’s commands and give into our sinful desires, it’s like staring into the headlights of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler and hoping not to crash. Whenever we allow our eyes to look upon the things that God clearly commands us not to look upon, this leads to patterns of unrighteous living, which eventually leads to death.

As soon as you commit your life to Christ, you are not alone. Immediately, you are mortared onto the strongest, most unbreakable structure that ever was, a building that will only grow taller throughout eternity. It's easy to get bogged down in personal conflicts, the state of the modern church, or pain we've experienced from Christians in the past. But through all of that, do not forget - if we belong to Christ, we belong to the His building, along with all the prophets and apostles of old! We are unbreakable.