Choose Compassion in Every Situation!

When things that are out of your control or others control do you get upset and take it out on people? Do you explode if you don’t get your way? We all go through situations that we really don’t want to be bothered with but it is how you go through them that makes all the difference.

I can remember many years ago I was flaying back to Savannah and the flight was timed where I had maybe 15-30 minutes layover in Charlotte. The only problem is there was a storm and we had to fly around the city for a little while before we finally got to land.

They pretty much told us that we had to go to the ticket place so that we can try and get on the next flight because we missed our flight. I got to the line with many mad people because everyone in the line was from my flight. I was probably number 40 and there were probably 40 more people behind me so I was right in the middle of the line. For some reason there were quite a bit of people in line who was going to Savannah like me.

I knew at that point that there was no way I was getting on the next flight. I listened to everyone in front of me and noticed that the next flight was full and everyone was complaining about it. The person behind the ticket counter had to put up with so much crap. I could not believe how much people were taking this situation out on her. Did she control the weather?

Yes I was upset too but I chose at that moment to be different than everyone. It was finally my turn and as I walked up to the counter, I knew I wasn’t getting on anything soon because no one was and that is why they all were mad. If I can remember right all the people were on the flight that was 3 hours from that point.

Well I get to the counter and the fist thing I tell the woman behind the counter is that I am sorry you have been treated so bad. I am glad I am not in your shoes but I want to say that you have handled yourself with so much class and I was impressed with that.

She told me thank you and gave me my new ticket so I looked at the gate and started walking towards it. I was on one side of the Charlotte airport and the gate was on the total opposite side so I began my journey there. I took my time because as I knew I was not on the next flight.

I think it was 15 minutes or so before I finally got to the gate and the woman at the gate looked at me and asked if I was Chris Benton? I said yes, why? I was really wonder why the heck they were looking for me. She went on to tell me that we have been waiting for you. We were told to hold the flight for one last passenger. I smiled and boarded the plane.

Was I looking for my compassion to have that result? Of course not because if you have that kind of motive then God doesn’t see your compassion as true compassion. I was compassionate at that moment because I chose to in-spite of my frustration.

The moral of this story is that you should always be compassionate in every situation and sometimes God just may Bless you in that moment in ways that you don’t realize. Sometimes God will Bless you later but in this situation it happened immediately and as far as I know, I was the ONLY person on that flight from my original flight even though I knew there were many others from that flight coming to Savannah too. Favor is awesome but first you must be compassionate!

Ask God to help you see every situation in through compassionate eyes. Ask him to give you the patience to do the right thing even though the wrong thing will be easier. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know what is right in any situation.

Live Boldly, Lead With Passion & Stay Christ-Centered!

Chris Benton

The Most Valuable Currency?

When we talk about currency you are probably thinking the Dollar, the Euro, the Yen or the like but you would be wrong. None of those are our most valuable currency. Our most valuable currency is our time because once you have used your time, you can never get that back.

Each of has has the same currency, it is 1440 minutes each day. To some people, that is just a number and to others it represents our life. Our lives are filled with this currency. Once spent you can’t get it back unlike the other currencies. If we lose a few dollars, we can always go and make more but we can never get the currency of time back. We all trade our time for something. What are you trading for?

I see so many people wasting their lives away and I used to be one of those. I wasted 19 years on addictions that I could have been doing something great with my life back then. In a way though I am glad I didn’t do anything great back then because then I probably would not be married to Sandy because we would have never met if things would have been different. Then Lil Chris wouldn’t be here either. My family is everything to me!

What are you doing with your time? Are you allowing people to take some of your time away that shouldn’t be? I am not telling you to just drop people out of your life but there comes a time in your life when you have to say no to people who are destroying you. I see this happening all the time. People bring you down but yet you stay by them. Life is too short for that.

How many times do you get so focused on trying to get that someone to love you when in reality there are others who will love you just the way you are? Don’t waste your time on people that don’t care enough for you. Instead of trying to change into that perfect person for someone, go find someone who you are already perfect for. I am talking about dating here. If you are married then that is different and you have to find a way to work things out then.

Are you just wasting your life away drinking beer and watching TV? Those 2 things are probably destroying more lives than anything. Satan has brainwashed people so much through the TV. Don’t get me wrong here, we do watch TV too but you have to limit it or you will be wasting your life away. Then one day you will be on your deathbed wondering what have you done with your life?

Just look at your life and ask yourself the really tough question, how much time are you really wasting? Once you figure that out then find a way to not waste 2-3 hours a day and you can change your life with that.

There are so many things you can do with 15 or so hours a week. You can spend those hours with your family which is really important. You can go back to school to find your passion. You can take some online courses. You an read more of the bible or books that interest you. You can take up a new hobby that is a passion of yours.

What is it that you want to do with the rest of your life? None of us know when God is bringing us home so you need to live each day like it is your last so when that day finally comes, you will not have any regrets.

I have read many stories where people were on their deathbed and they just wished they had spent more time with their family. You never hear people saying they wish they would have worked more? Work is great because it gives you some things you need but if your career is your main focus then you are losing out on many great things and your life will not be balanced.

I know we all from time to time will be out of balance but you have to do everything in your power to keep as much balance in it so that your family can be a priority. In most cases when someones life is out of balance, the first thing that suffers is the family and that should be one of the last things to suffer.

You spiritual walk with God also suffers. Growing closer to God is so important to your everyday life. Some people don’t believe that but when you are growing towards God, you can feel the difference in you. You will become better in all things by just becoming closer to God in the right way.

I say in the right way because some people believe that their lives need to be so focused on church that they lose their family. I am sure you know the people I am talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I love my church and we go several times a week usually but church is not our God. When church becomes your God then your family will suffer.

What are you going to do tomorrow to change things? What are you going to do today? What is it that you truly value in life and are you focusing on that? If not then it is time to change your focus so that your currency is spent the way you wanted and not wasted!

Ask God to help you see the value in the time currency. Ask him to help you adjust your life so that you aren’t wasting it away. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know when you are wasting it or when you are just doing something that helps you rest. Ask him to give you the courage to live your life each day like it is your last!

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion & Stay Christ-Centered,

Chris Benton

Does Time Really Heal?

When someone goes through something bad you always hear people trying to give them advice that time will heal them but is that even true? I would have to say that it is 100% wrong advice because time never heals. It is what you do with that time that makes healing possible.

If you have bad things happen to you in and you never deal with what happened thinking that time will eventually heal your heart then as time goes by you will become more bitter. I have seen many people try and allow time to heal them without them dealing with the issues that started it and then they end up exploding because the bitterness just comes out.

I won’t get into it on this blog but I have had some things in my past that happened when I was younger that I never dealt with and it all came out through 19 years of addictions. The crazy part is once I quit the drugs and alcohol then my anger became even worse because the addictions were covering up the symptoms not the actual problems. Sandy really didn’t know what was going on because she saw the anger in me after I quit all the drinking. It came out of me for 6-12 months until I finally realized that I had to take care of some issues.

It wasn’t enough to ask God to take the addiction desires away as I thought. I also had to give the root causes of my addictions to God for him to handle them for me too. I  had to forgive myself of that root and forgive myself of all my past things because of the root cause.

It was rough inside of me because I had no idea why I was so angry and why I ended up with all these addictions for all these years. Once I figured that out, I was able to let go of many issues and let God handle them so I could finally start healing.

It wasn’t long after that when we found the church that we go to and just things that God was leading me to were helping heal my wounds from my past. It has been a journey, a rocky one but I can say now that I hold zero resentment from my past and of the situations that happened when I was younger. I am so glad I was able to heal through Christ on all those issues.

What are you doing right now to heal your past wounds? Time will only make it worse if you do nothing. If you keep pushing all those hurts under the rug thinking they will go away, you will one day be in for a rude awakening because all this will come out.

Maybe it already has come out because like me, you have addictions. If you do then there is some reason why you keep those addictions around. The sooner you find what the root of those addictions are the sooner you can give them to Christ and start allowing yourself to heal.

I want to make one thing very clear here, I am not saying to get no help outside of God because sometimes God will lead you to get the help you need so that your past can be healed over time. I don’t know your situation and I don’t know what God has planned for you. I just know what he did for me and I also know his ways are different for different people.

Are you ready to finally take your life back? Are you ready to figure out why you are doing the things that you do? Then you need to bring God back into the picture!

Ask God to forgive you of your sins right now. Ask him to wipe away your hurts from your past. Ask him to help you work on yourself so that you can start the healing process. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know what kind of help you need to heal. Ask him to give you the courage to do what it takes to heal. Ask him to give you the patience for yourself as you grow to heal. Ask him to help you finally forgive yourself!

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion & Stay Christ-Centered,

Chris Benton

 

Growing Towards Christ

I believe there are 4 things that you must do if you want to grow towards Christ. Granted there may be other things but these 4 have to be there in order to build a solid foundation in Christ! They are Pray, Read, Listen & Do. I want to talk about each of those areas within this article. I believe if you will focus on those 4 things, your growth will start to happen. As I said there are other things that you can add to this list but these 4 will build your foundation.

1) Pray – This of course is the cornerstone of the Christian Faith but many people just don’t do it or don’t do it enough. Maybe you only pray over your meal and that is it or maybe not at all. I am telling you that prayer works and in prayer is when we can grow closer to God. If you are married then you need to also have prayer time together and with your family. The goal is to prayer over everything with God. Prayer is when you talk with God about your concerns and your joy. Yes he already knows them but by you pointing them out to him, it is like you are releasing your faith that God is with you. It does wonders on your soul and without prayer, you are very limited in your walk with God.

2) Read – Reading is the next thing that is very important. Without reading the bible, how can you get to know who God is? You can’t, unless you know what God says. Many times people misquote things from the bible because they aren’t in the Word enough. Staying in the Word daily will keep you level headed in Christ. It will also help you grow because you are allowing the Holy Spirit to talk through the bible to you as you read. Don’t just read the bible because it is what you are supposed to do but absorb the bible, become so entrenched in it that your spiritual life starts growing again.

Also, don’t just read the bible but read great books that help you grow spiritually. Sometimes it may take a book that helps open your heart towards what God is saying in the bible. There are some fantastic Christian books out there that help you grow. Books are good as long as you realize this isn’t to replace the bible but to add to your bible reading. Books does wonders on your soul too.

3) Listen – Many people go to church but they don’t listen. The preacher is preaching but you are thinking about what you are going to do later or thinking about bills or whatever. You need to 100% focus on what God is trying to say to you through your preacher. God is speaking to you but you have to be open and listen with your heart.

You can also listen to other preachers that you believe in from the internet. I love it in this day and time because we can hear from many sources as we study. Why not listen to a sermon a day? It is only on average 30-40 minutes. You can do that right? You can even listen to one while you are doing other things. This builds your spirituality and allows God to talk to you through the sermons. Are preachers perfect? of course not but by really listening to what God is trying to say to you, it allows you to grow towards Christ.

You should also listen to trainings on the bible. I believe this is very important because it builds the base for you to know what the bible says. As you listen to trainings, you start to realize how real God really is and your faith grows.

4) Do – So what do you do while you are doing the other 3? You do that is. Faith without action is dead as James said. You can have all the faith in the world but when you apply what you know to your life, that is when you grow the most. You can’t grow without application.

You also need to find some kind of serving for God that you can do that applies to your skills or skills that you are willing to learn. It could be something at your church which I highly recommend as one of the things and you can also do other things for God outside of the church walls which is important. For instance, this blog is a part of what I am doing for God. It isn’t the only thing but this is applying some of my skills to help people grow and I have learned to love to write. I never realized that I would love to write until I started writing.

When your focus is all 4 of those areas, you will grow. Every Christian has slumps so if you are in a slump right now, then just apply these 4 things to your life and it will pull yourself out of that slump. God understands what you are going through and he also understands that we will all go through the valleys of life. It is up to you to change things when you get in your valley.

Ask God to help you in all 4 of these areas. Ask him what you should be reading and listening to. Ask him to give you the patience in your valleys so that you can get to the peaks in life. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know when something isn’t work and the courage to ask for help when you need it.

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion & Stay Christ-Centered,

Chris Benton

When Technology Cripples Us?

I would like to say first and foremost that I 100% believe in technology as you are reading a blog right now that happened because of technology. I have a smart phone just like everyone else and and love it too. I love where technology has taken us. Who would have thought just 20 or even 10 years ago where we would be today.

With the good always comes the bad. You can’t have one without the other. Where technology is supposed to make our lives easier, it has actually made our lives harder to some degree.

How many times have you seen people so addicted their their phones that it has taken over their life? And teens are the worst on this with sending thousands of texts every month. Satan really has used technology to destroy our communication. I can remember growing up when we communicated, we all talked face to face but now you are considered communicating when you are emailing or texting people. That is NOT communication that is avoiding communication.

I realize that texting can be good when you need it like maybe the person you are trying to reach is in a meeting and you know it then send them a simple text if you have a question. That is not where the problems come into play.

The problems come in when technology has taken over your life and you feel as though you can’t live without it. Who knows the day could come when we have to communicate without technology at the way our world is going. God forbid if something like that happens but what would you do?

When I am talking to people, it is a shame when I realize that this person just has almost zero communication skills but if you were to text them they could hold a conversation. That is sad and you would not believe how often that is the case.

People are allowing technology to run every part of their daily lives. Again, I love technology as I use it too but sometimes you have to put things away so that you can focus on your family and on God.

How many times do you have your phone and sending texts while you are trying to have family time? Do not let it come between you and your family. Technology used in this way will destroy your family because it is destroying your communication.

If you are that addicted to technology then maybe it is time to take a break from it. Maybe God could be calling you to fast from it for 24 hours and maybe even a week. I do not know but you now if he is or not.

If you are able to keep it in control that is one thing but when you allow every part of it to control you and your family then something drastic has to happen before you lose everything you have. I have known people to lose their families because of this addiction.

This is a tough addiction because we will always be around technology and it isn’t going anywhere. So being able to control technology addiction becomes harder than a drug or alcohol addiction because you have no choice to still use it to some degree unlike drugs and alcohol where you can just never use them again.

And believe me I could have hit many more things within technology but I felt that mobile phones is a huge deal right now so that is why I am mostly focusing on that issue.

So what do you do to control this? You have to learn to put priorities first. If you are out of whack with it then when you are with your family, turn your cell phone off. Allow your time with them to be time that you focus on only them.

When you are with God, turn your phone off so that you only focus on God. God doesn’t mind you using technology to enhance your life. He just doesn’t want it to become your life.

I could go on and on with this subject but I think you get what I am saying. Technology has its place and it is good to use but we just need to use it in a way that works for us not against us.

Ask God to give you the wisdom when you need to use technology and when you don’t. Ask him to give you the strength to put it down when you need to so you can work on your family. Ask him to give you the courage to set boundaries within your family on technology.

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion & Stay Christ-Centered,

Chris Benton

When God’s Calling is NOT Your Direction?

What do you do when you feel called by God, but it is completely the opposite direction of where you are going? Some people don’t believe that God will change your direction, but I know this to be true. Many times you are working toward your dreams, but it is not the path where God is trying to lead you.

I have read many stories where people have been called and, at that moment, they changed directions, because they felt the pull of God.

1 Kings 19:21 – So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

I used this verse a few blogs back, but I feel to make this point, it works great here too. What did Elisha do when he realized that God was calling him for greater things? Did he stop and ask questions? Did he complain? Did he say, “But I am plowing?” No, he did NOT! He dropped everything and followed Elijah towards God’s calling for him.

Do you feel stuck between God’s calling and your own desires? What are you going to do? God isn’t going to make you pursue his calling. He will keep nudging you, but that is it. It is up to you to pursue his calling. It is up to you to make that choice.

This choice will always be hard. Many people can make the choice between God’s calling and not doing much with their life. That is an easy one. But when you are already living a good life, and God has called you to change, that is when many people say, “WHOA!” Choosing between God’s calling and a good life trips up a lot of people, so they just keep pursuing their own desires, while God just keeps nudging them.

What if God is calling you to something greater? When I say greater, it may not be something that society sees as greater, but it is greater in a sense that God is calling you there. He would not be calling you to something that is not greater for you.

What if what you see on the surface is small, but God sees it as big? Maybe God is guiding you to bigger things, if you start following his calling? God is not going to give you the bigger calling until he can trust you in a smaller calling.

How many times have you seen people say they know God is going to use them for mighty things, but then say no to God in smaller things, because they feel bigger than that?

I fell into that trap myself. I can remember when we first started going to Savannah Christian Church, I was not going to serve on anything that wasn’t going to be used in a great way. I felt above that. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t realize that God will use you to do small things before he will you use to do greater things.

Well, after a little time in going there, I was talking to a friend and someone came to him because they needed help passing the plates at offering. He needed one more person. My friend volunteered me.

Well, the next Wednesday the guy noticed me again and asked if I could help and I said sure. I had no idea what God was doing here. He was finding a way for me to serve without knowing it.

The next week, again, you guessed it, I served again. Then the following weekend I was at church and one of the people who help on Wednesdays saw me and asked me if I was one of the guys who helps on Wednesdays and I said yes. He asked if I could help them with the offering plates and communion. Well, of course, I said yes.

That was almost 2 years ago and here I am still serving on the team and as one of the leaders of it now. I absolutely enjoy serving in that way. If you would have asked me when we first joined Savannah Christian Church  to serve in that way, I probably wouldn’t have, because I thought I would serve in my own way.

I have learned a lot from that experience. I have learned that when God wants you to do something, he will find a way to lead you there, even when you do not realize it.

So, if you feel the call of God on your life and it is a different direction than you are currently going, then pray over it hard. Move forward, because you will eventually follow.  It will eat you up inside until you finally go where God is calling you to go. It doesn’t matter where, just go.

I know God is leading my wife and I to great things over the years, but I now realize that we will be used in smaller things along the way. That is how God works. Sometimes the smaller things are where you will grow the most while God is working on you for the greater things.

Serve where you are and you will not regret it. Serve with an open heart and follow God where he may lead you.

Ask God to guide you to where he is leading you. Ask him to give you smaller things, so that you can show him that he can trust you in greater things. Ask him to give you the patience to follow even when you don’t understand. Ask him to give you the courage to follow no matter where it may lead.

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion, & Stay Christ-Centered

Chris Benton

 

Do You Feel Worthless?

I believe that some churches have done a disservice to God over the years. We have a society of Christians who believe they are worthless because the church has condemned them so much. They think unless you are perfect that you shouldn’t be in church. That is NOT of God. Sinners need to be in church. Once we accept Christ and our past is wiped clean then we are among the kings!!!! We aren’t supposed to live a worthless life. Instead, we are to live a life of WORTH!

If we are in Christ then we should be able to stand up with confidence. Sometimes, of course we will have pity parties, but that should not be all the time. I am seeing many Christians who are so depressed, because they have been put down by the church so much. A disclaimer here, there are many good churches out there that will accept you as you are and are willing to help you grow.

I have heard of many who would attend a church who were trying to change, but they heard all the gossip about them. People would say, “Who do they think they are to come to our church?” It is not YOUR church, it is God’s church and until you understand that, you are going to do things that hurt people.

This kind of condemning has got to stop in our churches. It is creating many Christians who feel so worthless, but in reality we are among the kings once we come to Christ. We are supposed to be a new creation in Christ!

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So how do you get out of feeling worthless? It will take time, but the start is coming to Christ. Once you have done that then you need to find a good bible preaching church and also start reading your bible and get in prayer with God.

As you start to grow in Christ you will find that your feelings of worthlessness will start to fade. It is satan who wants you to believe that you are worthless, but you are the son or daughter of a king and there is no worthlessness there! Do we have to be perfect? NO, or none of us would make it, but you do have to work on growing.

What I have found is that the closer you get to God, the less you like sin. It isn’t about just quitting sinning as we will always sin, because we are human. It is about growing toward God so that we can see the sins immediately. When that happens, we can then stop it and pray over it. The more we do that, the less the sin will control us.

When you are far from God, you don’t see sin as sin. You just see it as a part of life. But as you grow closer to God, you become more aware of things and your soul tells you not to sin because sin always hurts. I don’t care what sin you are a part of, it will destroy you overtime, because sin comes from only one source and he wants your soul.

The more you sin, the more you will sin. When you do this, your spirit goes down. People know right from wrong even though they may say differently. Doing the right things God’s way builds a sense of worth within you. But doing things you know are wrong, even though you say you serve God, destroys a sense of worth within you.

It’s time for you to change into the person that God is calling you to become. God hasn’t called you to be worthless. He has called you to greatness. Many preachers preach against being called great, but I believe that it is the right thing to do. You can be great in Christ.

Remember, God loves you just as you are but he also loves you way too much to leave you as you are. That is why we are a new creation once we come to Christ. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Your past is wiped clean in God’s eyes and that is all that matters.

Don’t allow other’s judgements to become who you are. Who you are is a person in Christ. Being in Christ is what changes you from the man or woman you are today into the man or woman who God called you to be tomorrow! Work on yourself, so that you don’t feel worthless, because you are a child of a king!

Ask God to help guide you and show you that you aren’t worthless. Ask him to take away the pain of feeling worthless. Ask him to give you the courage to become the new you, even though others may still see the old you. Ask him to give you patience with yourself as you grow into a new creation. Ask him to help you forgive yourself.

Live Boldly, Lead with Passion, & Stay Christ-Centered,

Chris Benton

When Things Don’t Go As Planned?

What do you do when things don’t go as planned? You move forward, I hope. You can’t allow things that happen to change who you are, because who you are isn’t that particular situation but who you are is in Christ. When you are in Christ you can roll with the punches as they come. Some of those punches may sting in life, but you still have to move forward in Faith.

Here is an example of probably one of my biggest growth moments in my adult life. It was the first time that I was ever going to speak in front of a group back in 2006. It was only for 5 minutes, but it was in front of 150+ professionals. I titled my talk, If You Could Change Anything From Your Past Would You?

I wanted it to show my story and how if I changed anything that Sandy and I would have never met. Sounds good right? Well, remember this was my first ever speech and on the day of the speech, I made a few changes to it. Uh oh right? You got it.

I walked up to the podium and I had my speech to read and my hands shook so bad that I lost track of my place because the paper was shaking so I laid the paper down on the podium to read it like that. The only problem was that the podium was short so I could not see it. I was thinking, what the heck am I going to do now?

I was frozen in time and didn’t know what to do. It was only 5 minutes remember, so all of this happened very fast. About one minute in, I am in tears saying sorry to everyone. I said please bare with me. I tried to go further and all that I could do was stutter because I was scared to death by this point. Everything horrible that I imagined could happen was happening right before my eyes.

Sandy said that she wished she could have helped me at that moment, but couldn’t. I knew I could not walk away from the podium until I finished because if I did I probably would never get back up again in front of a group. I knew this moment could change my life for the better or worse. I knew this was a moment that would define my life, if I wasn’t careful. All these thoughts were going through my mind all at once. It felt like time had stood still for those 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes were the longest 5 minutes that I have ever felt in my life.

These were local business leaders that I was in front of. It was a group called Young Professionals. About halfway through I took a deep breath and said, well, if you all don’t get anything else out of this, you will at least get a good laugh. The crowd all laughed at that and then I was finally able to relax and from that point everyone said that I nailed the rest of my speech.

I learned a lot from those 5 minutes. One thing I learned is don’t make your first speech in front of 150 people. Another is don’t change what you are going to say on the day of the speech. Also, I have learned that I work better either winging it or only having a few notes. Having my whole speech written out does not work for me at all. I guess I am not a politician.

I have learned the most important lesson and that was that, no matter what, life is good. Even when you make mistakes, you can get through them because it isn’t the end of the world. There were so many teaching moments in my life from those 5 minutes. Who would have thought you could learn so much about yourself in only 5 minutes.

What is it that isn’t going as planned for you? Are you just complaining about it or are you moving forward in faith anyway? I hope it is the latter because that is where you will find out who you are in Christ. God is with you all the time. If he doesn’t take the situation away, he will be there to be your strength through it.

God uses these times to help us grow. We grow the most when things don’t go as planned. If everything always goes your way all the time then in reality you are going to be weak, because the first time some situation that you can’t control comes your way, it will destroy you.

We grow through situations. Sometimes you may have to go backwards in order to go forward and that is fine. Sometimes we hurt through our situations and that is also fine but do not let your situation get the best of you. You are better than that especially with God on your side. Use your situation to grow you as a person.

Ask God to help you get beyond your situation and to see things as he sees them. Ask him to give you the courage to take risks so that you can grow. Ask him to give you the patience you need for yourself because we all go through many things and some we can laugh at and some we will cry over.

Now go change the world by changing your heart first!

Chris Benton

Burning The Plows!

Sometimes when God calls you, you have to burn your old life. What would you do if God told you that he had a better direction for you but you had to quit what you were doing and follow him? That is exactly what Elisha did! He burned his plows, cooked all his meat, and then followed Elijah.

1 Kings 19:21 – So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

So here it is, Elisha’s livelihood was in the oxen and the plows and he cooks the oxen using his plows to do it. Is that not powerful? Is that not total commitment? That is the kind of commitment that God is looking for in people today. It takes Faith to do what Elisha did!

Don’t hear me wrong now. I am NOT telling you to go out and quit your life as it is and follow God. I am just telling you to think about what if that is what God is asking of you. This is a question we all have to answer, and it is easy for each of us to say that we would go, but when that time does come, will we really do it?

I know people who feel called to go on mission trips and they get so much out of it. God has literally changed their lives through these trips. I have listened to many of their stories at our church where they talked about how scared they were for the first trip. So scared that they tried to make excuses, but as God kept answering their excuses, they finally committed to going. That is when God stepped in to do things that they couldn’t.

Many times God is just waiting on us to do what we can do toward the vision so that he can step in and do what we can’t. Remember, he is God and he can make a way where there is no way! God knows what he is ready to do if you just trust in him.

God isn’t asking you to figure out how it will happen. He is asking you to have faith and move forward so that he can make it happen through you. Why should he make it happen through you when you aren’t even committed yourself?

So will you ever have to do what Elisha did? I have no idea, but I do know that you should be willing to if that time comes. Will people think you are crazy? Of course they will, because they will not understand what you are doing. But remember, they aren’t going where you are going so they do not have to understand. Go anyway.

Here is another crazy part, Elisha was just an average person. Nowhere does it say that he was called until that moment. He was just doing what he has always done and that was plowing. He was in the middle of his everyday life when he was called.

Did he question the calling? From what I can tell, not at all. He accepted it immediately and moved forward. That is what God wants us to do. Once we feel the calling we should move forward in faith. Sometimes this will be very hard. Because we will be going from things that are very comfortable to doing things that will be so uncomfortable that we won’t know if we can even finish the job.

The key is to be ready for the calling. Live your life in such a way that your eyes and ears are completely open at all times. Stay tuned into the Holy Spirit so that you can be guided. God is probably preparing you right now for his vision even though you don’t realize it yet. He has you right where he wants you so that he can set your vision up as time goes.

Be like Elisha and just do what you need to do in the now so that you will be ready for the next. God is not going to take you to your next if you aren’t faithful in the now. Elisha was very faithful in the now before God called. Right now is the most important part.

Ask God to give you patience to discover his calling so that you can grow where you need to. Ask him to give you the guidance to know when he is ready to call you for certain things. Ask him to give you the courage to go when he calls you no matter where that may lead.

Now go change the world by changing your heart first!

Chris Benton

 

Has satan Stolen Your Identity?

So many people work so hard at protecting their identity from identity thieves, but they forget the biggest thief of them all and that is satan. He creates lies that you believe and steals who God called you to be. Remember, do not allow who you think you are to stop you from becoming who God called you to be.

If you are a Christian then you are worthy of his love. There is nothing you have done in your past that will cause God not to love you, but satan will keep whispering to you that God doesn’t really love you. He will tell you lies that you don’t deserve God’s love.

Quit believing those lies! If you are going to protect yourself from identity thieves then you need to also protect yourself from the biggest thief out there and that is satan.

John 10:10 – The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Listen to what Christ says. He has come so that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Live in that. Don’t listen when you hear bad things about yourself from yourself. That is satan calling lies out.

How many times have you felt that God called you to do something, but you felt inadequate to do it? If God says go then he has already created the way, no matter what you know. Many people believe that education makes a better preacher. I have to ask, what kind of education?

A formal education doesn’t make you an inspired preacher, only God does that. There are many people who have the eduction on paper, but they haven’t been called to preach and they are preaching. But there are others who have been called to preach, and because they aren’t educated on some things, they won’t do it because of the lies.

Don’t listen to the lies or your identity will not be yours anymore. Your identity is in Christ and nothing else. Many times satan will make you think your identity is in your career. How many people have you seen lose their career and you would think the world is ending? It is, because their identity was in their career.

Yes, losing your career isn’t going to be a happy moment. But what if God had to allow that to happen in order to bring you to where he was trying to lead you? God will wake you up sometimes.

Some people’s identities are in their kids. How many times have you seen a marriage struggle once the kids go off to college? It is because their whole existence was for the kids instead of Christ.

I could show so many examples where satan has stolen your identity through external things. We could talk all day long about material things and how many people’s identities are based in those. You could write a whole book on that one.

All I am saying is, don’t lose identity because of the lies that satan tells you. Believe what God has already promised you. God wants great things for you and you will struggle to get there. But when you do get there, look out because God is GOOD!

Ask God to protect your identity in Christ. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know when satan is trying to steal it from you. Ask him to give you the courage to say no to temptations that satan throws at you and to live the direction in which God has called you.

Now go change the world by changing your heart first!

Chris Benton