Play with Fire

God isn’t waiting for you to have more resources, a spouse, or a job so he can use you.

He’s ready to use you now.

In this track, we will take excerpts from Bianca Juarez’s new book, Play with Fire.

Through this 4-day track brought to us by the Catalyst App, we will expose and address a condition all too familiar to all of us – our constant desire to try and transform our own lives. Whether that happens at work, in ministry, with those you lead, or with your family, there is some area that we just don’t like surrendering control of.

But as Bianca’s own personal story will show, doing so prevents us from ever really being satisfied.

Find out what that area is and learn how to let God handle those things instead. In the process of doing so, complete the challenges on the Catalyst App at the end of each day for a chance to receive a copy of Play With Fire. There are 5 copies available.

Are you ready?

DAY 3: Choices & Offers

Sometimes we want bargains or easy ways out of hard situations. Sometimes we want to be plucked from the desert or the furnace. It’s normal. And sometimes, worshiping a false god—eventhe gods of materialism, relationships, or health—seems like the easy way out.

If I had been around during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, I fear my desire for safety and oh, I don’t know, living, would have trumped my convictions. Let’s put ourselves in the boys’ shoes (well,sandals). They had been trafficked from their homeland. Their parents were most likely dead. They were thrown into a new culture, new language, and new religion—an astrology-based cult we’d consider nothing short of witchcraft. They’d found favor and influence, but they also acquired some haters and dissenters who wanted to destroy them, wanted to set up their demise. Would I be able to withstand such pressures? Would you?

This narrative that took place thousands of years ago, but aren’t we faced with similar decisions today? Do we bow to the little idols that exist in our everyday lives? Do we relinquish our convictions when the social pressure is on? In my desert wilderness, I tried anesthetizing emotions and desires so I didn't have to feel anymore.

I suffered from Desert Brain and forgot the ways God had provided for me and my family for so long. I forgot my God-given name: Child of God. Granted, most of us will never encounter a ninety-foot statue of gold we’re expected to worship, but there are ways we bend our knee to keep ourselves safe, to go unnoticed, to avoid the fire.

Challenge: Do you deal with “Desert Brain?” Look at the areas you thought about for Day 1 – those areas you have a hard time relinquishing control over. How has God provided for you in those areas?

*With each completed challenge on the Catalyst App, you are entered in for a chance to win a FREE copy of 'Play with Fire'.*

Download the Catalyst App today!

Bianca Juarez Olthoff is a writer, teacher, and chief storyteller for the A21 Campaign. She is passionate about God’s word and teaches around the globe as well as blogs about life, love and the pursuit of Jesus.

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Play with Fire - Day 3

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