"You must not rely on the naked eye. What you think you see is not all that is there. There are unseen things. Spiritual things. Eternal things. You must learn to see like through the eyes of a Lion."

I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately and thought I would share some of what I've been learning and maybe even encourage others to read one of these books.

Isaiah 40 keeps coming up, this chapter reminds me that my God never grows tired or weary. Wow, am I thankful for that promise! In the midst of exile, God speaks words of comfort to His people.

The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
    No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak
    and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
    and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
    They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
    They will walk and not faint.

Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko

I am only part way in, but this book has already challenged me. The book is based around Levi's story of losing his 5 year old daughter and how He learned to look at His life from Jesus' eyes. The first chapter is titled Destined For Impact. It talks about God creating us in His image and that we are of great value to Him. He created us to be just a piece of a bigger story. "The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in your heart and is ready and waiting to be activated (7)." That is powerful and I want to live in in that.

The book goes on and I love this quote- "Sometimes what we need to do isn't clear; sometimes it's confusing. Sometimes there is more than one good option. And nowhere in Scripture are we told that we will never feel lost. In fact, just the opposite: Scripture is full of tension (14)." He says that in these situations it may be hard to sense if we are going in the right direction or even if we are moving at all. The Bible is not a map with all the right answers, but rather a guidebook. These times increase our dependence on the Lord and are a part of the process as we grow in our faith. We need God. 

"Life in real time is messy. The fingerprints of God are often invisible until you look at them in the rearview mirror. If you don't get impatient, his plans will become increasingly apparent to you...Discerning God's calling is more a relationship than a route, more a journey than a destination. It's about who you are becoming more than where you are going. Perhaps it's less about what you do and more about how well you do whatever you do. It's not something you have to sit around waiting for; it's something that's all around you even now (29)." Well, this was convicting- I so often tend to look ahead, to try and figure out what God wants me to do later or bigger picture. God has placed me right where I am at, right now and all that He desires of me is to do my best where and what He has called me to now. I want to be more about becoming more like Jesus and less about where I'm going. 

I am excited for what the rest of this book holds!

You and Me Forever by Francis Chan 

(You can download this for free!)

This is also an incredible book and I am only a chapter in. It focuses on the idea that we have to be eternally focused before any relationship in our lives will work. "Until you relate properly to God, you won't be much help to anyone else." Fearing God above ALL else is the most important aspect of our lives, without this we won't be able to fully enjoy life.

Just as the angels, in the presence of God praise Him and declare how holy He is- we should do the same. "If we don't stare at God, we'll spend our time staring at lesser things. Namely ourselves." The most important commandment is to Love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our mind. The book talks about how often we put Him at the top of our list with everything else falling shortly behind. It says however that really we should put Him at the top of our list and leave a huge gap between that and our other affections. He should be "set apart", which means there shouldn't be a "close second". Again, I'm super challenged and only a chapter in. I love the way Chan points back to Scripture. When we think of our lives with eternity in mind our perspective changes drastically.