Complexity requires competence. So does simplicity. 

Hard work requires competence. So does rest. 

Growth requires competence. So does pruning.

Managing multiple calendars requires competence. So does prioritizing your own time.

God grants competence for all of life. Knowledge. Discernment. Skill. Strength. These are all good gifts from God. 

But all competence can lead to an outsized dependency upon ourselves. We can begin to rely too much on our own wisdom and strength and power. Before we know it, God is a distant land. Prayer is a foreign language.

As a church, our vision has become “growing not a big church, but a big people – a people BIG in Christ”. Therefore, to walk in that, we – as a church and as individuals members of it – must both guard and guard against our competence. 

We must be faithful to guard the skills God has gifted to us by stewarding and developing them. But, at the same time, we must guard against the trap that is trusting our gifts and skills are enough. I’ll remind us again and again that we can build a successful church without Jesus. But we cannot build HIS church without HIM!

So we must not amidst our growth come to think too highly of ourselves. We must at all times live according to the grace of Jesus by keeping pace with the Spirit. What do we have that we have not received from Him? And what have we received from Him that is not also through Him and for Him?

This year began with me traveling more than I had in previous years. I wrestled with saying yes to these opportunities. So I asked the Lord, if He was calling me to go, to please give me joy in the going. And He has. 

One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up hearing this phrase in my heart: “Tithe your time”.

I had been for a few days thinking and praying about how I would protect my first calling to my family and to Elim Grace. IF God was calling me to travel more, I wanted to do so with wisdom. With a level of competence. In that moment, I understood “Tithe your time” to mean give (up to) 10% of my year to traveling. Tithing my time to travel would mean that God would bless the rest. That my first calling would not suffer in the least. 

Our competence needs a white flag of surrender planted in it. Meaning, as disciples, our knowledge, discernment, skill, and strength are not our own. They have been purchased and are set apart. So they must wave a white flag that says, “JESUS IS KING”. 

Your time needs a flag. Your calendar needs a flag. Your marriage and family need a flag. Your work needs a flag. Your rest needs a flag. Your physical health needs a flag. Your possessions need a flag. Your education needs a flag. Your finances need a flag. Your budget needs a flag. Your….

There must be a “white flag” that marks the different areas of our life as submitted to Jesus. It doesn’t have to be complicated. But it should be some kind of practical and symbolic step we build into our lives that waves as our “white flag”. 

Eating dinner five nights a week with your family. 

Establishing and giving your tithe. 

Attending church three out of four Sundays. 

Reading one chapter of the Bible at the start of every day.

Going off social media for one day a week.

Going for a drive or a walk without your iPhone.

Setting a timer and praying 2 minutes before your meetings.

The possibilities are endless, yet must be unique to you. To your context. To your circumstance. To your family. To your relationship with Jesus.

Yes, our competence needs a white flag of surrender planted somewhere – “JESUS IS KING”. 

Because as Paul lived and preached, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20