When Strivings Cease

Levi Lusko had some timely words of wisdom in Part 1 and 2 of this podcast (HERE).  He 's written a new book called Blessed are the Spiraling that I'm excited to read/hear soon.

Levi's podcast highlights for me:

• "We need not be alarmed, because Christianity always goes from death to resurrection... God is going to continue to do a new thing, but the new thing often comes on the heels of death."
  
  
• "God almost always knows that even though we want to be coddled, that's not what we need.  What we need is to be challenged.  We need to be told: Hey, come on, there's more in store.  And even though it doesn't feel like exactly the pampering of our soul that we need, it's exactly what is required to get. us. moving."
  
  
• "The moment we sit around focusing only on us, we're operating against the User Manual for what will make us thrive, which is Glory to God and love to others!!  And while we're doing that, we're going to come to life... but not when we're trying to make ourselves the end and the goal and the summation of all our effort."
  
  
• "Hey girl, you are already made in the image of God.  If I could've freeze-frame that moment, I would say, Eve, honey, you can't be more like God than you are right now!  But the enemy's thing is always to get us to audition for a part that is already ours... Jesus was living out of the hidden wholeness - 'My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'"
  
  
• "The Holy Spirit lives in you - the King of kings is inside of you.  You are a vessel containing the ultimate royal figure.  So what do you need to strive for?  ...I can relax into that wholeness.  It's the line from that song: When strivings cease."
  
  
• "We have to be very very very careful that we're not basing our puzzle pieces (the life we are building and piecing together) on a wrong picture... Culture offers us a thousand images and interpretations... My picture has to be the joy of knowing Jesus, the pleasure of being in God's presence... what it's going to feel like to stand before Him!"
  
  
• "New seasons require new strategies!  Your home, your life, your attention - which is finite, is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  And you have to rearrange the furniture in response to the peace God is trying to cause to rest upon you."
  
  
• "Comfort, which we all crave, puts us into cruise control.  Trials have a way of splashing cold water on our face and waking us up from our silly refusal to depend on God for His power!"

I recommend listening to the whole conversation, but that's what stood out to me.  Naturally, I have many thoughts on all of the above and how it applies in my life.  But I'll let the quotes speak for themselves here and let you form your own thoughts in response.

Thanks for being here on this day of five blog posts. =)

I love you and believe in you, and Jesus does too!

❤ ❤ ❤