Jason Vana: Becoming a Better Man

The Lord will Fight →

We all face attacks.
We all experience hardships after receiving a blessing.

God answers our prayers, and we begin to doubt if this was what we really wanted.
We get the opportunity to speak in church, and begin to struggle with the very issue we spoke on.
We experience a new level of influence, and have every part of our lives mocked.
We get the dream job, the dream house, the dream car, and right away something breaks.
We finally find freedom from our addictions, only to have that temptation rise up yet again.
We take that step of faith, go on a mission trip, and feel like everything is falling apart.

We experience freedom and are tempted with addiction.
Encounter a new level with God and feel lost.
Receive an answered prayer and all hell breaks loose.

Attacks against our blessings are a part of this walk of faith.

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The Lord Will Fight →

We all face attacks.
We all experience hardships after receiving a blessing.

God answers our prayers, and we begin to doubt if this was what we really wanted.
We get the opportunity to speak in church, and begin to struggle with the very issue we spoke on.
We experience a new level of influence, and have every part of our lives mocked.
We get the dream job, the dream house, the dream car, and right away something breaks.
We finally find freedom from our addictions, only to have that temptation rise up yet again.
We take that step of faith, go on a mission trip, and feel like everything is falling apart.

We experience freedom and are tempted with addiction.
Encounter a new level with God and feel lost.
Receive an answered prayer and all hell breaks loose.

Attacks against our blessings are a part of this walk of faith.

READ MORE…

Killing our Identity →

We tend to think embracing our true identity will be easy.
We like to believe discovering our life’s calling will happen over night.

We come to Christ, make that decision to follow Him, and expect our lives will be made whole within a week.
We spend time in prayer and believe we’ll discover our life’s calling before our last Amen.
We fast and cry out and follow some step-by-step miracle program and think God will give us the roadmap to His will.
We got to church, attend bible study, get involved in a small group and believe the current series will solve all our problems.
We memorize scripture, write a blog post, mentor others and think we’ve arrived at the place where our identity is found only in Him.

We want God to wave a magic wand and do all the work for us.
And get upset when it doesn’t happen in our time frame.

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A God Who Fights →

Last week, as I was preparing for our last Czech youth retreat session, I ran across a verse that I cannot get out of my heart:

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Exodus 14:14

I’m sure you know the story.

The children of Israel had just left Egypt, rejoicing in the fact that God had finally answered their prayers and was bringing them out of slavery. They were excited, praising Him for His goodness, and were able to collect money and valuables from the Egyptians as they left.

But then they came up against the Red Sea…and noticed that Pharaoh, and all of the Egyptian army, was after them.

They were boxed in, had no weapons to defend themselves, and wondered why God would bring them out into the desert just to kill them.

And just as it seemed that all hope was lost, God gives Moses a promise:

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