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Jesus Over Everything with Lisa Whittle

Today on Walk it Out, I chatted about Jesus Over Everything with author Lisa Whittle.

As I read this book, the summary of Jesus Over Everything is actually a whisper: “Daughter, I have so much more for you …”

“The core of why our lives don’t work isn’t the life itself but what internally we never made right,” Lisa says. Right from chapter one, I love how Lisa broke down why things weren’t working for us.

There are three things that make our lives not work in the long term:

too many options, mental confusion, second-guessing, dissatisfaction
getting away with something that’s not good for us, “Admitting something that isn’t visibly hurting us is a sin is perhaps the hardest leap to make.”
trying to handle everything ourselves self-sufficiency

We fill our lives and our schedules—and we try to please others—believing we are martyrs, as if all the overdoing could produce humility and selflessness. We want a simple life, but we just buy more and do more … and Jesus isn’t the center of any of it. When we put us over God, it falls apart. When we put God over us, it always works.

During our interview, the chapter we talked about the most was Holiness Over Freedom, Chapter Four. In this chapter, Lisa shares how we view God and His divine nature determines how seriously we will take being holy. I don’t know about you, but when I first became a Christian I didn’t like that word holiness. First, because I thought it was unattainable. Second, because I thought holiness came from doing all the right things, and none of the wrong things … which is impossible. Instead, Lisa says, “Holiness isn’t about rules; it is about spiritual relinquishment.” Don’t you love that?!

I summarized the questions Lisa has in the book in this way:

Each of us must make daily choices for holiness, pausing and asking:

Jesus, what freedom(s) am I enjoying more than your Word?
What is distracting me from living all in with You?
What am I resisting letting go of?

Jesus will talk to us if we pause to listen. In the upside-down kingdom of following Jesus, we choose to be holy over free, and Jesus rewards it by providing more freedom. Freedom of the flesh is doing what we want, when we want. Whereas freedom of the Spirit is living a Spirit-led, Spirit-controlled life. We can give our lives away to the freedoms here, or we can give our lives away to Jesus, choosing Him and enjoying the far greater benefits of right living.

If this message of holiness, freedom, and turning everything over to Jesus touches your heart today, you’ll love (and want to share!) today’s podcast.

Who is Lisa?

Jesus is everything. It is the heart, the passion and the leadership approach of the author, speaker and ministry leader, Lisa Whittle. As the daughter of a pastor, Lisa’s longest community is with the Church, which has become her greatest place of ministry. Her love runs deep to see people pursue Jesus for life, grow deep roots of faith, and walk strong in the midst of a world that so often seems to have gone crazy.

For this reason, Lisa has dedicated her life to writing and speaking about the truth of Jesus Christ and how wanting Him the most changes everything. Lisa is the author of seven books, including Jesus Over Everything. Lisa is a sought-out Bible teacher for her wit and bold, bottom-line approach.

You can order Jesus Over Everything HERE.

Walk It Out Scripture

Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. Psalm 34:10

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Walk it Out #94: Jesus Over Everything with Lisa Whittle