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Laying Down Our Agenda

   Written by on April 10, 2014 at 3:28 pm

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. —1 Peter 5:6-9

Reprinted with permission from Our Journey, copyright 2014 by James MacDonald. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from Walk in the Word. James is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadow, IL and the Bible teacher of the Walk in the Word radio program.

Reprinted with permission from Our Journey, copyright 2014 by James MacDonald. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from Walk in the Word. James is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadow, IL and the Bible teacher of the Walk in the Word radio program.

Sometimes my wife will send me out to the garage where we keep a couple cases of pop, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, the only two kinds of pop I know of. I’m supposed to bring some of them into the fridge, so we have a few cold cans on hand. And so being the way I am, I want to do my chore in one trip, right? Are you like that? So I get my arms fully loaded with regular Pepsis on one side and the Diet Pepsis on the other and I head back inside the house. But I’ve got no plan on how to get the door open to the garage or the fridge. Well, guess what happens? Crash, crash, crash. The cans start falling on the ground.

Now think about that picture. Your life today may be very similar to my Pepsi predicament. You’re overloaded with stuff and important things are crashing all around you. But when you hear me say, “Man, you need to get God’s agenda in your life,” you’re thinking, ‘Oh, man, I don’t know if I can carry anything else. I’ve got so much going on in my life. I’ve got all these burdens. You’re gonna tell me to add God to all these other priorities?’”

I’m telling you, you can’t. Until you lay down all those things, you can’t really pick up and know the phenomenal joy of living for God’s agenda in this world. So what you’ve gotta do first is lay down your agenda, like it says in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burdens upon the Lord, and he will sustain you.” First Peter 5:7 confirms this, “Casting all your anxieties upon him, because he cares for you.” This may be a crisis for you, but it needs to happen. Give God access to and control over every part of your life-agenda. Even the parts you don’t see yet that He will show you along the way!

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