Long ago I told a friend that if he ever heard me saying my values were one thing but then observed me doing another, he should kick my butt and do it publicly. I’m glad I don’t know him anymore.
Usually you think people are phony or a hypocrite when they act like they’re something they’re not.
But it can be the same thing if you say you believe something but don’t act like it.
I say I believe God always loves me, and that he is always good and always in control. But I don’t always act like I believe it.
Believing is not something that happens to you. It’s something you do.
For the last eight weeks I’ve asserted my belief that I can have confidence and peace that somehow, some way, everything fits, even when it doesn’t. The natural result of this should be that I trust and cooperate with God in the fitting.
There is an easy way to know if I’m not trusting and cooperating: I worry.
It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us.
Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The cares of this world.
The great word of Jesus to his disciples is abandon.
– Oswald Chambers
I worry more than I want to admit. The other day I asked my wife what she would change about me. She said I get down on myself way too much. The reason I get down on myself is I don’t trust God.
But, when I DO trust God, I grow in peace in the middle of confusion, waiting, regret, and hopelessness. I accept–and even embrace!–myself and circumstances. And I see self-pity as sin.
It’s not enough to just agree with the idea that everything fits.
3 things to hang on to because everything fits
1. Believe it. All of it. Yes, you can decide to believe something. In 1949, right before his ministry exploded, Billy Graham decided to believe the whole Bible was true. When you get married, you decide to love this person and you decide to not love others. And you can decide to believe that God is always loving, always just, and always in control, no matter how it looks.
2. Act like you believe it. That means people see what you believe. Even if you have doubts and don’t feel like it’s safe, you can still make yourself get on the airplane. When I feel down and discouraged, I can make myself smile and sing and act positive, and soon that’s how I feel. That’s not hypocritical–NOT acting like what I say I believe is hypocritical.
3. Be gentle with yourself and others. Because everything fits, it’s not up to you to hold everything together. Seasons of doubt and faults and failures are part of everything fits–it’s a miracle! You have holes. You leak. So does everybody else. You do your best, but sometimes your best means all you can do is trust in God’s best.
What is one thing that might change for you if you really believed everything fits even when it doesn’t?
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