My Right to Give Up

In Tom Harmon's Morning Prayer (http://tdharmon.com/morningprayer) there is a list of rights to yield to God daily. One that always sticks out to me is the right to give up. This is something I face every day. My track record isn't always pretty and most of the time I just don't feel like being responsible with my life. But I have been called to live life to the fullest; that's what Christianity is. And I have relinquished my right to give up on that goal.
Do I achieve that goal every day? Nope. Have I ever achieved that for a single day? I'm going to have to ditto my previous answer. But the One who called me to be perfect is also the One who enables the changes needed in my life to become like Him. So I look toward the goal, take a better grip, and rededicate myself to conquering my failures through the strength of God and being conquered by the power of the Almighty.

What do I fear?

Throughout scripture God tells people hundreds of times not to be afraid. Fear that is not based on an understanding of the nature of God is wrong. One of the things I want to start doing is uncovering my fears and bringing them face to face with truth. Fear binds, but truth will set you free. A major fear I see in my life is a fear of commitment. It is based in a fear of the unknown. If I commit to something what do I have to give up? Will my life be as comfortable? What if I fail?

Through this blog I want to start chronicling my commitments. I'm going to start small and go from there. I'm not going to take on too much at once. I want to build personal discipline in me life from the foundation up. Some of the things I've been thinking about for short term commitments are physical things like goals for running, jiu-jitsu, working out, hiking, getting up at a certain time, and so forth. Other things are more mental or spiritual disciplines like prayer times, Bible study and memorization, educating my self on history, nutrition, human physiology, or whatever. 

So, that's my vision. Now for diving in head first. 

Conquering Fear Part II

I want to live life conquering fear and conquered by fear. There are two kinds of fear. The first kind is irrational fear. It is not based in reality. This is the kind of fear Paul talks about in 1 Timothy. God has not given us a spirit of fear (irrational timidity). The second kind is a fear based in reality. It is completely rational and completely relevant to everyday life. It is the fear of God.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. This isn't irrational terror but rather a true understanding of the nature of God. When we understand the holiness of God and the true implications of our sin we begin to have this kind of fear. This is the fear that drives us towards God. When we feel terror about anything but the wrath of God we are allowing a fear in our lives that is not based in reality, and it drives us away from God. I think often these different kinds of fear can feel the same. But they lead to totally different places. Fear of the world leads to bondage and misery. Fear of God leads to strength, freedom, and joy.
So this blog is about conquering the fear that is not based on reality and being conquered (controlled, in submission to) by the reality of an awesome God.

Conquering Fear Part I

Why Conquering Fear? What does that mean? Well, it has a double meaning. The obvious meaning is that this is a blog about me conquering my fears. No duh. The other meaning is kinda the flip of that. This is a blog about being conquered by fear. Yup. I totally just said that. Well, I gotta run so I'll explain later. Not that anybody is going to see this in the meantime.