Hey hey hey! It’s Friday! I hope you had a great week and that you have been motivated and encouraged to dance, stand, and run! Reading these last two chapters, I felt spurred to action. Not in a convicted way, but in a cheered on and encouraged way. I hope you do too!
Alright, here are our final discussions questions for “Dance, Stand, Run”:
Chapter 9: One Foot in Front of the Other
*Do you regularly put on the Armor of God as listed in Ephesians 6? Would you feel more prepared for mission if you daily dressed yourself in the armor?
*What has been your vision for ministry? What misconceptions might you have regarding what ministry should look like?
*“I’ve found that for me, doing battle in the day-to-day is mostly fighting what I feel for what I know” (pg. 239). Do have this same struggle? What would you place in these blank spaces: “I feel ______________, but I know ______________” ?
Chapter 10: Let’s Go
*What do you see as your mission field right now? Is it freeing to know that there is not some “other” mission field that you must chase after?
*In closing out this book, Jess gives the invitation to dance, stand, and run describing each as she pictures it. Do you feel encouraged and spurred on by these pictures?
*These moves – dance, stand, and run – are what Jess calls the choreography of the abundant life. Is this different than what you believed to be an abundant life? How would you have described the abundant life prior to reading this book? How would you describe it now?
Scripture of the Week
Matthew 5:14-16
Hebrews 12:1
Prayer for the Week
Father God, thank You for the abundant life. Help us to make the moves we learned about this month. We praise You for being with us every step of the way and for the plan of salvation and commission that You brought about. It was all Your idea and we are so thankful we get to partner with You in it. We love You and praise You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
For Next Month
*Check out THIS POST for all the info for July!
Chapter Nine made me think a lot about last month’s book on spiritual warfare. Jess’ comment that “As much as I believe that a life of mission is one of abundance, I know firsthand that a life of mission is also one of challenge, heartache, and frustration.” really stuck with me. It reminded me how some women shared (with the spiritual warfare authors) that they don’t want to be in spiritual battle.
Most of us, I believe, don’t think often enough about the Armor of God because deep down we 1) don’t think it makes a difference and/or 2) don’t want to be in battle – we want God to do all the fighting for us.
Let’s look at the first part. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, why would He need our help? This may not be the answer we’re looking for, or even like, but He doesn’t. He is sufficient completely in and of Himself. While this should give us reassurance that we serve a God who does in fact have it all together and relief that not only is it not up to us, but also that we’re really not in control, a lot of the time this information works against us so that we become lazy or indifferent. This results in us taking a backseat in many things, including our own lives. We think, “If God’s got it, why do we need to do anything?”
Before I continue, there are many verses stating God fights for us, such as the following:
Exodus 14:14 –
The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
2 Chronicles 20:17 –
You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.
Deuteronomy 20:4 –
For the LORD your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.
Deuteronomy 3:22 –
You shall not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you.
(https://www.aziza.com.ng/read/2020/09/bible-verses-on-god-fighting-our-battles-let-god-fight-my-battles/amp/)
These verses let us know God is for us, show us how His strength is different than ours (in that it is perfect and all-powerful), and perhaps most importantly, that we can trust in and rely on Him in everything.
Let’s tackle the second part regarding not wanting to be in battle. I get it. Who wants to fight or exert effort, energy, and time for things that maybe so much of the time seem unchangeable or not worth it?
One of the amazing things about God is that He desires relationship – that is why He created us. Part of the way He engages in relationship with us is by inviting us to share in His mission. He doesn’t have to, and that’s why it’s so beautiful. “It’s not that God needs them to get stuff done, but it’s their absolute joy to have been invited into His kingdom ministry and they are running with all they’ve got.” (Page 261)
What’s almost more amazing is that He made plans for us to participate long before we ever existed! “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
The thing about plans is that they are layouts or outlines and can only be executed by the person they’re given to. Stay with me on this. God wants us to live out His mission for us, desires that we would carry out and put into action His plans for us…but He lets us decide. Yes, He knows what we’re going to do and not do – but the focus isn’t that since He already knows, what’s the reason He even gives us an option?! The point, my friends, is that He GIVES us the choice at all!! That is how loving He is: He has a plan of action for each one of us. Each. One. Of. Us. And yet, He doesn’t force it upon us. 😊Furthermore, He goes with us and helps us do what He planned for us.
Circling back to the Armor of God – this is one of the ways He helps us. Similar to His plans for us, the armor is made available to us, but it’s on us to use it. I feel the need to say not following through with His plans and not taking up His armor isn’t a salvation thing – it’s not that if you don’t do His plans or use the armor, you lose or fall out of salvation. As believers in Christ, we are new creatures because Christ’s righteousness has been assigned to us through Him dying on the cross for our sin. We can’t lose our salvation once we believe. We can however, turn down opportunities God wants us to participate in (for the benefit of others, ourselves, and ultimately His kingdom), and as a result, as Jess mentions, “miss out on what could have been.” (Page 257)
So the question becomes, “Do we really want to play it safe and sit on the sidelines?” It’s a humbling fact that there will be battles whether we choose to fight or not. Some are outside of us, but often, the battles are within us. And these internal fights – speaking for myself at least – are mostly unnecessary.
Too much of the time, I go looking for a fight that’s not even there. However, these battles are real nonetheless. And this is all the more reason for us to take God at His Word (through Jesus and Scripture), lean into Him, and allow Him to show us the abundant life we can actually have – dancing, standing, and running – all for Him!