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IBS 12 - Luke 21:19

Luke 21:19
“Stand firm, and you will win life.”

How often do I forget to stand firm in Christ? I’m one of those people who thinks they can control everything. Clearly, I can’t. I’ll start off running with Christ next to me. Then I jump off the cliff and I’m flying. I have Him leading me and showing me how to fly. For some reason, I always think, “Let me try this by myself!” I start flying ahead of Christ; when that happens, I start to fall and eventually crash and end up broken. I then realize I messed up. I need Christ to be in control. I apologize and He puts me back together and we start again. It becomes a cycle. I tell myself I can go alone, I can control everything, but God reminds me daily that I can’t do this life thing alone, I need Him. I’m tired of crashing. I have to stand firm in Him. 
I used to take my friends to church with me every time I went. I would take them to church because they didn’t go to church. I wanted them to know God and his love for us. I wasn’t standing firm at that time though. They would ask me questions and make fun of me, and I never knew how to answer them and would start making fun of the “Christian” thing myself. I was embarrassed and thought that joining them would make me seem more “normal” to them. I tried so hard to have them accept me and if that meant not taking my faith seriously, then I would do it. I wanted to be in control, and I thought that was me being in control. I started flying by myself. 
Thankfully, my family moved, but it made me really mad at God. I wasn’t in control anymore. I had crashed and felt so broken. It took a long time for me to realize that I couldn’t be in control and that I couldn’t stand firm alone. I needed Christ. I can’t do anything without Him; I am nothing without Him. I must stand firm with Christ. Putting everything I have towards Him. 
Now that I know that, I never want to take my eyes off of Christ. Crashing hurts, and I want to stop experiencing that. I’ve started running again, Christ by my side. And I’ll jump off the cliff soon and fly; this time keeping my eyes and faith on Him. 


Application: Every time I start to take my eyes off of Christ and try to stand on my own I’ll put a tally mark on my arm. At the end of the day I’ll talk to Vanessa and show her the tally marks. I’ll explain to her why for every mark and then we’ll pray. 

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