Spiritual Growth

The Bondservant’s Choice: A Deeper Look at Commitment to Christ

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Many years ago, when it first became fashionable for men to get ear piercings, I was told it was an ungodly practice because, “In the Bible, only slaves got their ears pierced.” I don’t remember having had an opinion one way or the other at that point, but once the Bible had been brought into the conversation so definitely, I decided to check it out for myself. What I found was truly fascinating.

This person was correct about the piercing of the ear marking someone as a slave, but their surface level interpretation was lacking. In Exodus 21:2-6 we learn what it meant to become a permanent slave or bondservant. One who had worked his full six years as a slave would be set free in the seventh year. However, if this man loved his master and wanted to continue serving him permanently, he could choose to do so. When he did, he was taken before the judges to testify to his wish and then his ear was pierced as a permanent mark of his freewill choice.

So yes, his ear was pierced to mark him as a slave or bondservant, but it was by choice and a decision made out of love for someone he wanted to devote his life to. This all reminded me of New Testament authors referring to themselves as slaves or bondservants of Jesus Christ. Thinking back to the person’s statement, I had to laugh because, by their reasoning, every man who has genuinely committed to serve Jesus should be required to get his ear pierced.

No, I did not seek them out to correct their wrong assumption. It seemed pointless.

So fast forward to today, or recently when I began reading from Rick Renner’s new offering, the Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude. If you’re unfamiliar with Renner and this first step towards a complete Renner Interpretive Version of the New Testament, know that this man has a firm grasp not only on the Koine Greek, but on the cultural significance and application of the original language. Where I could technically look up the Greek word and its literal meaning, Rick Renner’s knowledge goes deeper, into how the original reader would have received the words.

So let’s look at the first part of James 1:1.
In the King James, it reads, “James, a servant of God…” But in the RIV we get…

I am James, first, foremost, and forever a completely committed, lifelong servant of God. As is the case with all such servants, this means my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me.

I only thought I understood what it meant to be a bondservant when I read Exodus 21 all those years ago. I mean, I did understand it in a sense. Everything James says here is included in what I had learned intellectually. I knew it was the servant’s choice. I knew it was a lifelong commitment. I also knew such a servant had one primary purpose in life, and that was to fulfill the will of his master. Seeing it expressed in such a new way, however, and from James, who didn’t believe his brother’s claims until after the Resurrection, hit me firmly in the heart. Can I say the same? Could I honestly speak the words James penned?

I’ve maintained for years that for a man to call himself a Christian while living a life that is not truly dedicated to Christ is a violation of the commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Looking at Christianity in light of the way this version presents this verse makes my conviction even stronger. Let’s break it down.

first, foremost, and forever

Is my commitment to God, to Jesus, the first thing I think about? Is it always foremost in my mind, and what inspires all my actions? Is it unconditionally forever? Absolutely yes to the last question; I’m in this for eternity! However, I must really examine myself when it comes to “first and foremost.” I say God is my #1 and He is, but I would be lying if I implied that my flesh doesn’t rise up on occasion, that self never demands to be first in line. Unfortunately, I’m not perfect and I battle self on an ongoing basis. When I lose the battle what do I do? Repent, and determine to do better next time.

a completely committed, lifelong servant of God

I am committed. I am completely committed to squash self and the flesh. I sometimes fail, but the commitment is there, and it is eternal. As we’ve already established, my heart is set to serve God throughout this life and forever.

Next he goes deeper. “As is the case with all such servants,” he says, “this means…”

my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will

Here we go. All bondservants choose in advance to dedicate their lives to doing the will of their master and only the will of their master. There is no picking and choosing. I can’t say, “God, that other thing you told me to do? I am all in on that, but please don’t expect me to do this!” Well, I can say it. In fact, I have said it during some of our honest and occasionally gut-wrenching conversations. It’s at times like this that I truly appreciate the fatherhood of God, because He has an ability to be loving and merciful while also being decisive and firm that earthly fathers could really learn from. Generally, He sets me right and, when I obey, I see joy in that obedience. When I don’t obey, that’s when He calls me to repentance and, occasionally, gives me an opportunity to make things right. (At other times, I have to face the natural consequences of my disobedience, but that’s a topic for another day.)

and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me

I really appreciate the way this is phrased, because it reiterates the fact that I made the decision in advance when I chose to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. As my Lord, He has the right to give me any assignment, to tell me to do anything. As one who has, of my own free will, accepted His lordship, I have the responsibility to do anything He ever asks of me at any point today or in the future. In thinking about this, I’m reminded of Abraham’s reaction when God told him to go to the mountain and offer Isaac up as a sacrifice. Talk about a stomach-churning command! But Abraham had already established his relationship with God and wasn’t about to disobey. God, of course, provided the substitute sacrifice once Abraham demonstrated his commitment – and this proved to be a foreshadowing of what would transpire later at Calvary. What would have happened if Abraham had refused?

So yes, I too am a servant of God, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. An imperfect servant? Oh yeah, but I strive to keep my heart right at all times and I look forward to an eternity of carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me.

What about you?

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

You may wish to read my review of the Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude.

Review: Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude 

True Humility: Casting Your Cares as an Act of Trust

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I love it when the Word of God catches me off guard, when a single word or phrase causes me to stop and ask, “Wait… What?”

Walk with me through 1 Peter 5:6-7 in the NET, which is the translation I’m reading from today.

And God will exalt you in due time

We see this promise and others like it many times in the Word. Psalm 91 offers another great reminder in verse 15 where God says, “I will rescue them and bring them honor.” We are grateful to know that we will see this happen in due time, but when is our due time? Well, the sentence isn’t finished yet. As is common with God’s promises, there are conditions. In this case…

if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand

Ah. There it is. That little word, “if,” followed by that big phrase, “humble yourselves.” Seriously, we humans have a hard time with humility, which isn’t surprising when you consider that the devil’s sin is pride. If he fell for it, so can we. And we do. I mean, have you ever caught yourself being proud of how humble you were and then abruptly realized, “Um… Well… Maybe I still have some work to do here”? I have. It’s been a while, but I have. 

To continue…

So far so good, right? It’s not news that God demands humility. If I were to start tossing out passages that address this specific issue you’d stop reading before I was done; there are that many. It was the next word that really caught my attention this time, the word that had me reading what follows very carefully. The word is “by.”

by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Yes, here we are at a verse fragment we’ve all heard repeatedly. “Listen, dear Christian, cast all your cares on him because he cares for you!”

But are we really paying attention to what Peter is saying here, or are we repeating a cliche that has become too familiar to affect us anymore? This verse isn’t merely about us turning all our cares over to God, which sounds easy when we all know it’s usually not. No, this is about much more.

Read 1 Peter 5:6-7 again, slowly.

And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.

We humble ourselves BY giving God all our cares, everything that has us concerned, tied up in knots, or scared half out of our minds. This isn’t merely a pleasant-sounding platitude: It’s a command, and if we want what Peter mentions at the beginning of verse 6 we’d best be on the mark by the end of verse 7.

We must humble ourselves under God’s hand. How do we do it? By giving all our cares over to Him and trusting Him to deal with them. This trust both requires humility and inspires humility. If we insist on hanging onto our cares, not surrendering them to Him, we deny His divinity, His omnipotence, and we demonstrate that we imagine we are more able to handle the things that matter to us than He is.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve been around here long at all you know I fight this battle myself. Sometimes I hand my concerns over to Him only to look down and find I’ve somehow drawn them back into my own hands without even realizing it. The key is that I humble myself all over again and throw them back to Him. Yes, I mean throw. That is what “casting” is. It’s sending something away from you with force. It’s crying out, “God, I really don’t want this even if it looks like I do. Please take it back again! I do trust you!” as I chuck it at him and put my figurative hands behind my back.

True trust requires humility, and we prove that we have humbled ourselves (He doesn’t do it for us.) when we entrust all our cares to Him and leave them there. And, when we cast all our cares on Him, we are inevitably humbled by His loving response and faithfulness. It’s a beautiful cycle.

It’s so beautiful that it’s hardly necessary to go back to the first part of verse 6, but of course we will.

And God will exalt you in due time…

Your due time is coming my brother, my sister. I don’t know how or when, but if you do as Peter says you can know God will respond. Just do it. Humble yourself under His hand by trusting Him to handle everything you care about, and your due time will eventually come.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Seeing Beyond the Now: Finding Strength in God’s Promise of Eternity

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

When a baby wants to be fed, he wants it NOW.

When a toddler races for a toy, obstacles that delay him frustrate him.

When a child is put in time out, a moment can feel like a month.

But children grow, and so does their concept of time. While “next year” seems impossibly far away, “tomorrow” eventually becomes acceptable, and then “next week,” “next month,” etc.

As adults, we can excitedly anticipate a vacation six months from now while understanding that we have things to do in the meantime. Depending on what those things are, we may walk through the days so busy that suddenly we look up to see that The Day has arrived. On the other hand, when life is in the process of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us, we may be back to feeling like the clock has slowed and every moment is a month. Either way, we know that a special day is approaching, and the promise of tomorrow’s vacation empowers us to take each day as it comes.

Second Corinthians 4:17-18 reminds us that this life, even if it’s a life filled with trials and heartache, is nothing compared to eternity. First Peter 1:6 assures us that those “momentary trials” are helping us become the people of faith we are called to be. The more we’re in the Word, meditating on verses like these, and the more we are in fellowship with Him, the greater we understand this truth. Like the growing child who develops an increasingly accurate time sense, so do we who are children of God, as we grow spiritually, develop an increasingly accurate eternal time sense. It is this that makes life bearable even during the bad days (weeks, months, years…).

I explained in my Surviving Narcissism series that this one revelation was what made the difference in my ability to stay with and care for my disabled, narcissistic husband. I realized one day that, when compared to the eternity in which I’ll live, my life here isn’t even ten minutes. While thinking about it like that, I decided I can do anything for ten minutes.

And that’s what I told God. It went something like, “I can do anything for ten minutes, so if You want me here with him until the day I die, I can do it. With You helping me, I can.” If you know my story, you are aware that I outlived him, but with a true revelation of eternity I was able to say those words and mean what I said. Bible teacher TeDese Ross expresses it beautifully:

Hope for the future gives us strength for the present.

So, if you’re living in a world where a moment seems like a month, where hope is hard to come by, I advise you to turn to God and ask Him to give you that same revelation, to help you fully grasp the fact that while your problems and trials seem endless, they – and this life – really are “but for a moment.”

One revelation can change everything!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

From Trials to Triumphs: My Year of “Soaring”

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New Year’s Eve found me pondering the word God had given me for 2024. Yes, I mean God literally told me that was my word; I don’t choose them myself.

The word was “soar,” and as we discussed it I confessed that I couldn’t see how it fit the year. Had I missed something? His answer was, basically, “Yes.”

The year began with a TIA that, praise God, caused no damage. An ER visit followed a few weeks later when acid reflux had me vomiting up the mucus that lined my stomach. Pretty much all of April and part of May were trashed by a severe reaction to gnat bites (gnats were at plague level at that point) that kept me in bed most of the time; I was going to work as I was able, but everything else hit the floor. These are just a few examples, but you get the picture: The word “soar” really didn’t seem to apply when looking at it from my perspective.

Then God showed me His perspective.

I’d entered 2024 having already made some lifestyle changes, but that TIA spurred me to make even more, to begin treating my body more like the temple of the Holy Ghose that Paul tells me it is in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Then, after the acid-reflux ER visit, I chose to stop using the medications I’d relied on for years and go the holistic route. The result, which I shared about in Acid Reflux Solutions: My Holistic Path to Recovery, is that my stomach is healing.

Then there is my weight, including a disturbing amount of belly fat, which has been an issue for some time. For years, I’d not been able to get under 176, which kept me in the obese category.  Last October it was 183, if I remember correctly. By February, my lifestyle changes had already caused it to drop to 180. Recently, for the first time in over ten years, I’ve broken that 176 barrier, and I’ve actually bumped 174 in recent days. It’s been a slow process resulting not from diets, but from steady lifestyle changes, and I’m feeling worlds better.

God explained to me that the weight loss and the improvement in my digestive system were examples of me soaring, rising above those trials I’d faced in the first part of the year. Even the month and a half I spent battling an allergic reaction so bad that it actually affected my ability to think clearly saw me rising above my agony. He then showed me all I’ve learned this year, including my most recent lesson on my trust in Him. (That one is in God’s Question that Stopped Me in My Tracks) He didn’t stop there, but I am. I’m sure you get the picture.

My point is that, when He gave me the word for last year, He knew exactly what was going to happen, and also knew how He was going to use what happened to help me grow, to help me soar.

Now I’m looking at 2025’s word, “perseverance,” and wondering just what He has in mind. Given the American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of the word…

Steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness.

I find myself wondering just what’s on the schedule.

We shall see!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Get Face to Face with God

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

There is no substitute for one-on-one time with God, for uninterrupted, undistracted, face-to-face time with God. Yes, praying without ceasing, talking with Him as you walk through your day, is vital, but there must also be times when you literally set aside all else, look Him in the face, and speak heart to heart.

Why? Because it’s easy to “miss” what He’s saying, and the importance of what He’s saying, while you are busy with other things. It’s easy to accidentally overlook or even forget His point because… “Squirrel!”

You know it’s true. How many times, in general conversation, have you been distracted at a critical point? And have you been known to occasionally ignore a question you didn’t want to answer, behaving as if you didn’t hear it? How many times have you accidentally-on-purpose misunderstood something someone was saying? Such things happen easily when you and your companion are out and about. But when it’s just the two of you?

Whether it’s you and another person, or you and God, when you pull aside, get alone, and carry on a private, face-to-face conversation with no distractions, everything changes.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Don’t Own It

Tammy M Cardwell1 Comment

At one point, I very much wanted a shirt that said, “Don’t own it!” and referenced 1 Peter 5:7.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1 Peter 5:7 KJV

Why did I want this shirt? Because I needed the reminder, of course!

I have had a tendency, in the past, to take on other people’s problems as if they were my own. Now, empathy is a good thing, a very good thing. Being consumed by others’ problems is not, and that’s what I would let happen.

So, sad to say, then I would flip. I put a wall around my heart so I could hear about other people’s issues yet stay totally separated from them. Needless to say, this was equally as bad. Yes, it “protected” me from being consumed by the other person’s pain, but it also meant I was pretty much useless to them spiritually.

Both ends of the spectrum are demonic, in case you haven’t realized this already. God is in the balance one finds in the middle. So yes, when a need comes to your attention take it, but don’t keep it. Don’t own it. If you take ownership, refusing to hand it over to God (who is the only One capable of handling everything), you don’t help them and you harm yourself. Cast all cares on Him; He can handle it and it’s what He wants.

It’s a simple concept, but oh did it take me a while to learn to walk it out.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Make God Your Refuge

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I apologize.
This has been sitting in my drafts since we were working on the site move.
I greatly regret the delay!

Although the red flags, which had begun waving before our marriage, started becoming more obvious when we moved in with his parents after six months of marriage, things didn’t blow up for me until he had his first affair (that I knew of) some years later. The experience crushed me.

And that, being crushed, drove me deep into God’s arms.

It’s sad that it so often takes truly horrific experiences to send us to the one place we most need to be! As a pretty typical American Christian, I thought I was doing well. I attended church regularly, served, tithed, read my Bible (some), prayed (fairly often)… All of that was good, and it was a start, but we were created for exactly what Adam had in the garden – an intimate relationship with God, one where we spend regular, quality time with Him as our sole focus.

I had young children, so I was able to keep myself distracted from what my husband was doing during the day, but once the boys went to bed and he was with the other woman, ignoring my repeated calls (which he’d explain away as bad cell signal the next day), it was just me and a waiting God.

I don’t remember how long it took me to wake up and turn completely to Him, but at some point I did. I changed my own actions, choosing to spend those endless hours in prayer, worship, and His Word.

Psalm 91 is fantastic, containing powerful instructions and promises that I and many others pray and declare regularly. It was in this season that I learned the reality of verses 1 and 2.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2 (NKJV)

In turning my focus entirely on God during those long nights, I opened a door to a whole new relationship with Him. In getting to know Him better and better, developing a truly intimate relationship and learning to more clearly hear and understand His voice, I came to that precious place.

In the midst of the worst days of my life to that point, I was living in God’s secret place, hidden under the shadow of His wings. I had run to Him as my refuge, found myself safe in the fortress that was my God, and I was confident that if everyone else failed me I would always be able to trust Him.

I kept prayer journals at the time and I clearly remember telling Him in both prayer and my prayer journal that I didn’t want to lose what I had found in Him, what we had developed in the middle of the fire I was walking through. I straight up said that, while I wanted out of the fire, I was afraid that I would lose my focus when I left, that I would lose that closeness that was so radically changing me.

In point of fact, I had a group of online friends who knew what was going on and were genuinely worried about me. I emailed them at one point, and shared what would later become a blog post entitled “The View from Inside the Furnace.” I had discovered I had much in common with Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego who, while they obviously hadn’t wanted to be thrown into the fire, abruptly found themselves having private time with Jesus.

Like me, they suddenly were in no hurry to leave. Like me, they probably learned things in that time that changed their lives forever. Like me, they were perfectly safe while in the very midst of the flames. They didn’t leave the furnace until they were commanded to.

Like them, I walked out of that particular fire changed forever, freer than I had been when I was thrown in, and not smelling of smoke.

Admittedly, in years since this hellish season, I’ve had times of being more intentional and less intentional where my relationship with God is concerned, but I have never let myself walk away from my Refuge. It has always been God who has brought me through, and to this day I am grateful that I was driven so deeply into His arms during that time.

Understand that I could just as easily have run in a different direction. I could have stayed buried in the books I loved to read. I could have turned to drink or drugs as so many do. I could have let the fear and pain eat away at me until I landed in a hospital’s psychiatric ward. I didn’t.

I didn’t because I chose
to make God my refuge.

God is not only the only refuge you need, He is the only real refuge. We can try to do it on our own, but we aren’t meant to carry those kinds of burdens. His plan has always been for us to run to Him.

Make God your Refuge.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

The following is a complete list of the articles in this series.

Surviving Narcissism: Introduction to the Series
The Power of Refusing to Care
Yes, It IS Abuse
Truth Matters: Be Honest with at Least One Person You Trust
You’re Not Protecting the Kids
Review: Hope for Healing from Domestic Abuse
Your Narcissist is Not Your Real Enemy
Make God Your Refuge

To My Younger Self

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I was at a meeting, recently, where four more mature ladies were each asked to speak for ten minutes on what they would tell their younger selves. Every one of them shared things I could benefit from, and I took mental notes. Some of their thoughts were so valuable that I found myself asking, “Tammy, what would you tell younger Tammy?”

Whether I was addressing 36, 26, or 16-year-old Tammy, my answer would be the same.

The most important thing you can do in life
is develop an intimate relationship with God.

My 16-year-old self would have accepted the advice, I hope, but she would have been puzzled. She had enough of a Christian background that she understood the value of having God in her life, or thought she did, but she did not have enough training to know exactly what that entailed. She’d not yet received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost and was only just learning that there were people around her who were actively seeking God on a personal level.

My 26-year old self had a four year old and a one year old. She was filled with the Holy Ghost, growing spiritually, active in church, and definitely seeking God, but she was also tired. Her marriage still appeared to be good (Yes, she was pretty naive), so she had that, but the responsibilities of raising two young men were beginning to dawn on her. She was looking to the future and wondering…a lot of things.

My 36-year old self was facing a marriage in serious trouble, the challenges of teen hormones, and the sure knowledge that God was her only answer. She knew He was the only One who could help her not only make it through days and nights of wondering what was up with her husband, but wondering if everything she was trying to invest in her children was enough.

I’ve written about this season of my life before. You can read pieces of my testimony in
A Different Kind of New Year’s Post,
At Last It All Makes Sense,
And all of my Surviving Narcissism posts.

By this point in my life, I was growing spiritually specifically because my personal battles kept me on my knees. With my husband spending many nights supposedly doing innocent things while I knew for a fact he was in another woman’s arms, I spent hours seeking God’s face. If you’ve read The View from Inside the Furnace, you have some idea what I’m talking about. This season was the one in which I learned what I would tell my younger self.

Younger Self, you will save yourself a lot of struggles and agony down the road if you will do one thing: Seek a personal, intimate relationship with God. I’m not talking about just praying when you need His help. I’m not talking about just going to church every Sunday, or even every time the doors are open. I’m not talking about just reading your Bible on occasion. Those are all great, but they’re not enough. Religion, in and of itself, is not enough.

I’m talking about relationship.

Sixteen-year-old Tammy, you really don’t understand relationships yet. You think the friends you have right now will be there forever. But the me of today, over forty years later, can tell you that exactly one of them is. And actually, she’s the one who will help lead you closer to God. Everyone else? You may talk to them on social media every once in a while, but they’re not the friends you knew back then. People will come and go throughout your life. You’ll lose your parents far too early. You will eventually get married and one day he’ll be gone. You will have children. As they grow they’ll move out and live their own lives. You will have grandchildren, who have their own lives to live too. In the end, only God remains.

God, if you let Him, will be your closest companion not only in this life but in Eternity as well. But…

Relationships don’t just happen. They require time spent in one another’s presence, conversation (which is both speaking and listening), and actively paying attention to what brings the other joy. If you want the intimate relationship with God that I’m urging you to develop starting right now, you need to begin actively reading, studying, devouring His Word, the Bible. As you do, you’ll get to know The Word, who is Jesus Christ. (No, you don’t understand that yet either, but you will.) You also need to set aside time, the more the better, to talk to Him and to listen to what He has to say. He really will talk to you, and it’s wonderful! You also need the Baptism in the Holy Ghost, which will empower you like nothing you’ve ever experienced. You can’t even begin to imagine the impact it will make on your life!

I promise you, if you do this, your life will turn out very different from the one I’ve lived. God has used the hard times in my life to make me the strong woman I am today, but if I’d prepared myself ahead of time, if I’d gone into those battles already a strong woman of God, things would have been very different. They can be for you.

Yes, that’s pretty much it, what I’d say to my younger self.
Sadly, I’m not sure she would have taken me seriously. She really thought she knew what she was doing.

Today? I’m…

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

When God Speaks

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I’m popping in quickly. I have to share.

I’ve been going through some papers and just now stumbled across this. I vaguely remember writing it down a very long time ago. It says…

This is what life should have been all along,
the relationship I desire to have with everyone.
You are no more special than anyone else.
You have merely developed the art of listening
and learned to trust your ability to hear.
–God to me

Apparently I was talking to God about how much I valued our relationship, and He let me know that what we have, and even more than what we had then (Since He draws me closer every day), is exactly what He wants to have with everyone. I mean, think about it. Why did He create Adam? I totally believe it was for fellowship. He longs for us to reach out to Him and accept Him not just as a supplier of our needs, but as the best Friend, best Father, best Brother, best Teacher we could ever have.

A friend texted me today asking for three tips for someone who wants to grow their relationship with God. Here’s my response.

  • Consistently and comprehensively study the Bible – all of it, not just what makes you comfortable.
  • Consistently and intentionally spend time in conversation with God – with listening being a priority.
  • Consistently be watching for ways to make Him happy.

If you think about it, this is essentially the same things you do to develop a strong relationship with anyone. Get to know everything you can about them, spend quality and quantity time with them, and strive to make them happy.

Anyone can have the relationship I have with God, one that is constantly growing as I grow. You just have to decide it’s important to you and do your part to make it happen. As He said to me, develop the art of listening and learn to trust your ability to hear.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Complacency Leads to Neglect

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At some point, I decided to start playing solitaire on my phone as a way to pass a few moments here and there and also to push my brain. It was hard, though, so I opted to start off easy, playing only one suit, and build up as I got better at it.

But I forgot my purpose. Once I mastered the single suit, I just kept playing at that level. I didn’t even work on increasing my speed or decreasing the number of moves I made. I just played the easy stuff to pass time.

I was complacent. No brain growth required.

Too often, we do the very same thing with our faith. We learn that faith is a necessity if we want to please God, so we “put our faith out there” for something. It may even be a legitimate stretch for us to trust God to shut down a headache or lead us to the best parking spot. But then we grow comfortable in that level of faith. We think we’re walking by faith because we always park up front and center, but forget that faith is like a muscle and must be stretched to grow.

Just like I got comfortable at the level I’d chosen for my solitaire games, and as a result I’d forgotten that a large part of playing the game in the first place was to push my brain, we get comfortable with our faith level and forget that a large part of using our faith is to push it, to stretch it, to make it grow, and to build its endurance.

“Endurance?” you ask? Yes, endurance. I heard a man point out, once, that one of the meanings of “little,” as in Jesus referring to people having “little faith,” is “short lived” or “not lasting.” In other words, sometimes we start out walking in faith just like Peter started out walking on the water, but then when our trials get more challenging and the wind blows stronger we are distracted and start to sink. That is a lack of endurance.

So, just like we should exercise to build our physical endurance, we should use our faith actively to build its endurance. Then, when it is challenged, it will keep holding us up.

I did start adding more suits to my solitaire games. I’m also determined to work more on my physical strength and endurance. My faith? Right. It will definitely not be neglected!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C