Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

Pride and Shame - Day 1 of 5; PRIDE

from Pride and Shame on Youversion
The text message from my wife was troubling: “Our son got in trouble three times at school today.” This was very uncharacteristic of him (thankfully), and while part of me wanted to overlook it as an uncommon occurrence, my wife and I both knew that a consequence was needed to drive home the point that his behavior was unacceptable. When he got home from school that day, we talked about what happened and he received his consequence. My wife and I worried about how he would respond (would his behavior escalate as a result?), but he handled it like a champ. The next morning, we both talked about how proud we were of his response.
This is the good kind of pride, the kind that focuses on and recognizes the value and goodness in another person, especially someone or something we feel in some way responsible for. This is the natural pride of loving what is good and celebrating it among the people around us.
But then there is a different kind of pride – a pride that is more about self than it is about others. This pride centers around me (what I have done, what I possess, how I look – all of my “credentials”) and rather than celebrating others, it can actually work against them. Pride is often the fuel of self-promotion, self-protection, and self-praise, with self being the common denominator. This kind of pride loves to do good not for the sake of the good itself but for how it makes me look. Pride is sometimes hard to spot because it can so easily masquerade as virtue.
‭‭Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin.
‭‭PROVERBS‬ ‭21:4‬ ‭NLT
But when we allow pride to creep in (or when we throw open the front door to it), we find ourselves like the proverbial cat up the tree: enjoying the view from our high perch but unaware that there is no easy way down. Scripture clearly illustrates this: throughout the Old and New Testaments, the proud are typically referred to in the context of being brought low. God simply won’t stand for it; He will deal with it in our lives and get rid of it.
For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has a day of reckoning. He will punish the proud and mighty and bring down everything that is exalted.
‭‭ISAIAH‬ ‭2:12‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Sometimes, however, the most painful consequence of our pride comes not from God Himself but from our own self-criticism – when pride takes a nosedive. When this happens, our self-approval turns to self-judgment, and it’s remarkable how skilled we can be at piling it upon ourselves. And we call the emotion that accompanies this, shame.
Is there an antidote to this deadly, destructive pride? Yes there is, but before we reveal it, we have to give shame a closer look and discover that pride and shame really are two sides of the same coin.
And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
‭‭JAMES‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Prayer: Father, it is clear that You take a very dim view of pride and oppose it wherever You see it. Teach me how to let go of my pride and embrace You instead. Show me in the life of Your Son how to do this, and let me walk in His ways instead. In Jesus’ name, amen.
 

Find Your People Day 5 of 5

Finding Our People
Find Your People, Day 5
By Jennie Allen
Read by Andi and Brian Hale
Ephesians 2 tells us that we—you and I and everyone ever to live—were dead in our trespasses and sins and that we were children of wrath, meaning that we deserved for God to send a meteor our way. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:3-5).
Jesus rescuing us from our sin and giving us a way out changes not only our eternal future with Him, but also empowers us to love like Him here. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
You and I are to give that reconciliation and hope away to living, breathing, broken, longing people. God purposefully set you in your place and in your time to love people in such a way that they will feel their way toward Him and find Him.
Jesus not only provides the means to live a full, thriving life with each other and with Father God, He also modeled how it would look! He laughed and learned and sang and grew up in the context of a village. He found His people in unexpected places, not universities or temples. His people were prostitutes, uneducated fishermen, hated tax collectors, children, and mothers-in-law. They were often, by any onlooker’s estimation, the wrong ethnicity, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong status, the wrong personality type, the wrong people.
Jesus’s people were all wrong—except that they were willing. And they were wanting. And they were all in.
Jesus made a habit of pushing away crowds and eating with His twelve. Within that twelve, there were three He spent the most time with. But what began in a village with a tight group of people would reach generations and the ends of the earth. This is the endgame of community: we find our people, and together we build safe, beautiful outposts that offer the love of God.
God, in this weary, tired world it feels like just more work to be “all in” with people who have hurt us or could hurt us. Help me to focus on the endgame: building a community, a circle of friends, that can be a beautiful beacon of Your love. May nothing stand in the way of the relationships You are preparing for me. Amen.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
JOHN 15:15
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
EPHESIANS 2:4‭-‬8
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17‭-‬19

Find Your People Day 4 of 5

Find Your People, Day 4
By Jennie Allen
Read by Andi and Brian Hale
Nothing in my relational life has helped me more than coming to terms with these simple truths: You will disappoint me. I will disappoint you. God will never disappoint us.
Accepting this shifts our expectations from people to God. And He can handle our expectations. But because our current world has been built on such rampant independence, it will take deliberate intention to return to the kinds of relationships that God had in mind for us to enjoy.
The most frequent question I am asked online is “How do I make friends?”This is something sixty-year-olds are asking, twenty-five-year-olds are asking, and young moms are asking. I get it, because the art of making and keeping friends was never really spelled out for most of us.
But is it possible that we are asking the wrong question? What if that intimate circle we’re craving is actually found in the wider network of the village that we’ve been missing?
We wait for those perfect few friends to come along, and then we look to them to be everything to us. What if the power of a little team of friends is that each one brings different things to your life?
I have fun friends who always make me laugh. I have wise friends who give me advice and call me out. I have encouraging friends who cheer me on and tell me what I’m doing well. I have challenging friends who disrupt my thinking or push me to take greater risks.
If I expected one or two people to fill all those roles, no one would ever hit the mark. Also true: if I didn’t appreciate the unique roles my friends play in my life, I might be mad that my “challenger” friend doesn’t encourage me more, or my “wise” friend isn’t fun all the time.
If I start to see that God has put different people in my life to bless me in different ways, then I can both embrace who they are and rest in what I bring to those relationships.
Maybe the question we are really asking behind the question of “How do I make friends?” is this: “How can I belong to an intimate community of people?”
God, what “village” do You have for me? How can I grow in intimacy with that community? I pray for eyes to see how different people in my life show me different aspects of You. Amen.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
PROVERBS 27:17
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
GALATIANS 6:2
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 JOHN 1:7

Find Your People Day 3 of 5

We Are at War
Find Your People, Day 3
By Jennie Allen
Read by Andi and Brian Hale
So if this plan is so good for us, why don’t we just prioritize this plan, fight for this plan, and make this plan unfold every day of our lives?
Two words: the enemy.
If deep, loving, intimate connection is God’s goal, then the enemy might hate nothing more than for you and me to enjoy deep, loving, intimate connection!
No wonder it feels like every aspect of our lives is stacked against our connection to other people.
It is.
The Bible warns us, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
We are called to be a community of people, on a mission, delighting in God, delighting in each other, redeemed and reconciling the world, inviting them into this family.
Yes, community is to encourage you.
Yes, it is to comfort you.
Yes, it is to fight for you.
But ultimately community is meant to open the doors wide to every person on earth and invite them into a family that exists forever with God.
And so of course the enemy wants to divide us. He wants to see us fighting against each other rather than for each other.
We must understand the war we’re in. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “we are not ignorant of [Satan’s] designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Satan knows that we have no better defensive weapon in life than having the people who love God rally around us, fight for us, and fight with us.
So how the heck are we supposed to fight terrifying stats of loneliness, the devil and his plan to sabotage connection, and the fundamental way that society is set up, and instead build what God cares most about?
You know the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Well, it takes a village to create a full and thriving life for us adults too.
But this village living will not happen by accident. We’ll have to build a new life.
God, sometimes I feel as if my circumstances and our culture and my past hurts make it impossible for me to have a real connection with others. But I know that You are greater than the enemy who is in the world! Show me how to fight for the relationships You want me to have. Amen.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
EPHESIANS 6:10‭-‬13
in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
2 CORINTHIANS 2:11
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 PETER 5:8
 

Find Your People Day 2 of 5

The Center of Our Affections
By Jennie Allen
Read by Andi and Brian Hale
The fact that we were made in the image of God, who is relationship, means our longing for healthy, mutually submissive, supportive, interdependent relationships aren’t simply us craving something good for us, like vegetables or vitamins; we are craving the fundamental reason we were created. We weren’t just built for community; we were built because of it. Woven into the fiber of our souls is a pattern for experiencing an intimate relationship with God and then expressing that love in our families and communities and churches.
How arrogant are we to think that even though the God of the universe exists in a community, our little fragile finite selves can survive without it!
But here is where we go wrong. We look to people to complete and fill what only God was meant to fill. This is the primary reason we all are so unhappy with each other. We have put our hope in imperfect people. But that hope can be answered only in God Himself. Eternity was set in our hearts, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, which means only a relationship with an eternal God can fill our hearts.
If God is in the center of our relational circle, we will be fulfilled, and out of that fulfillment, we can bless others. But if people are in the center of our relational circle, we end up pulling on others to meet needs that they can’t ever fully meet.
Jesus said it clearest. When asked to name the greatest commandment, He said all the commandments could be boiled down to this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
When you have God in the right place, at the center of your affections, you will more likely get people right. Your relationship with God comes first, and that relationship is meant to send you into loving others.
God, forgive me for so often valuing others’ opinions of me more than what You think of me. For putting hope in things and relationships that can never satisfy me like You can because they were never meant to. I want You to be the center of my life so that I can love others well. Amen.
for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
PSALM 107:9
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
ECCLESIASTES 3:11
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
MATTHEW 22:36‭-‬39