“A lot of people. .. step into the will of the flesh only to find that fear and striving beget more fear and striving. Flesh gives birth to flesh, which means that instead of relieving the pressure in their lives, they exponentially increase it.”- Banning Liebscher
“How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.”- Galatians 3:23 (MSG)
Today Banning Liebscher continues his discussion of the consequences of fear and striving (Chapter 4, Rooted). Pastor Liebscher underscores that we act foolishly when we give in to pressure to take control of the building of our house. Rather than recognize that only God can make something happen, we lapse into a cycle of fear and striving. Banning explains why this exponentially increases the pressure:
“Because when they [people operating in the flesh] are building the house, they are also responsible for maintaining it. If you open the door, it’s your responsibility to keep the door open. But if God builds the house, He’s the One who maintains it. If He opens the door, He will be the One who keeps it open.”
Therefore, there’s only one answer when pressure mounts, convincing us to go into ungodly fear and striving. When we try adding to what God’s already done and continues to do, we need to come back to our foundation- Jesus. Because we didn’t build our ministry or calling, we don’t need to:
- feel any pressure to stay somewhere God brought us to in the first place
- keep open a door that He opened
In conclusion, Banning stresses, it’s our responsibility to follow Jesus wherever He leads. And rest in the boundaries of that assignment.
Today’s question: How do fear and striving increase pressure in your life? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Develop a strong root system”
