Tyler Sollie

A simple reminder…

Every now and then we need a reminder.  We tend to lose sight of things.  We forget.  We move on.  There is something that I am convinced that we need to be reminded of…and reminded often.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded…

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”

Hebrews 10:35, 39

Confidence is vital.  And WHERE you find your confidence and WHAT you find your confidence in makes all the difference.  The author of Hebrews reminds us to not allow your confident trust in the Lord to be thrown aside.

When our confidence gets shaken, it is hard to operate by faith.  When we are not operating by faith, it is impossible to please the Lord (Hebrews 11:6).

Here is the challenge that many face: our confidence is in us.  What we can do.  What we have done.  Our abilities.  Our strengths.  And when those get shaken - our confidence goes right out the window.

The solution is it inspect WHERE you are finding your confidence and WHAT you have your confidence in.  When we find our confidence in who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for us, there is no need to allow our confidence to be thrown aside.  When I put my confidence in someone who will never fail me, whose abilities go far beyond mine, who wants my victory even more than I do…I can be confident.

Today, be reminded of the Source of your confidence.

A new way of seeing

I’ve always loved those visual illusions where at one moment it looks like one thing, but after further investigation, it looks like something else. Maybe you have seen some.

The vase that is actually two faces.
The old lady that actually is a young woman.

When we change what we focus on in the pictures, our perspective of what we are seeing changes with it.

Perspective - what we choose to focus on in life - makes all the difference.

Consider what Habakkuk says:

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign LORD is my strength!
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
able to tread upon the heights.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 NLT)

Even though destruction was all around, he chose to see something else. His focus, his perspective, was on God’s faithfulness - not his circumstance.

For most of us our circumstance is what shapes our perspective…
How people are treating us
How our job is going
How my kids are acting
If I have gotten what I want
How I am feeling about my relationships
How my needs are being met (or not met)

Our circumstances in life have a powerful affect on us.

But they don’t have to be the only affect, or even the most important one. There is something far more powerful and far more important that should shape our perspective: God’s faithfulness.

Habakkuk’s perspective: I will rejoice in the Lord, not my circumstance.

Circumstances in life change - God’s faithfulness remains.

“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever…”

Choose a new way of seeing. Allow your perspective to be shaped by the faithfulness of God!

Not everything has an expiration date

I’ll admit it. I am a compulsive expiration date checker. On items that I find in the fridge, if it is close to passing the date of expiration I will pass. I think it all goes back to a specific time in my life where I watched my dad take a big chug out of a milk carton without checking the date. And you guessed it…the stuff (now simi-solid) in the carton was way beyond the point of expiration. Nasty!

We are used to things having a certain shelf life. Beyond that point we tend to write them off. It’s not just food items that we do this with. Many of us are guilty of looking in areas of our own lives or the lives of others and seeing them as if they have going beyond the point of expiration.

It’s useless.
It’s too far gone.
There is no hope.

Jesus encoundtered a man in a similar place of life. In John 5 we read about a man who had been in his paralyzed condition for 38 years. Jesus heart goes out to the man because He knows that his condition can change. He isn’t past the point of expiration. But when Jesus asks him a simple question, “Would you like to get well?”, the man’s response isn’t what you maybe would expect.

In his response to Jesus we see him begin to point out the challenges instead of seeing the possibilities. All he could see we’re the obstacles. It was like his focus was on an expiration date for his life that was past the point of no return.

He didn’t have anyone to pick him up.
No one to carry him to the pool.
Someone always beat him in.

The date of opportunity continued to pass him by. Jesus had a solution for this man. The solution went beyond the water of a pool. The solution went beyond the man’s excuses. The solution went beyond what the man thought might be possible. At the word of Jesus this man was healed.

All too often we see the expiration date. We see the challenges with how this can ever be useful in the condition that it is in. We have reasons to back up our thinking. The expiration date is clearly seen.

Jesus sees beyond all of that and helps to open our eyes to what can’t be seen. His ways, His thoughts and His abilities go far beyond ours. Instead of just seeing why something can’t change or even growing used to “this is just the way it is” mindsets in our lives, we need to learn to get our eyes off of the expiration date and back onto Jesus.

Welcome to the club

It was 4th grade and I couldn’t wait to be in it. All the cool kids seemed to be a part, and I couldn’t wait untill I got my shot. I just needed to pick an instrument. To this day I still am not quite sure how I landed on this decision, but I ended up picking the trombone. That was my ticket into the club…yep, I was now officially a part of my school band.

Thinking back, it made it a little awkward trying to play the trombone considering that I had a “lip bumper” on my front lower teeth. My orthodontist said that would help to straighten things out. It didn’t work as well as I had hoped. But still, it felt good to be in the club.

When we realize we are a part of the club it makes us feel less alone. It helps us to not feel like we are the only one on the outside looking in at everyone else.

The Bible is stocked full of people that God used, even in spite of the club they were in. Many people we see in scripture would be people who we might group in “the club of the disqualified”.

Some of these people are individuals who I would have written off. Too far gone. Not possible to turn around. No way they could ever come back from where they have been. Israel had an abundance of leaders who fell into that category.

And then it happens. From the club of the disqualified, or the least likely to ever change…God does it. There hearts are turned. They repent. They change. They belong to a new club.

I love how God’s grace has that effect on people.

In 2 Chronicles 33 we read about one of Israel’s most notorious leaders. This guy didn’t just do things wrong. He did wrong things really well! So good in fact that the bible says he was worse than the pagan nations that God had driven out before the people of Israel. His name was Manasseh.

As you read about his life you find yourself thinking, “there is no way this guys is EVER going to turn around…” And then it happens. God does the unlikely.

But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the LORD his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed, the LORD listened to him and was moved by his request. So the LORD brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that the LORD alone is God!
(2 Chronicles 33:12, 13 NLT)

God allows the most distant to have a change of heart. The guy who was doing everything wrong, now has an opportunity to join the club of others who had made messes of their lives, and begins to build a new chapter. It wasn’t for just a few people in the bible that this opportunity was made available to.

So you have made some mistakes in life…welcome to the club.
You feel like things are too far gone…welcome to the club.
All you see is failure and you ask yourself, “Is there hope for me?” “Could God ever use someone like me?”…welcome to the club.

Perfection isn’t a requirement to get in. It comes through a changed heart…and that has been made available to all of us through what Jesus has already done. Change can come. There is still room in the club for you.

Hide and Seek

We recently moved into a new house in a new city. We are loving the new opportunities that God has brought to our family. One of the things we love to do every now and then is play a game of Hide and Seek. I would say we love it just because our kids are young…but in truth, I still love it! I love surprising my kids when they find me. I love hearing them from a distance, trying to hide, but not being as stealth as maybe they should be.

I think I have figured out why…they like to be found! As much as they like the adventure of going and hiding, they REALLY like to be found by everyone else.
I’ve grown to find that God is the same for us as His children. He wants to be found by us.

Listen to what God says In Isaiah 65:1:

The LORD says,
“I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’
to a nation that did not call on my name.

God’s desire was (and IS) to be found by His people. If that is the case why do we sometimes fail to find Him in life?

Some of the common road blocks that we face might be a lack of desire, a lack of knowledge, distractions or even just being consumed with other things…even when those things are “good things”.

Everyday you and I have an opportunity to meet God in a fresh way. He is waiting and wanting to be found!