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Recalibrating Your Walk with God
January 1, 2025 · 35 min
Do you sense that something is off in your spiritual walk with Jesus? Learn how to reflect & recalibrate your relationship with God & why that begins with reprioritizing your personal time with Him.
Series Life Lessons with Chip January 1, 2025 · 35 min · Life Lessons with Chip
Do you sense that something is off in your spiritual walk with Jesus? Learn how to reflect & recalibrate your relationship with God & why that begins with reprioritizing your personal time with Him. ...more Show the full description Show less Do you sense that something is off in your spiritual walk with Jesus? Learn how to reflect & recalibrate your relationship with God & why that begins with reprioritizing your personal time with Him.
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618K followers
Chip Ingram is an American Christian pastor, author, and teacher. He is the founder, teaching pastor and CEO of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry.
618K followers
0:01 Every so often, I get this uneasy feeling in my spirit. I'm working hard, I'm busy, I'm doing good stuff, but something's off, and I can't quite put my finger onRecalibrating Your Walk with God 0:13 it. But I've learned to stop, reflect, assess, and then recalibrate. Today I want to be very personal and help you recalibrate your walk with0:25 God. I think this is really gonna help. Stay with me.0:30 Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. In this program, we're pushing pause0:42 on Chip's 10 practices great Christians have in common teaching to highlight a new timely message from our series, life lessons with Chip. As he teased, every once in a while, we need to hit the reset0:54 button physically, emotionally, and especially spiritually. And that's exactly what Chip is ready to help us do today. So settle in as we join Chip with his talk recalibrating your time with God.1:07 1 of the things that I love to do about my job is, we have staff meetings. We meet as a staff every day and pray, but on Wednesday, we have a staff meeting, and once, sometimes, twice a month, or even now and1:19 then, I'll get to do a little series. But what I love most is to just think about our team and what's going on in their life, and especially, you know, when big things are happening in the world, and I1:31 know they're feeling pressure like I'm feeling pressure. And then if you combine that with, you know, as a ministry, as an organization, you hit some speed bumps, and things are a little rocky, or maybe key people leave,1:42 or there's financial pressure, or there's like, oh, great opportunity, and everyone's working with their hair on fire. You know, I meet with the Lord in the morning, and I listen, and, you know, Lord, I don't know what1:54 you'd wanna say to our team, but I'm listening. And I'll kind of close my eyes, and God speaks to me. And, you know, I'll bring my bible, and, you know, we're all on Zoom all over the country2:06 and all that stuff. And I'll say, hey, I'm just noodling. This isn't like an official message. Okay? I don't have a great outline. It's not like, here's the 3 points. Now, here comes the illustration. Here's the 4 things2:17 you need to do. It's more of let's sit down and have a cup of coffee together. Let's kinda talk about what we're thinking and feeling, and where do we need God to show up in our2:29 lives? How do we need to think about this? And what I realized is there is a passage in scripture that has caused me to recalibrate. I remember an early crisis. You know, I had only been a Christian maybe2:41 maybe 3 years, and it just felt like the world was falling apart. And I went out to a little coffee shop, and I thought, God, I don't know if I can keep doing this. And I had so many balls in the air and was praying2:53 whether I should bury Teresa, and there was these issues and those issues, and my last year of college, and just graduate school, all kind of crazy things. And I remember reading Psalm 1 0 3.3:05 And if you're not familiar, he first talks to himself and he says, bless the Lord or praise the Lord, oh my soul, and all my innermost being praise his holy name. And all I want you to get out of it is3:17 he's talking to himself. In other words, this is me, and I'm gonna talk to my soul. My soul isn't doing well, or it's confused, or it's hurting, or it's struggling, or and he's talking to his own soul. And3:29 then in verse 2, he says, bless the Lord or praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not any of his benefits. And then he lists some benefits that I'll read in just a minute. And then he moves from that to talking about3:41 God's ways, and then he shifts to getting this renewed picture of this is the character of God. He goes to his theology. So he becomes aware of what's going on in his own heart and in his3:53 world, then he starts reflecting on where he's been and things he's learned and how God has shown up in the past, and then he takes this theology and starts focusing. So, you know, I was there and4:05 I've I've been in Psalm 103. I don't wanna exaggerate, but, you know, I've been a Christian a little over 50 years. I'm gonna say maybe 50, a hundred times when I felt this. I gotta4:17 recalibrate. I just, you know, there's changes here and changes there, and I need to get centered. I need the Holy Spirit and you, Lord Jesus, to get me aligned. And so I said to our staff,4:29 you know, okay. Big things are happening in the world. And, we're we're going through some times. I wanna meet with you for you. And so I actually wrote, this staff meeting is about your4:41 individual life. It's about your journey, your family, your walk with God, your struggles and your insecurities, your fears and your anxieties, your hopes and dreams. And we4:53 all consciously and unconsciously are living in a way that deals with some of these things in really positive ways, and we're all actually doing some of these things in very negative and unproductive5:05 ways. And, I I think about, you know, surviving, but I really think about how do you thrive in the Christian life. And 1 of the things I realized is you constantly have to sort of review,5:17 renew, recalibrate. I like that word. And, it was during this time, I wrote this in my journal. I'm a verbal processor. And, I wrote this in my5:29 journal, and I shared this with our staff. It's a season for renewal and fresh vision for me, for teaching and training and leaning into this new season with the amazing doors God has opened and is opening. I need to5:40 really stop, get deeply refreshed in body, soul, and spirit, and in unity with my wife for this next season. I don't wanna just crank out contact or do what I'm supposed to5:52 do or have some vague idea that I think I'm on target and just keep doing what I'm doing without really pausing and getting a clear sense of, God, what do you want me to6:04 do? What does the people who listen to Living on the Edge need? What do those overseas really need? I wanna hear from you, see you, draw near to you, Lord Jesus, and get a fresh6:16 spiritual manner and direction with joy and discernment for the days ahead. Show me where and how to stop. Show me what and how to rest, how to get refreshed.6:28 You know, we're all made differently, but I'm an activator. I'm I'm a go go go go go person. To sit quietly is, like, super hard. You know, I've disciplined myself to do it,6:39 but I'm just asking God, spark a new energy and rhythm for this season in our marriage and in the ministry. Grant me a fresh, real knowledge and experience of your love for me. Grant6:51 me freedom. This is a good 1 for you too. Grant me freedom to do what is in my heart and what you want me to do and what's your will, not the unspoken expectations7:03 I hear in my head or the sense of responsibility of meeting everyone else's needs. And here's what I would say to you. When you're trying to recalibrate, number 1 is this, it starts with7:15 awareness. Awareness of there's something bubbling up in your soul. Awareness of what's happening in the world. Awareness of what's happening in your family. Awareness of this is a key7:27 1. What season are you in? I mean, what's going on at work? What season is the company in or the organization in? Awareness is really the first step. And what I've7:39 seen the psalmist here do, he says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. He says, hey, soul. You know, David also says, you know, my soul is disquieted within me. When lots of changes are7:51 happening, I think awareness is the first step. I jotted down, you know, you need to be aware of what phase you're in. And so I'm gonna just take a stab. Believe it or not, I've been through my8:02 twenties. Yeah. Of course. My thirties, my forties, my fifties, and I'm in my sixties and and ready pretty soon to hit my seventies. You need to be aware of what season are you in.8:14 Are you ready for this? You need to understand that, you know, in your twenties, it's pretty much learning. I mean, it's learning how to relate. You may be single. You may get married. You may be it's career. Thirties,8:26 you start to develop some things. If you do get married, often now you have some small kids, and so how do you do family, and how do you adjust? And by forties, all of a sudden, there's demands. Your career is really8:37 ramping, and also the kids are getting older, and new demands happen if you happen to be married, or kind of new fresh demands if you're single and thinking, do you wanna remain single? Is that God's calling? When you8:48 hit your fifties, it's probably a window of some of your greatest, greatest impact and some of the greatest dangers. The empty nest hits a lot of people in their fifties or real early sixties, and you need to realize the9:00 way you did life in your twenties, thirties, and forties, it's gonna be different. And then your sixties absolutely are, the most productive time according to a Harvard study that you'll ever have in your life. So you9:12 need to ask yourself, so what season am I in? What decade am I in? I can't say much about the seventies because I'm not there yet. But that Harvard study says that our sixties are our most9:24 productive time, that our fifties are our second most productive, and our seventies are our third most productive. I know for me it was like, okay, I want to stay in shape, I want to stay focused. I don't want to9:35 coast. I don't want to drift. I want to stay sharp. And so part of what I wanted to share with our staff was, how do you do that? And so number 1 was to be aware and then to ask9:47 yourself not just what season are you in. This has been a big 1 for me. Okay? What season are key family members in? What season is my wife in? I'm looking at her life's9:59 way different now. We don't just have kids, we have grandkids. We don't just have grandkids, we have some that are 21 and some that are 5. Where does she feel the pressure? And then I look at my kids, you know, some of10:11 you don't have ones as old as me, but and my grandkids. What season are they in? What's going on? Do you get it? All I want you to get is this. It is so easy to get up and do10:23 the same thing in the same way all the time and think, you know what? I can't figure out why what I'm doing right now isn't producing good results because this is how I've always done it. And10:35 what I wanted to say to our staff was just pause. The first step is just become aware of what's going on. The second thing, and this is, you know, really is gonna10:46 cause you to dig a little bit deeper. I said to our staff, be aware of your own story. We forget your family of origin, the traumatic events that have happened in your life,10:58 your pinnacles of success in the past, the richest relationships, the most painful relationships, where you tend to find your significance apart from Christ. What rhythms and11:10 seasons have you been closest to God? What things do you do, or when you look back, you've done, brings life and energy and vitality? See, over time, external11:22 pressures, internal issues, family relationships, job changes, wars that are happening around the world, economies that shift, it's like all these arrows are coming at11:34 us. And what happens is we tend to be oblivious. And you start to be aware of what's going on inside and be aware of what's happening in this season of your life.11:45 That's when you begin to talk to your own soul and become aware and begin to do the very next thing. And the very next thing is you need to reflect. Notice he says, Bless the Lord, oh my soul,11:57 and forget not all of his benefits, who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies12:09 your desires with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. And then there's this kind of commentary as he looks back on, these are the things God has done in my life. He's forgiven.12:21 He's healed. He's redeemed. He's empowered. He's encouraged. He's crowned me. He's blessed me. He's satisfied me so that the Lord works righteousness and justice for all the12:33 oppressed. This is what God has done, and this is who God is. This is how he works. And then there's this, what I call a hinge verse in verse 7, he made known his ways to Moses,12:45 his deeds to the people of Israel. And so you reflect in order to get a good sense of where are you right now. You're aware of your maturity, your life12:57 season, your challenges, your struggles, your relationships. And then you start reflecting on what God has done, and you reflect on your past, and you do it in such a way that it begins to bring clarity13:09 to the now, to the changes, to the frustrations, to what's going through in your life. And so, what I told our team was reflect on the inflection points that have directed your13:21 life in ways that have borne good fruit. Let me say that again. You know, some people are verbal processors and, you know, you need to write it down. For others, you may need to do this with a friend.13:33 But reflect on the inflection points that have directed your life that have born fruit. I just I started going back. I was sitting in my office praying and thinking about what13:45 to share with the staff, and I thought of what are some major inflection points that really have geared how I think about life. But 1 of the inflection points in my life was recognizing13:57 that my loud mouth, my arrogance, my posing, my positioning was rooted in insecurity. I didn't know why I had to brag. I didn't know why I cussed the way I did it before I was a14:08 Christian. I didn't know why I had to act certain ways in different groups, why I always wanted to impress someone, or was afraid someone would see who I really was. And I didn't have any theology to speak of, and14:20 I wasn't a follower of Jesus, but shortly after becoming a Christian, and the Lord began to reveal himself to me, of course he's going to go after pride. God hates pride. But what he helped me14:32 see, instead of a harsh, mean father, you're proud, get with it, Ingram, that's ridiculous, What I heard was the gentle spirit of God saying to me, you know, Chip, do you know14:44 why you pose like that? Do you know why you act that way? Do you know why, you know, you have to let everyone know how hard you work or how early you get up or what you've accomplished or, you know, who you know. I14:56 mean, we all do this stuff. Right? It's because you're insecure. It's because down deep, you're afraid if you took your mask off and someone saw who you really were, they15:08 would reject you. And that was an inflection point. Now, here's the thing. In the last 50 years, I have grown a lot. But when I want to recalibrate, guess what? Part of the15:20 frustrations and the changes, I'll catch myself mentioning something or saying something or posing. Right? And then, I don't know about you, but I try and take some time every day to15:31 to reflect and say, lord, you know, you pray the lord's prayer. Right? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Well, you talk about who you sinned against. Lord, is there anything today where I've15:42 sinned? I mean, I wish I'd say, oh, I mean, usually it's a blank slate. Oh, Chip, we're good. It's usually not that way. And it's usually subtle things. It's usually with my mouth. It's usually thoughts that15:54 I had. It's usually internal criticism. It's usually self righteousness. And it's interesting. It's usually pride that comes out in are you ready? Insecurity. Still16:06 hiding. So when you go back to some of these foundational things, you go, oh, okay. Okay. See, under pressure, this is where I default, Lord. This is where I tend to go. The second16:18 thing I encouraged our staff to do was to reflect on how desperately insecure everyone else is. To actually realize, you know something? Some people that are really withdrawn and you16:30 think they don't like you because they won't look you in the eye, or they don't respond, or I don't mean shy, I mean or introverted, but there's some people that really withdraw that don't let you in. You know what?16:41 They're insecure, and they're afraid to be known. And and there's other people who they're just the opposite. They're bombastic and, you know, they're telling you what they did and who they met and, you know, blah blah16:52 blah blah blah, and you just go, oh. And it's easy to be critical. The fact of the matter is is when people have those strong reactions, they're insecure, just like we are. And17:04 that's a way they keep people at a distance. You know, I have these little cards. When I make a discovery, I wanna keep it. And so 1 of my cards, I just read them over. I don't try to memorize them, but you kinda17:16 after years and years and years, I have a little prayer that says, Lord, would you help me to see other people through your eyes? Not through their external beauty, success, wealth, or17:28 accomplishments, but to see them the way you see them. And then I put a little verse on the bottom of, second Samuel, you know, 16 7, I think it is. God sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the17:40 lord weighs the heart. And just, you know, as our staff, I just wanted to remind them, you know what? I'm insecure. You're insecure. She's insecure. Under pressure, it's gonna pop out. Some, it'll17:52 pop out in weak responses, others in strong responses. You know, we have vendors, we have ministries we're working with, we have partnerships. Could we all just like could we remember they're under pressure too? Could18:03 you remember your kids are under pressure, your mate's under pressure? And when things are changing rapidly, our insecurities pop up. And so when you wanna recalibrate, when you wanna kind of recenter18:15 around the Lord, being aware is first, and then I think you reflect on these big inflection points. A big, big inflection point for me was, I was 28 years18:26 old, and I shared this with our staff. It was when I made my first to be list. I was a workaholic when I was 12. Okay? I started early, and then I worked18:38 really hard at becoming a really good workaholic. So by the time I was 12, I had 2 paper outs, 7 or 8 lawns, had really decided I'm gonna get a basketball scholarship, get really good grades, have a pretty girlfriend,18:49 and by the time I graduated, I'd accomplished those things, then I had the next big list. And in college, I was a workaholic, and I was an RA. I played basketball and baseball. I was in a bible study, led a bible study,19:01 and and met with 6 guys individually each week to help them all grow. And I was a mess. I mean, I was an absolute mess. And I like to say that then I got married, and we had some19:13 kids, and I pastored the very first church, and it all went away. No. I was about 20, probably 7 years old at the time, maybe19:24 28. And it was the very first church, and so a lot of responsibility, 35 people. And I figured out how to work about 90 hours a week to shepherd 35 people. I was so19:36 insecure. I had to meet everyone's needs. I the phone would ring. I would jump up from the table. Oh, you know, you know, like, I can't let anybody down. I mean, it was the performance orientation,19:48 the level of pressure I felt was just so ridiculous. And, 1 of my mentors, Howard Hendricks, we met with him for a lunch for several weeks, and we have a brown bag. It's sitting in a circle.20:00 And and, Professor, I remember he started, he goes, gentlemen, most of you around this table are pretty gifted, you really work hard, and your priorities are out of whack because you don't believe something. And I'm, you20:12 know, okay, Professor, what what is what what do I believe? Right? He said, you don't believe that God really loves you. He said, here's what I want you to know. You will never be20:23 more loved or less loved than you are at this very minute. There is nothing you can do to get God to love you more, and there's nothing you can do to get him to love you less.20:36 And he said, now, don't get me wrong. There is blessing that comes with obedience and there's consequences, but God's love will not change. And then he went over to the board and he wrote the word objective. Who do you20:48 really want to be? If God already loves you and you can't earn it, who do you really want to be? And then he wrote the word priorities. And then next to that he said, how badly do you want it? Are you willing to put20:59 knowing him, following him, pleasing him ahead of everything else? And then third, he said, schedule. Where does it actually show up in your calendar if he's your priority? I mean, what's it look like in your21:11 marriage? And I don't mean what you say, what songs you sing. I mean, in your schedule, where it's like this really matters. And then his last word was discipline. Are you willing to pay the price to do what21:22 needs to be done when you don't feel like doing it? And I, I remember thinking, wow. God loves me right now as21:34 much he's ever gonna love me. And because of the way I grew up and my family of origin and kind of going through those things, I just realized I got loved when I scored a lot of21:46 points. I got loved when I got good grades. I got loved when I was obedient. My dad was a marine. I got loved when I obey. I mean, you know, and I just had transferred21:58 that into my relationship with my heavenly father. And I intellectually knew differently. I intellectually knew he loves me, but my behavior screamed all the time. God22:09 loves me when I'm producing. And I just have to tell you, I was driving home. It was 32 miles from downtown out to this little town called Kaufman, Texas, where I lived as this 28 year old22:21 pastor. And I stopped off at the Dairy Queen, and I've been thinking for, I guess, about 30 miles because the little Dairy Queen's a couple miles from where we lived. And I just had22:33 1 of those moments, an inflection point. And I went and I sat in a corner booth, and I got a napkin out, and I thought, okay, Chip, who do you want to be?22:45 Not what do you want to do, who do you really want to be, and are you serious about it? And I wrote down, I want to be a great man of God. And I don't mean that in an arrogant22:57 way. I just thought I mean, if someone said, you would you like to be a good father or a great father? I wanna be a great father. Do you wanna be a good husband or a great husband? Well, I wanna be a great husband. So I23:07 thought, as far as a Christian goes, I would like to be a great man of God the way God measures, not what people think. And then, my second 1 is, I wanna be a great husband.23:19 I wanna be a a godly and great dad. I wanna be a great friend. I wanna be a great pastor. And, and I don't know why I I missed out23:31 on the great. I wanna stay in shape all the days of my life. But that's what I wrote down. And then, I literally took that little napkin, and I got out. I had it was old. You know, people weren't using23:43 computers and stuff then. It was like 1 of those day timer type things. And I thought, if I wanna be a great man of God and I was already spending time with the Lord, but I wrote in when I was gonna meet with him.23:55 And I put everything in my schedule. And then this epiphany hit. If I do all these things to become that person, I don't have any time to do my to do list. But I24:07 decided that's what I would do, and then I had an accidental moment happen in my life. It was real really amazing. My kids were not doing their homework like they should, and so we were gonna do an experiment. No24:18 TV on school nights. And, I mean, everyone was bored and whining for about 2 or 3 days, and then pretty soon, you know, they're playing the guitar, lifting weights, we're playing basketball in the driveway. And they, you24:30 know, they were small kids, so they went to bed pretty early, but it's like 8 39 o'clock. And, you know, I was used to watching the news and then going to bed about 11, 11 30. And like, it's 9 o'clock and, you know,24:42 you can only read so long. And it's like, oh, well, you know, okay. I'll tell you what, I think I'll just go to bed. So it was like, you know, 9 30 or 10 o'clock, I go to bed. I wake up at 5 and got more sleep than24:53 normal. And that happened for a week. And all of a sudden, instead of trying to get up and spending time with God, it was like, I just added 2 hours to my day, and that became a new pattern.25:05 And all I can tell you is from 28 until today, very imperfectly, 1 of the biggest inflection points for me has been, I'm gonna focus on my to be list first,25:18 and then my to do list. And part of it was, I never got my to do list done anyway. Right? I mean, who makes a list and looks at the end of the week and go, I I nailed all of that. But what I found is when25:30 I did my to be list, it was okay, I'm gonna have a date with my wife, and we're gonna talk meaningfully right after supper, even if it's only for 10 or 15 minutes. I'm gonna put my kids in my25:41 schedule so that I mean, once a week, I'm gonna meet with 1 of them individually. We're gonna eat together as a family, you know, like 5 out of 7 nights. These are to be this is what25:53 matters. I'm gonna have some close friends that I really do life with, and then I worked it in so I could work out. And since I loved basketball and didn't have any injuries back then, man, I'm gonna apply hoop 2 or 326:05 times a week and stay in great shape and really share my heart with guys. And then the other was, I'm gonna find churches and pastors that know way more than me, that God's doing a great thing through, and26:17 I'm just gonna keep knocking on their door until someone will talk to me. And if they won't, then who's the next person? And I'm gonna read, and I'm gonna ask God, how do you become a pastor? How do you become a man of26:28 God? What I learned is this, is if you focus on who God wants you to become, your capacity grows. And so those extended times with26:40 God and blocking times off to do my messages and spending time with my wife, what happened was the depth of our relationship. The capacity began to grow so that26:52 as I face challenges, a different chip was showing up. You know, a lot of our staff is all different ages and especially those with young kids and under pressure. I was just27:03 trying to help our staff remember that, yes, your job's really important, and family's really important, and there's a lot of pressure in your life, but you'll never get your to dos27:15 done. So think about making a to be list. And so as I thought through those things, probably the last reflection that I would share with you is I27:27 came to reflect on the most challenging things in my past. And whether it was the time we went through cancer with my wife, whether it was a big big problem27:39 with 1 of my children, whether it was a major ministry failure that I had. And I tried to look back and say to myself, what have you learned in this journey?27:51 Because part of what I bring to our staff is, I'm the oldest guy around. Okay? And I I don't want them to have to go through some of the things that I've been through. But I wrote this down actually looking backward28:03 through the lens of God's sovereignty and purposes and actively giving thanks to shape my future perspective. Here's what I wanted them to hear. I really don't know God's ways or what he's up to.28:15 And I jotted down Hebrews 11 33 to 36. You know, it talks about, oh, the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his ways and his precepts or his his paths are beyond finding28:27 out. And who's been a counselor to him that he should inform her? Or who has ever given anything to God that God should pay him back? For from him and by him and through him and for him is everything. Basically, it's a28:38 mystery to the infinite knowledge and power and love of God and how he's orchestrating our lives. Here's what I wanted him to hear. As I've evaluated my life looking28:50 back, some of the most difficult, painful things that I've ever been through that I thought were the worst at the time had been the very things that I would never want to trade29:02 that either changed me or set me and my family up for what was so much better. And so kind of just getting to the point where you can kind of take a deep29:14 breath, that everything doesn't have to work out now, that how your kids are doing right now is not how they're going to be in 5 or 10 or 15 years. You don't have to just bite your fingernails. You know, you thought you29:26 didn't get that job, you you didn't get the interview, and that didn't turn out. And all I'm trying to tell you, and what I was trying to tell our staff is, and I'm not good at this, but lighten up.29:38 Get perspective. Pause. Be still. Cease striving. Take stock. How am I feeling? What season am I in? What's going on in my life? And then start29:50 to reflect. And then the final thing here, is where we all need to go. It's remembering our theology. Who is God? Listen to30:01 this. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. Is that how you see God? See, when I'm trying to recalibrate, what I30:13 realize is when my emotions and behavior and anxiety and struggles and frustrations and internal blaming of other people and stuff coming out of my mouth, Somewhere along30:25 the way, who god really is and who I think he is or who I'm responding to is not the same. What's it like in your life right now to think god is30:37 compassionate? That means he feels with you. He hurts with you. He's he's merciful. He's not down on you. He he gets what's going on in your life. And not only is he compassionate, it says the lord30:49 is compassionate and gracious. He's not trying to hold out on you. He's for you. He wants to help you. He loves you. He's slow to anger. He I mean, he's not like, I'm31:01 really upset with you, and why don't you get with the program? You know, there's a lot that goes through our mind that is so different than who God really is. I love this. He goes on to say, he doesn't treat us as our31:11 sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. It's such a refreshing and and freeing thing for those of you that just live under this guilt that, you know, I messed up, or if I do this, and, you know, God is31:23 always down on me. That's not who he is. As far as the east is from the west, so he's removed our transgressions from us. And as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear31:35 him. Why? He knows our frame. He remembers we're dust. As for man, our days are like grass. We flourish. We flower like a field. The wind31:46 blows. Over it, it's gone. It's placed to remember no more. From everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children,31:58 and with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. So all I wanna say in our time of just kinda hanging out together32:10 is, recalibrate. Really get aware of you, what's going on, what's going on in the world, and become aware of what are the emotions popping up and where are they coming from. And I32:22 think the second is we just don't do enough think time. Reflect. Reflect on those major inflection points where God showed you things or on on difficult things or great32:33 successes, and reflect on what are the things that you were actually doing when you felt close to God, when he was moving in your life. It's a longer list, but I I literally, for our staff, I just talked about32:46 memorizing scripture, spending time with God, doing what I didn't want to do, just remembering what are the things that over time you actually do. Remember that revelation32:57 passage where they've lost their first love? And Jesus speaking says what? Repent, return, and basically, it's not quite this word, but redo the things you used to do. In other words,33:09 just stop. Repent. You're not doing what is drawing us close together. And Jesus is saying, I love you, and I wanna be with you, and I want to bless you. But, you know, you need to do a 1 80.33:21 And then you need to say, hey, Lord, I'm I'm really, really sorry. And then begin to do the things you used to do. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I I keep this journal, and I33:33 get stuck, and I'm not feeling very close to god, and I'm struggling. And I start reading back through the last few weeks, the last few months, and it doesn't take a whole lot of time to realize, you know, lord, I'm not33:44 kinda doing some of the things that I've done in the past. We all drift. We all get a little of discipline, and god's not down on us. He loves us.33:56 He's for us, and he wants34:01 us. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to Chip's message, Recalibrating Your Walk with God, which is from our series, Life Lessons with Chip. For more information about this34:12 ministry or our many resources, go to livingontheedge dot org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3. That's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 334:24 or livingontheedge dot o r g. Well, that's all the time we have today. Join us next time as we dive back into Chip's insightful series Good to Great in God's Eyes. Until then, I'm Dave Truity,34:36 thanking you for listening to this edition of Living on the Edge.In this video 0:01 Recalibrating Your Walk with God25:00
Prayer That Brings Revival, Part 2 Chip Ingram
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