In such an ever-expanding and rapidly-paced world, we seem to find ourselves always adjusting and trying to maintain an identity that fits into the world we live in. With those identities comes the demand to perform and with that performance varying degrees of expectations coming from increasing numbers of people around us. 
We can be attempting to perform in the midst of a small group of people and yet have each person have different expectations. We can never measure up! Our security in our identities are always in question. We are constantly confronted with the fear of failure and acceptance. We can also struggle with the fear of being exposed when we fail at maintaining an identity that doesn't really belong to us.
Who or what determines your identity. Do your failures or triumphs? Does your parents, society, or culture, or maybe just you decide your own identity? For the Christian, they would biblically say that God determines their identity. But does your life reveal that reality? 
Let's take a walk through the gospel and see how we can walk in the freedom of the finished work of Jesus Christ and live out our new identities as children of God!

There are times in our lives that we find ourselves in a place we never thought we would be or even understand how we got there. Even the man the Scriptures call "the man after God's own heart" found himself in such a place. 
Sin is deceitful and the heart is full of wickedness who can understand it? But as new creations in Christ, we can allow our flesh to be the determining factor in our life's choices and our selfishness and self-righteousness can subtly draw us further and further away from where we need to be and from what God has prepared for us!
So what is the road back to recovery? The road back begins with a heart of humility and honest confession of the depravity of our sin. No blaming or watering down our responsibility for the choices we've made but agreeing with God the depth of our sins against Him. 
There is no working harder or doing more to balance the scales or our depravity but laying everything at the feet of the cross and calling on the grace and mercy of God's forgiveness and healing! 
Let's look at Psalms 51 to David's road to recovery!

How many times have we found ourselves approaching a task that we know we are not prepared to do. Maybe we didn't get enough sleep the night before or we're just not feeling very well. It could be that we know that we are unqualified for the task at hand! And yet we trudged through the muck and mire of it all and did the best we could.
But you and I are the workmanship of God and He has prepared beforehand all that He desires for us to do each and every day. And in 2 Timothy chapter 2, He has made it clear that we must become vessels of honor sanctified and useful for Him and all that He has prepared.
There can be no complacency, compromise, or half-hearted commitment when it comes to the calling of God. We must allow God through the Holy Spirit to do the needed work in our hearts if we are to be available and useful for the life He is calling us to. This work requires us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God as He performs the transforming work within us that we can be useful and prepared for the work in front of us. 
Following Jesus is not a walk through the park! It's costly and many times will cause great discomfort and loss as He accomplishes His work in us and through us. 
ARE YOU USEFUL TO THE MASTER?

The world is full of people who are seeking to improve, expand, and create a better life for themselves and the world they live in. In the process of their pursuits, many of their ideas and adventures fall flat on their face. They have done their due diligence in the process of gathering information and resources to bring about the best outcome but something they never expected arose and disrupted their best-laid plans. That's life!

We as followers of Jesus Christ can have the same desires of growing, improving, and expanding the Kingdom of God but never spend the time with the God who is sovereign and who has prepared everything beforehand to know how to walk in faith and bring glory to His name.

God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways but somehow we think we have a handle on things just the same. His word tells us that the things the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard and what has not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love Him, and we are just too impatient to wait on Him to do it through us. 

What works and what doesn't? God knows if we will just take the time to see and hear what He has to say in the moment. What works is what God has already prepared!

Frustration! There seems to be so many things in life today that we can become frustrated over; kids, job, marriage, neighbor, bills, car trouble, and of course this whole COVID thing! But what is the underlining thing that is at the foundation of our frustration? I believe it is a matter of our faith! It comes down to what we believe about who God is, what He is doing or not doing, and where He is taking us!
When our frustration raises its ugly head we immediately focus on the circumstances we are dealing with or maybe not dealing with but rarely look at our relationship with Jesus Christ and how our faith in Who He is maybe wavering.
After the sin in the garden corrupted that relationship and spread to all men, God's word says that He subjected us to futility in hopes that we would escape that corruption and step into the freedom of the glory of being a child of God! Our frustration is when we revert back into that corruption by allowing our flesh to rule our efforts and work instead of by faith walking by the Spirit into a life of peace. 
Without faith, it is impossible to please Him but without Him, it is impossible to walk in faith! Frustration is attempting to live by faith without Him!

Obedience is what every parent wants from their children. But from a very early age without anyone teaching them it seems the natural tendency is disobedience. Our sinful natures are so self-sufficient that we have a mind of our own when it comes to what we believe is best for us.
King Saul in our Scripture today feared what the people would think of him and compromised on what God had told him to do. God doesn't want our second-hand sacrifices over our loving obedience to what He has called us to do.
Faithful obedience comes out of a loving relationship! We are not obedient in order to be loved by God we are obedient because we are loved by God and love Him in return. Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments. 
When we come to know God's love for us that perfect love casts out fear and we will no longer be prone to making compromises in our obedience.
Do you know the love of God? Is that love being perfected? It will be seen in your sacrificial obedience to what He is calling you to do!

None of us are exempt from stumbling. But we should never become complacent or make excuses for our stumbling. God's word has much to say concerning what life looks like when we follow after Christ and how that life prevents us from stumbling. 
A heart of humility and one that hungers and thirsts for His righteousness will keep us walking in the light where we are promised to never stumble. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the light of the world and if we walk in the light of His presence we will never stumble in the darkness. 
We are told that if we hate our brother, then we no longer walk in the light but will stumble in the darkness. We can't say we love God then hate our brother.
Jesus told Peter that he was a stumbling block to Him for he had his mind set on earthly interest instead of God's interest. How many times have we been like Peter; a stumbling block to God because our hearts were set on our own interest and not God's?
How many times have we become stumbling blocks to our family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers because of our selfishness and self-righteous behavior?
Our everyday relationship with Jesus Christ must take precedence before anything else. God's word tells us that we need to make the most of every opportunity because the day is evil. There are enough stumbling blocks in the world today; we do not need to add our lives to that list. 

Our bodies were created in such a way that when we begin to become dehydrated we become thirsty and seek out water. Our bodies have the natural response to maintain a healthy vitality.  But we were not created just as a fleshly body with natural needs to live a full life, but God created us to be spiritually alive in order that we would have a growing vital relationship with Him. 
Through Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled back into a relationship with Him and He has placed His Holy Spirit within each one of us. We should have a spiritual response when our lives become spiritually dehydrated. As a matter of truth, Jesus promised us that if we believed in Him we would never have to thirst again. It didn't mean we would never have disappointments, conflict, or pain but in the midst of all that the world could throw our way we would never have to thirst again.
Many people attending churches today are like the woman at the well who although she had a great deal of personal baggage she was somewhat religious. She knew enough of religion to make her miserable. She was continually seeking to satisfy her longings outside of what Jesus came to give each of us who would believe in Him. 
Jesus is the living water! If He is our salvation we can joyously come to the streams of living water and satisfy every thirst we have. Is Jesus truly your salvation? Then His promise is for you; "you never have to thirst again."

Grace, the foundational pillar of our salvation! But how do we define it or better yet how does our definition of grace define us?
Each of us wrestles with our justification before God. We may say that we don't but by our actions, it is evident that we do. The Apostle Paul stated to the Galatians; you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you, what you started out in the spirit are you now trying to perfect in the flesh? Throughout the book of Romans, we see the conversation discussing the battle between works and grace, the flesh and the Spirit.
Why does God's word spend so much time with this topic? Because God knows that it is in our human nature to find acceptance through our own efforts. Sometimes we cross that line without even knowing we have crossed it.
Faith and grace cannot be separated from each other. So, when God's word says without faith it is impossible to please God, He is also saying without grace it is impossible to please Him. We are saved by grace through faith period!

I just want some peace! It seems the world we live in is in a perfect storm of unrestfulness. In every aspect of our lives, there is conflict, bitterness, turmoil, and fear around every corner.  People are crying out for peace. 
It seems when people desire peace that their definition of what that peace entails is all over the map. Most of what they want is for their circumstances to be free from turmoil. Their kids to behave, their spouse to agree with them and their employers to give them their own corner office with a view. 
But we see that Jesus doesn't promise us anything of the sort. He said that He did not come to bring peace upon the earth but a sword. The peace that He offers us comes through a relationship with Him in spite of our circumstances. 
We have "shalom" as we come into a relationship with Him through the cross. Because our sin separated us from God we can be reconciled through the blood that was shed on the cross paying the price for our sins and restoring us back into "shalom". 
This "shalom" that is ours through reconciliation is about God restoring His creation to what He created us for in the beginning. "Shalom" was a wholeness or completeness bringing peace, confidence, and security.  
When we rest in the abiding presence of God in our lives and show reverence and obedience to what He calls us to be, we will have peace. When we set our minds on the Spirit He has promised us life and peace.