“I just want to love God and I want to be a Christian! I really want to see Jesus one day.” The true longing in my son’s voice for the Lord was undeniable, and I knew God was at work in his heart. Hearing those words flow from his mouth was an answer to our many prayers that began before he was born. We have always tread very carefully with salvation when it comes to our children because we want it to be a true act of what God is doing, not merely trying to please Mom and Dad.

The biggest thing that we wanted to see in his life was fruit and evidence that God was really and truly at work in his life. If I’m being honest, it’s a difficult assessment to make without expecting perfection.  I prayed that God would allow me to have the wisdom and insight to know the difference in looking for fruit verses expecting perfection, because at the end of the day we all fall short and he is a child that’s continuing to learn, grow, and mature.

As I was looking for fruit, I realized that was overlooking a heart of brokenness. Beautiful, healthy plants are pruned first, and often look unattractively stubby. Last week I took time to talk with my son about self-control and controlling his emotions. Later that day I walked into my son’s room, and I found him with tear filled eyes.

I immediately asked what was wrong and he answered, “Mom I’m praying that God will help me with self-control and I want to ask if you will pray that for me, too?” Our conversation earlier in the day had ended, but God’s work was just beginning. Although it was a moment of brokenness, it was in fact a beautiful moment. A broken and contrite heart is exactly what God loves. (Psalm 51:17)

Yes, we look for fruit but often times it is proceeded by a broken branch that will in turn produce beauty in abundance! I thank God that He doesn’t leave us broken, but instead He is steadily working to make us new!

Jesus can heal what you are hiding… He can heal what is hidden in the depths of your heart, and in the depths of mine. Chronic anxiety was a huge battle I faced for years. The beauty in the battle was Jesus’ presence and watching Him provide peace and a tender touch on my heart through it all. I felt like I was failing, but looking back God’s gracious hands were walking me through the storm. He continued to be “the way, the truth, and the life” for me in a time when I would not have known a path to take, I would not have had any truth to know or cling to and I would not have had the breath of life continuously breathed into my lungs to keep me going. Looking back, there was beauty in that trial- although in that moment of time, I would have stated otherwise.

Often times, after God leads us through one struggle, there seems to be another one right around the corner waiting. Sometimes the struggles we face may not be as evident to anyone around us, but it is known only to ourselves and most definitely seen by God. Maybe it’s a struggle deep within the heart- jealously, bitterness, anger, idolatry … but left undealt with, these hidden struggles will eventually rise to the surface, making its’ presence known in some area of our lives. 

In the heart of the believer we know that we should be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and then we wonder “How in the world can I be wrestling with anger, bitterness, jealousy, idolatry … etc.?” In my flesh, my first instinct is to hide it. Mask it with doing good things and maybe even pretend it’s not there. But hiding and pretending has never fixed anything.

Shame usually accompanies struggle and when we are plagued with shame, we have a tendency to hide our face from God. The enemy would love nothing more to keep our eye off of Jesus, but we are told, “To fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and prefecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Friends, when we find ourselves surrounded by struggle and shame, that is the most crucial time that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus- not take them off. He came to SET US FREE (Luke 4:18) and He longs to provide healing and remove the heavy weight of shame off of our lives. (Matthew 11:28-29)

I think too often in the Christian life, we are plagued with “I must be perfect” mentality and therefore, when struggle hits, we may find ourselves hiding from God. Sanctification is a grace filled process. It’s a process of Jesus making us new day by day. We don’t have to hide, nor does Jesus want us to. With every struggle, with every difficulty we can and should lay it at His feet! He longs to provide all the healing we could ever need!

1 Peter 3:8-9

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing.”

What a list of virtues, we as believers, are called to live by and exhibit in our lives! And if I’m being completely transparent- they sometimes seem absent in the life of believers.

Harmonious living? Nothing seems harmonious anymore in today’s world. But I imagine that it did not seem too harmonious when Peter wrote these words either.

Life around us seems so individualistic. Everyone has their personal goals, their personal thoughts, their personal schedules, their personal opinions, etc and all of which seems to having us singing to different tunes. Nothing seems to sound pretty around us anymore.

On the contrary, harmonies are beautiful. They reflect unity. Harmonies are powerful and moving to the listener, to the observer and in verse 8, harmonious is what Peter says that we as the Church, should be!

Before Peter begins this list virtues, he precedes it with ‘all of you.’ We each have an individual responsibility to strive towards harmonious living and just one of us choosing to sing from a different page in the hymn book from all the others, damages the harmony God desires to establish with his people.

All in all, harmonies are truly captivating. So many different voices, so many different instruments with different tones and sounds coming together making beautiful sounds that reaches the heart and soul.

So, how does this happen? How is it possible to get so many different people with different thoughts, opinions, feelings, backgrounds, etc to live in this harmony and produce this beauty God calls for? We must simply play the same notes!

God’s words are the notes we must play and read! That is our unity and that alone will produce the like mindedness needed to produce the beautiful, captivating sound bellowing from the bride of Christ! God’s word alone is what will allow us to produce a beautiful harmony in an unharmonious world!

Unsafe, uncertain, confused, angry, disheartened… these may be a few of the many words that describe how many of my fellow Americans, myself included, are feeling these days. These feelings towards the reality of life as we know it today, does a great job at dominating our minds, leaving us exhausted, only to flood our thoughts with questions like: What do we do? Where do we go? What is the truth? Is there even a solution?

The ‘fight or flight’ feelings definitely come in to play during times like these, and chances are, you’ve experienced both! And I believe the appropriate response during these uncertain times is to do both! We should fight and take flight.

As God has drawn a believer’s heart unto Himself, our fighting has to be done on our knees and when we are afraid, we should run! We should take flight and run fast to our God who never fails and is always our defender!

Psalms 91: 1, 2 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.”

Just last night, my 9 year old son was explaining to me that when you see LORD in all capital letters that it means covenant (promise) keeper! So as we read verse 2, we are saying, “I will say of my covenant/promise keeper, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust!”

In a time of wondering what is true and who can we trust, we can run to our LORD, our covenant keeper, and know that He is our reliable source of truth. When fear seeks to take over and we long for a place of safety, we can know that our Covenant Keeper is our fortress… our permanent, unmovable wall of defense for those who run to Him and stay there!

When the feeling to fight comes, may we find ourselves falling to our knees with great cries to our defender, who always fights on our behalf; and as we seek to take flight, may we run to our LORD, our covenant keeper, and know that He will always be our constant shield of defense!

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3

There are times when God allows us to walk through ‘sun-scorched’ lands, to go through things we can’t handle, only to show us that He most certainly can!

It is in these times, in these very places, that we are called to a more authentic faith and a greater trust in the very One who formed you in your mother’s womb, a greater faith in the One who knows your coming and going.

It’s in these times, in these very places, that a greater praise and love flows from the heart of the believer who trusts God in the middle of these ‘sun-scorched’ lands.

It’s in these times, in these very places, that we see and experience God’s comfort, joy, and peace that only He can give, and watch Him provide when logic and circumstances say that you should be without.

It’s in these times, in these places, that God moves us from being self-sufficient to becoming God dependent!

He is more than enough for you today! Keep trusting, keep praying, and keep KNOWING that the Lord will guide you always!

“The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isaiah 58: 11

“Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?!” The disciples fired this question off towards Jesus when they found themselves caught in the middle of a violent and very dangerous storm as they were crossing the Sea of Galilee. (Mark 4:35-41)

It was at Jesus’ request they go to the other side of the sea. Scripture tells us that at Jesus’ request, the disciples got on the boat and set sail- no questions asked, indicating that the weather must have been right for sailing and the threat of a storm was nowhere in sight. Because who in their right mind would begin to set sail as a storm began to brew?

Disciples today are often like disciples of the past. We are good at following where Jesus calls us to go, as long as it makes sense, and no storm is within eyesight. But as soon as the storm begins to rage and the waves of difficulty crash upon our lives, we panic and frantically scream out, “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?”

An ongoing storm in life can cause us to ask the daring question to our Savior, “Don’t you care? Don’t you care that the storm is raging on and that I feel as if I am drowning in this hardship?” If I am being totally, transparent, yes, I have asked that question. And I as I have asked that question, I learned firsthand, the answer is an emphatic YES! He does care!

Life’s storms have really caused me to wrestle through God’s word and learn how to properly apply it to my life. God challenged my heart through this specific passage by causing me to ask the following questions:

1. What does this account tell me about Jesus?
2. What do I learn about Jesus’ presence during life’s storms?
3. What should I do in the middle of life’s storms?
4. How does this passage help me to learn to push aside my frantic emotions to see God’s truth?
5. What truths have I learned about Jesus?
6. How does truth strengthen my faith?
7. How do all of these factors provide me with unwavering hope?
8. What has been fueling my hope?

When you feel like you are going to be overcome by your storm! RUN to the word of God for truth and speak His truth over your life!

Truth’s this passage shows us that we can cling to:

• Never will Jesus leave or forsake us in our storms.
• Jesus’ presence offers us a peace and rest in the midst of chaos.
• Jesus is greater than any storm we face!
• Just as creation was spoken into existence, creation still obeys the voice of our Creator!
• Jesus longs for us to focus on truth during our storms! (Jesus, specifically asked, “Why are you so afraid?”)
• Jesus longs for us see His power over all things and therefore we can always have faith in Him to carry us through whatever we face!
• Our faith can only be strengthened by growing in our knowledge of Jesus!
• We can live life confidently because whatever comes our way, God’s presence remains and He remains sovereign over all things!
• Jesus alone is the true essence of hope- In Christ alone our hope is found!

Friends, if you find yourself in some sort of storm today, this passage of scripture holds rich truths for you to cling to! Jesus, our all-knowing Savior, is guiding your steps each and every day! As He calls you from one place to another, there will be (not maybe) storms that we face. As we face those storms, we can know that YES, my Savior cares for me!

The year of 2020… wow… where to even begin on describing 2020?! To say that it is a year that hasn’t gone according to plan would be putting it lightly! Many have felt the sting of disappointment that 2020 has brought along with it, but intertwined with the disappointment is a bold string of hope that still remains. That is one thing that God has taught me over and over again, is that through difficulty, hope really does remain, and if we seek the hope He offers, we will find it.
It is during difficult, uncertain times that I have had to have some painful and honest heart evaluations. Do I really hold tight to the truths that God works all things for the good of those who love Him, that what the enemy meant for evil, God turns it for good, that God is still on His throne, and that He has a faithful, unrelenting grip on my life? As trying circumstances unfold, like they have in 2020, we have to ask ourselves if we really believe in these truths? Do I see the thick bold, band of hope that remains present or do I ignore it?

… intertwined with disappointment is a bold string of hope that still remains…

As plans change, it sometimes can provide an open window for discouragement, disappointment, and doubt to enter. As a person who is very much a planner, I have had to learn to how make my plans without having all my hope and faith invested in them. I can love my plans and have so much faith in my plans that they become the source of my assurance instead of having a placed assurance in the One who establishes all things. The minute I invest more of my heart and mind into my plans than I should, God quickly intervenes and shows me the error of my way.

In times of sudden change, I am faced with an opportunity to see the magnitude of the guarantees that God provides  me, and that they never slip away. I am faced to see that, although all that is around me may fade away, I am marked with a permanent seal of redemption, a seal that is eternal. It is in what is eternal that should encompass all of our faith and consume our hearts! Our seal, dear friends, is eternal and unbreakable because it is a seal that has been placed on lives by our eternal, unbreakable God!

Ephesians 1:13b-14
“Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of His glory.”

Over the past 16 years that my husband and I have been married, my father in law has taken a lot of joy in telling me about the time that he and my husband, Jasper, were at the grocery store. I believe Jasper was 2 or 3 at the time, and he was insistent that he was going to carry the gallon of milk. My father in law placed the gallon of milk on the floor and watched as his little boy tried with all his might to lift the gallon of milk.

After several tries, and no success, Jasper finally looked to his father and said, “Hebby Daddy. Hebby Daddy. Help me.” With a laugh, my father in law gladly picked up the gallon of milk that his young son was unable to carry- and honestly, it wasn’t meant for him to carry.

As I think about this story, I was drawn to Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I think we can all imagine how cute it would be to watch a determined 2 or 3 year old try to carry a gallon of milk to the front of the store, especially because we all know it wouldn’t happen. Jasper was not physically able to carry that milk, and as long as he stood there trying to carry something that he was never meant to carry, he remained stagnant.

Sometimes, I think we also make the same attempts that mirror a 2/3 year old child trying to carry a gallon of milk. How often do we try to carry things that were never meant for us to carry and remain stagnant, instead of stopping and saying, Heavenly Father, today I give to you what I cannot bear, what I cannot carry.”

We were not made to carry all the burdens this life has, no matter how big or small they may be, and Jesus tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest. The solution is quite simple, but one that requires the faith to say, “Heavy Father. Heavy Father. Please help me.”

Making decisions can be extremely exhausting for me at times. Especially when the “way to go” doesn’t seem so clear. There have been times when my pros and cons lists seem to be equal in weight, causing the thoughts in my brain feels like a ping pong ball bouncing around recklessly as I strive to come to a decision.

But then there are times when the decisions I should make are more obvious, and very little mental energy is needed in the decision making process. I wish more of life was lived in the “cut and dry” but in my experience, this is rarely the case. There have been so many different paths to choose from over the years, and many choices for us to make as a family, and the choices that we should make have not always been so clear, causing us to call out to the Lord with a plea of “Lead us, God! Lead us in the way we should go.”

The Israelites also found themselves in a place where the way that they should go was not so clear, and they needed God’s constant guidance to lead and direct them. The desert could not have been an easy place to navigate through, and therefore, God not only guided them at night in a pillar of fire, but He also guided them during the day in a pillar of cloud. Day or night, they were in need of God’s constant guidance, and not only was it God’s guidance, it was His very presence that was going before them!

Recently, my husband was very excited to learn and share with me a new term that he discovered- theophany. (THEE-O-FU-NEE) A theophany is a visible manifestation to humankind of God. This manifestation is an action that CLEARLY shows something that is abstract to people!

Understanding that the cloud by day and the fire by night were not just objects attached to a fishing pole, dangling from the sky for the Israelites to follow, but it was an act of guidance that also showed that the very presence of God was with them, is pretty mind blowing to say the least! His presence went before them, and He, God, manifested Himself in such a way to lead His people moment by moment- day or night.

This distinct difference in knowing the “objects in the sky” leading God’s people was actually His very presence leading them, helps me understand that God wasn’t just leading them through an obstacle course, but rather as He was leading them, they were in His presence!

How this truth changes the way that I will pray when the path of life seems clear OR unclear! No longer will I just pray “Lead me Lord!” Instead, I long for my prayer to be, “Go before me Lord and allow me to go in the way of your theophany, in the way that you are manifesting your presence in a personal and unique way that will lead and guide me!”

Our lives are SO much more than an obstacle course to be navigated through, but rather our lives should be lived with the moment by moment guidance of the God who desires to not only lead us, but to lead with His presence, and ultimately lead us to that glorious promised land!

When the decisions of life seem to be difficult to make, take heart in knowing that it may just be that God is striving for us to see Him lead us with His presence, and remind us of our constant need for His guidance, day and night, that He will faithfully provide!

Exodus 13:21
“ By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.”

Is today the day that God may be saying to you that it’s time to stop praying?…. What a bogus question to ask, right? Or is it? Now, before you write me off for asking something so outlandish, please hear me out. I promise there is good reason for asking a question such as this.

I truly love praying! Cast ALL of my MANY cares upon the Lord??? Umm…. YES, PLEASE! Prayer is a privilege and it allows us to commune with God. He calls us to come to Him with all sorts of prayers and requests at all times of the day! Time and time again, I have gone back and read through my prayer journals and I have enjoyed reading past prayers and then recognize that God has answered so many of them in amazing ways. Even small little prayers that I had forgotten all about! Praying and watching God lovingly respond, is such a blessing and is a major faith builder for me.

But, is there a time when God calls us to stop praying about something? And surprisingly, I believe the answer is YES. If you are familiar at all with the book of Exodus then you already know that this book is all about God’s deliverance. I never get tired of going back and reading this book! How in the world can reading about God splitting the Red Sea so that He could lead His people out of a land of slavery get old? It’s such a faith builder and it helps me keep a true perspective of God as it beautifully puts His power on display.

But as I was reading this week, I stumbled across some verses that had never stood out to me before. Just as the Israelites were nearing the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s army continued moving closer to them. Fear quickly overtook the large crowd of escapees and Moses assures them that on this very day they would see the deliverance of the Lord.

But it’s the verse following this that really grabbed me.
Exodus 14:15 says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you still crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”
Wow! “Why are you still crying out to me?” This is what the Lord asked Moses as they stood in front of a large body of water with a massive army getting closer to them by the minute. I believe I would have still been crying out to the Lord too!

But what God was saying to Moses here in the middle of an intense, scary, and chaotic moment, is that there is a time when we are to stop praying and to start walking in faith!

God had heard the cries of His people and their prayers were being answered with each passing step. They just had to trust the God who was delivering them and allow their faith to be greater than their fear.

So could it be that God is asking us the very same question, “Why are you still crying out to me?” Maybe you have continued to pray about something and as God is answering your prayer, He is calling you out into the unknown and to trust Him.

I think that it’s important to ask ourselves, and to recognize if today is the very day that God is saying it’s time to stop praying about it and it’s time to start walking!