Welcome to Thriving without Striving

A place where we can find joy in our journey with Jesus!

When we read a phrase like "thriving without striving", we may tend to translate that into: gain without pain, a joyful life of ease or success without effort.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

As much as I wish I could promise that's what this blog is about, it isn't.

Thriving in our journey with Jesus is not without effort on our part.

Energy is required, but not striving.

Christine Caine put it like this:

"It doesn't take much time in the Bible to see that if you're serious about following God, you're signing up for a S T R E T C H!"

She stated it perfectly!

You may be asking "aren't striving, effort, and stretching all the same things?".

How do we thrive without striving and what does that even mean?

The dictionary tells us thriving is growing well, developing vigorously, flourishing, succeeding.

Awesome!

I'm in!

Our dictionary tells us striving is making great efforts to achieve or obtain something; to struggle or fight vigorously.

That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

For the purpose of this blog, I'm going to narrow the focus.

We can use the book of Wisdom (Proverbs) in the Bible to help with our definitions.

We will define thriving as joyfully journeying with Jesus, which happens when we trust in the Lord with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5a).

Our circumstances don't dictate our joy and thriving; our trust in a God who loves us and is for us does.

Now, we'll add a working definition of striving.

When it comes to my faith, I've learned striving occurs in my heart and life when I lean on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5b) instead of trusting God.

If you're like me, you may have had a knee-jerk reaction to that statement that is something like... "Ouch!"

Before you delete this blog forever from your own cyberspace, please go with me for a few minutes.

As I've walked with Jesus, I've come to believe that thriving without striving happens when I totally rely on God. And...

Total reliance on God happens when I am a follower - a committed disciple of Jesus.

In the many years I've been following Jesus, I've come to know what keeps me standing on solid ground rather than sinking sand is being a disciple.

Disciples follow.

Disciples learn.

Disciples ask questions.

Disciples obey the One they follow.

Disciples are disciplined.

If I want to thrive, all of the above are daily needs.

Every. Day.

That's key to being able to trust the Lord with all my heart and NOT lean on my own understanding.

Yesterday, I was re-reading a book and came across a phrase that stops me in my mental tracks every time.

"During this winter season, the only things I had to hold on to were the disciplines I had already built into my life." (Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordeiro, p. 11)

These few words speak volumes of truth.

He already had in place the disciplines required to not only survive a painful season, but to thrive.

Our faith WILL be tested, but we WILL have the fortitude required to press on and even thrive when we set the right disciplines in our lives. Disciplines that lead us to trust God with every part of our hearts.

I pray this blog will help you and me put in place the disciplines necessary to pursue Jesus with passion.

He put us on this earth for such a time as this.

We are not accidents and our time in history is not by chance.

We live in a world that is striving for everything under the sun.

Let's be shining lights of those who learn to thrive in this crazy world because we are living from a place of trusting in a God on which we can rely rather than trying to barrel our way through this life in our own strength.

Many blessings,

Kathy Ann