Our canine friend Maggie recently sought us out while dog sitting a rambunctious young pup. Maggie had played some with the younger dog, patiently endured the persistent attempts to play more, and now was urging us to help her find personal space. We chuckled and Joni remarked about what a good and easy dog Maggie is to care for. Later I reflected on that comment. That was far from the case when we rescued Maggie from unknown circumstances nearly a decade ago. I reviewed her story from my book Stay. Here is what I wrote about our initial experience with Maggie. For the first two weeks Maggie was pretty well behaved. But now she is showing some decidedly less attractive sides to her personality. She is independent. She is stubborn. She is affectionate only when she wants to be affectionate. She acts out on occasion. She chews things that are not approved for that activity. I am finding out that
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I grew up in legalism. We were taught accurately that you were saved by grace. And then it went South. We then were taught that sanctification came through grit. You had to work hard to stay in good standing with God. I used to laugh at this bumper sticker. “Jesus is coming soon. Look busy.” The application of that theology was anything but amusing. To grow in faith I had to do more. Try harder. Pray more. Read the Bible more. Have more devotional time. Stay busy for God and you will grow in faith. All of those things are good when properly utilized. But there is a problem in self-effort as your plan for sanctification. Nowhere in Scripture will you find this command. Be busy and know that I am God. Our busyness does not please God. Our faith pleases Him. We can’t have faith and trust in someone we are too busy to know intimately. David wrote this
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