Hey, Kristen here.

Welcome back to Faithfield woman.

Today is going to be a really short episode.

I want to share with you an idea one of my podcast guests shared and it will be dropping on Wednesday, so make sure to go and check out that whole episode.

The statement that my guest posed Dr.

Geary is this.

We've got to stop living for the Lord.

So let's break down what he meant.

Okay, so he said every Christian should stop living for the Lord.

Why did he say that?

Well, what he meant was, is we need to.

Or he said many Christians are so busy performing Living for the Lord that they're not in peace in their own lives and in their own hearts.

And so what he said is many of many Christians are frustrated Christians because they're trying, they're striving and they're performing for the Lord.

But that isn't what we're called to do and that isn't how we're going to have the fruit of the Spirit within us.

Right?

There's so many of them.

But love and peace and joy, meekness, those sort of things.

What he says is instead of living for the Lord, striving and performing for the Lord, we want to be spirit led Christians.

We want to let the Lord live through us.

How good is that?

And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense because we can never do enough to live up to God.

But we do not have to because we are created in his image.

And he says, God the Father, the Son and the God, the Holy Spirit, we're a triunity, a body, soul and spirit.

And see, if we're a child of God, we're spiritually complete because of God, because of the Holy Spirit, we don't have spiritual problems.

The challenge though, is that we have a soul and our soul has emotions and feelings and a will.

And what will end up happening, he says, is that if we're not spirit led, instead we're trying to do it in our own abilities.

Well, what will happen is we will always be in this constant conflict.

He says, when what we know and how we feel are in conflict, our will, our ability to respond to life is damaged.

In other words, if we have feelings that are in conflict or opposition to each other.

Like, I know God loves me, but I don't feel like God loves me.

Or I know I'm a good wife or a good husband or a good daughter, but I don't feel like I'm a good wife or husband or daughter.

Or maybe it's I want, I know I'm a good person, but I don't feel like a very good person, right?

So when we have this conflict, what it does is it just stirs up feelings of insecurity, of anxiety, of guilt, of unworthiness, you know, fill in the blank bitterness that we aren't enough.

But when we are partnered with God, when we allow God into our heart, right, we are enough because he's enough, right?

He fills us and makes us spiritually complete.

And so that's the point is in of our own ability, we will never live up right to Christ's example and how he lived because he was sinless and we will never be sinless.

But when we are spirit led Christians and we let the Lord live through us, when we let the Lord come forth through our lives, when we let him put the fruit of the Spirit into our lives and we allow the love and the peace and the joy and the other fruit of the spirit come into our lives, we don't have to strive, we don't have to perform.

We are already loved completely.

We are already spiritually complete.

Oh my gosh, that's just so good.

And what a beautiful way to think about, you know, how we're showing up as Christians in the world as we wrap up holiday season, as we wrap up the Christ of Jesus, the birth of Jesus and as we start off the new year, you know, let's start fresh, let's think about how are we going to show up in our lives.

And I don't know about you, but if I can put down, if I'm doing, if I'm performing or striving right, to try to be a Christian, if you will, that's an air quotes versus actually being a Christian because I'm allowing the spirit of Christ to live in and through me.

I'm listening to the whispers, I'm taking action in what he tells me.

And also I think the whole point of what Dr.

Gary's talking about is that we will believe what God says about us instead of what our feelings and our thoughts are telling us about ourselves, or even the devil is telling us about ourselves.

In other words, God is here to encourage us.

He's here to lift us up.

You know, if he has something to tell us and it wants us to change our hearts, it's not going to be in a critical way, but Satan will do that.

And this idea, I was listening to a podcast months ago by Pastor Carolyn Hawes of Substance Church and she said God's instructions are always clear.

And she said conviction comes from God.

Laser like specific, you know information leads to resolutions, leads to life.

Condemnation is of the devil.

It's not enough.

It's hazy.

This is where we're deceived.

When we feel this way, we tend to run from God instead of to him.

But he said God wants, she says God wants us to get out and be in joy.

And she said, it's the devil that's whispering subtle doubts.

He tells us lies.

And so we just need to be clear that if it's from God, it's going to be clear.

We're going to feel it, we're going to have instructions and there's going to be conviction.

But he wants everything we do and everything he tells us, even if it's that we need to change our hearts or change something in our lives.

He wants it all to be for our good.

He wants it to lead to life, right?

Everlasting life into.

In life, in the fruit of the Spirit.

It's the devil that will make us feel guilty, anxious, insecure, unworthy.

So we need to be careful where those thoughts are coming from and that we're allowing those to live in our head.

And so I think one of my, and not that I always have resolutions, but a resolution I think would be great for next year is let's stop performing and let's start living from a place of letting God lead us through the Holy Spirit.

Ah, so good.

All right.

I hope this little tidbit was inspiring to you.

And like I said, check out Wednesday's episode.

It's, I don't know, 45 minutes to an hour of a conversation with Dr.

Gary Lawrence.

He wrote the book Rejection Junkies and he ran a.

I forget what it's called, but it's a.

It was a counseling ministry for decades with his wife.

And so he has so much wisdom and biblical knowledge to share.

I can't wait to share it with you.

So check that out Wednesday.

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