Gratitude and Simple Trust

“I will thank you forever, because you have done it.” Psalm 52:9

This little verse is nestled within a psalm where David was fleeing for his life from King Saul. He begins by declaring the true state of Saul’s heart in verses 1-4, revealing that Saul’s tongue “plots destruction” (vs. 2), and that he “loves evil more than good” (vs. 3). He then goes on to affirm in verses 5-7 the fate he knows Saul will have for not “making God his refuge,” saying “God will break you down,” and “uproot you from the land of the living.” In a dramatic turn in verses 8-9, David declares his own state of being despite the threat of losing his life at the hands of Saul:

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.” Psalm 52:8-9 emphasis added

As I sat this morning and read vs. 9 specifically, I sensed the reality of Colossians 1:13, that the Father has indeed delivered me from the domain of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of His beloved Son. The world “could have” enveloped me, and yet God has brought me into a relationship with Him and set my feet on a new path. In prayer I saw myself before the throne of God, immersed in His eternal light, and gratitude began to fill my heart. The desire to “thank God forever” simply seemed right, because “He has done it.” He has done something in my life I have not deserved, and could not do on my own- saved me from darkness and given me a desire to know Him. I give you thanks Father! And I want to thank you forever...

This Psalm starkly contrasts Saul and David, comparing those who “trust in the abundance of their own riches” vs. those who “trust in the steadfast love of God.” Those who trust in their own strength are like plants snatched and uprooted from the ground (vs. 5), while those who trust in God are planted in His house and are like a fertile, green olive trees bearing fruit (vs.8). What a difference! Though we are not pursued to death by a human enemy (at least not in our Western experience), the spiritual forces of darkness pursue us and work against us everyday, and we are commanded to put on armor and stand strong against its attack! (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8-9). As a mother of growing children, this reality is becoming more and more clear. Young children have an innocence and purity about them, yet when they increasingly encounter the world, the innocence begins fade, and it breaks my heart. What are we to do then? O that our children would find refuge in the house of God to be delivered from evil and instead grow in the steadfast love of God!

So as I prayed, thanking God for what He has done in my life, desiring my own children and the next generation after me to trust in the Lord– I saw myself gathering my children around me and holding them to my side so that they could grow beneath the Lord’s love. I could sense the reality of the darkness of the world around us, and yet we were protected in His house and enveloped in His light. Though darkness surrounds, the truth is God has DONE IT– He has made a way to eternally receive the blessings of His kingdom of light. Jesus was sent to cleanse us from our sins and transfer us from the world into His domain and protection. We have been brought into His house, eternally protected, eternally provided for, eternally cherished…no matter what the world is doing around us. In this life we may have tribulation, yet we can still be like green olive trees, sheltered from the destruction of the world, receiving from His goodness and be full of life.

May we experience the joy of trusting in God, abiding in His presence and protected in His house, and may our children choose to trust in the Lord and gather with us. May we each day acknowledge and thank God for what He has done, so that we can enjoy the wonders of His presence each day, and invite our children and the next generation into this blessed state of being even though we are pursued by the darkness.

Amen and amen!

JuliAnn

Supplied AND Satisfied

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.“

–Matthew 5:6 ESV, emphasis added

The Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5-7, has always been one of my favorite parts of Scripture. The beatitudes especially, as Jesus tells us specifically what a BLESSED life– from heavens perspective– entails. He gives us the very blueprint of our soul, spelled out with such simplicity. When we look at Matthew 5:6, what becomes clear is that He created us as creatures that need to be filled. The question becomes, what are we seeking to be filled with? And does what we seek ultimately satiate the longing of our soul?

For years I have read the New King James Version, which renders this verse “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” The Greek word used here is chortazō, which means to fill, feed, or satisfy. It is the depiction of an animal being gorged to fatness; fed with abundance. Paraphrased in my own understanding I always understood it like this: “Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness because I will supply you with righteousness.” I got the impression that if I desired righteousness, God would supply it–meaning He would give me an amount of righteousness that would be enough for my life. This is obviously a great promise, and Scripture reaffirms this truth. God supplies us with the righteousness of His own Son when we put our faith and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior (Romans 1:16-17). Receiving Jesus’ own righteousness allows us to stand in the Father’s presence legally without any fear of judgment–what a gift! Then as we choose to live for Him day after day, He further supplies us with “all that we need for life and godliness” so that we can live our life out in righteousness (2 Peter 1:3 **see note below about righteousness**). If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God will give us enough of it in order to eternally be right in His eyes and also to live each day in ways that are pleasing to Him. He will supply us with righteousness if we hunger and thirst for it!

I recently purchased an English Standard Version bible (ESV), which translates chortazō not as “filled,” but rather “satisfied,” and I realized how important this distinction is. Just because we are supplied with something doesn’t mean we are satisfied with it. I may have an abundance of food in the kitchen, a great house that meets all my needs, a closet full of clothes and shoes, and yet not be satisfied with what I have. There’s a longing– especially in our western culture– for more, bigger, better! We’ve all heard stories of those who achieve fame, where everyone wants to be around them or be them, yet they feel alone and depressed. Others achieve amazing philanthropic or business endeavors yet never feel it is enough and try to do more and more. Still others acquire great fortune and wealth, yet always seek more because it is never enough. How does this happen? It happens because no amount of things in this world– whether possessions, positions or power– were ever meant to satisfy the human soul. While brazen, the apostles John and James did not mince words. John declares in his first letter those who love the world do not have the Father in them (1 John 2:15). James builds on this revelation, that when we love the world we are not only empty and void of God, but we become His “enemy” (James 4:4). This screams that God never meant for us to be satisfied or filled with anything that He created. Seeking to be filled and satisfied with something in this world not only is a vain pursuit, it also sets us up against the Creator and Lover of our soul.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. -John 2:15-17

It’s why King Solomon, after pursuing knowledge, labor, debauchery and pleasure, found it all was vanity. He ended his treatise in Ecclesiastes thus: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). He found that pursuing anything else in life was futile; the one thing needed was to live in God’s ways. This is completely counter-cultural, but absolutely beautiful when we hear Jesus’ promise to us in Matthew 5:6. As we pursue and desire righteousness in our life, He will supply us with it AND satisfy us with it. All of a sudden, as we seek to live well pleasing to God in all our ways, actions and thoughts, nothing in life is vain and rather has eternal purpose and significance. What an incredible thing to live for, to pursue, and to receive from God! And I love what righteousness produces in our lives. Isaiah writes:

“And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” – Isaiah 32:17

Our pursuit of righteousness means we will be supplied and satisfied in life, the effect of which brings contentment, peace, and joy to our eternal souls.

Lord, we thank you for how you have designed us. You designed us to be filled with your thoughts, your perspectives, your ways, and that you promise to fill us up. God help us to see the ways we are hungering and thirsting for other things that will never satisfy us. Lord give us grace to seek to be filled with your righteousness above all else so that we can enjoy the blessed life you have told us about! Thank you for your promises, let us walk in them today, in Jesus’ name.

JuliAnn

**Righteousness**

The Greek word “righteousness” used in Matthew 5:6 is dikaiosynē, which can be used in these ways:

1. in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God
   1. the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God
   2. integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
2. in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1343/kjv/tr/0-1/

In laymen’s terms, when I read about being “righteous”, it means I am both in right standing in God’s eyes, and also my ways, thoughts, and actions are pleasing to God. So I am right as I stand before God, but also acting rightly or choosing to do what is right as I live my life. Righteousness therefore, is both something we have been given, and something we must act out…and this comprises the theological terms “justification” and “sanctification!” .

Shaking the Foundations

You never know how secure a foundation is by merely looking at it. It’s not until it is either shaken or shifted that its strength is truly shown. Amidst the disruption of an earthquake, what used to be an architectural masterpiece, vast tower or quaint home– can become a heap of rubble. Even subtle shifts of the ground over years can cause fissures in foundations; crooked and cracked walls. Foundations are important, yet seeing their deficiencies is likewise important, because it allows us to see what to improve, repair, or simply redo for our own safety.

The other morning as I woke up I saw a glimpse of myself standing on what appeared to be a concrete floor. It was suddenly shaken, and in the span of 3 seconds it completely crumbled apart. What appeared to be a solid foundation was shattered to pieces in mere moments. I knew when I saw this the Lord was directing me to look at His exhortation that begins in Matthew 7:21.

“‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’ On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:21-27 ESV emphasis added)

As I got my daughter ready for school I glanced at the clock and it was 7:21am– just a subtle confirmation that He was speaking about Matthew 7:21. And what I felt the Lord saying was that more and more He will be shaking the foundations we stand on so that we can see the faultiness of what we build our lives upon. That may sound harsh, but He is doing so because He so longs for us to be fully established on one thing– knowing Him– which is expressed in a life of loving obedience to His commands (John 14:15, 24). The faultiness of our foundations are revealed as we encounter difficulty, disappointments, trials, and injustices in life. As we encounter these things, we respond with either faith, humility, trust and surrender or fear, pride, anxiety, and control. The former leaves our lives intact and standing, the latter we find life crumbling to pieces and falling apart.

The question we must all answer is, are we ones who, when shakings come, exemplify that we know Christ and have true wisdom because we come out unscathed? Or are we ones who declare He is Lord yet have not learned to flesh out His commands and so come crashing down with every trial that touches our life and emotions?

The past few weeks the Lord has exposed further how my heart responds as foundations I have rested on are being shaken. The Lord, with His fiery eyes of love, is gazing into the depths of our hearts to unearth things to help us see “how we truly are” and if we are building a life that is “eternally secure.” Our motivations, our desires that are not of Him, the ways we waste time just for the sake of getting some pleasure for our flesh so that we can cope with the demands of the day, must be examined and see if they pass the test of building something that will last when shakings come. He exposes these things not to shame us, but to call us higher into Himself, so that we can build a secure, lasting foundation.

He is testing foundations because He desires us to have a complete, undiluted and unwavering trust in Him. If we secure our life upon “doing good things” so we feel good about our life and look good in front of others, that’s not good enough. If we build our life upon moving in the power of God to see demons cast out and the sick healed (Mt 7:22), that’s not good enough. If we find our greatest delight in the success we feel we have achieved, it is not good enough. If we base our security upon living in America where there is freedom and access to resources unparalleled in the nations, that is not good enough. He declares in Matthew 7:21-27 that the only foundation that will allow someone to remain standing amidst storms of life and gain entrance into His eternal presence are those who hear His commands and obey them. It is not just knowing what truth is, but becoming true that has eternal security and gives us strength to endure all things in this life. Therefore, we are blessed and burdened to be ones that keep our ears attuned to what Holy Spirit is saying and responding to His gentle promptings. To not do so is foolish. To not do so is an eternal mistake.

While it certainly would be easier, I really don’t believe we can merely read Scripture, find the list of commands and put them into practice and think we are doing what He said. A man tried that once. He questioned Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal…” to which this man responds, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” Looking at him with love, Jesus says, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give tot he poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” This man was “disheartened,” because he had great wealth (excerpts from Mark 10:17-22). He had kept the list of commands, and yet when his heart was being measured beneath the loving eyes of Jesus, he had lack. Jesus stood before him, telling him what he needed to do, and though he heard what Jesus was saying, he did not do what Jesus commanded.

Yes, there are commands in Scripture we need to pay attention to. But we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, which sums up the entire law (Matthew 22:37-40). So how do we love God with all that we are? How do we even measure that? We can’t. It requires that we have a real, active relationship with Jesus, allowing His Holy Spirit to highlight our propensities to pride, jealousy, strife etc, so that as He reveals, we can respond and do what He’s asking us to do. It will be different for every person, but that’s the beauty of a real relationship with Christ. We have to hear Him for ourselves, not basing our lives upon what others are doing or saying, but hearing Him and obeying Him. This builds a firm foundation beneath us. It’s only as we live in this way, an attentive heart to the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit, confessing where we are wrong and receiving His grace to be transformed, that we begin building a firm foundation in our life.

Going back to what I saw the other morning, I believe the Lord is highlighting the fact that even what feels secure He is going to shake and break apart. I was standing on concrete- what normally feels secure– yet it was violently broken apart. I believe the Lord is going to shift and shake everything we stand on because He is so jealous to have a people who continually realign their lives with Him despite what is lost in this life. We cannot love money more than Him (Matthew 6:24). We cannot love family more than Him (Matthew 10:37-39). We cannot love pleasures of the world more than Him (1 John 2:15-17). We cannot love our own life more than Him (Revelation 12:11). As we near His return, He is shaking the faulty foundations in our life so that we can respond to build our lives as ones in His everlasting kingdom that can never be shaken.

The End of Our Faith: The Assurance of Victory

Growing up I read…A LOT. I loved getting lost in a work of fiction and would disappear for hours at a time, engrossed in the story. At one point in my college years, I possessed a library card in over 6 libraries in the Denver area, simply because I loved the quiet corners to go and be at peace with an engaging plot. Now I have to confess however, that I was an impatient reader. There were many times, unable to endure the suspense of how the story would end, I’d flip to the end to see what happened! Sometimes, if I didn’t like the ending I would jump ship on reading the book- ha! Who wants to waste time reading a novel where the ending is terrible? Other times, the ending assured me I wanted to endure the slow process of page turning to see how the story would unfold and crescendo into the author’s mastery. I’ve found that knowing the “end of my faith,” knowing God’s masterful ending, is also what empowers and motivates me to keep going with faith, especially on the really hard days. Thankfully, passages all throughout Scripture reveal what happens at the end of this age as Jesus ushers in the next. Here’s a quick look at two:

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuine of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” -1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV emphasis added.

Peter describes us going through various trials “if necessary”, so that our faith may be found genuine, true, and resulting in praise. It’s easy to profess faith and trust in God until the storms of life come blowing in, yet blow in they will! And these are times of testing for us. Not because the Lord is being cruel, but simply because our faith is so incredibly valuable, that He wants to make it of the purest quality. God, as a master craftsman, only desires the best material to be used to make a dwelling place of His Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). As we yield our lives to Him through the trials of life, He is making of us the purest gold. And as we trust Him through the difficulties, what happens in the end is greater praise, honor, and glory given to Him. So if we were to flip to the “end” of our story, if we endure, we can see ourselves gazing at Him at His return, praising Him in complete genuineness and fervor because of all He has helped us through.

We see an even clearer picture of this in Revelation 19:1-2, 6-7:

“After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just”…6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.” (emphasis added)

When all is said and done, there is a GREAT multitude shouting, “Hallelujah!” in a deafening roar that resounds in heaven. Those found in this gathering conclude that God’s judgments upon the earth were completely right and fair, and they are ecstatic about Him ruling as sovereign king over all creation. So why is this encouraging you might ask? Because no matter what we go through today, the difficulties, the uncertainties, the frustrations, if we continue to trust and surrender our life to Him in faith, HE WILL unfold our story to end in absolute joy and praise. The end of our faith will be found in complete adoration and worship of the One who empowered us to stand before Him for all eternity. It means VICTORY is the end. The difficulties of today will not supersede the victory He has already written for the end. This is good news!

I’m thankful that He has supplied us with knowing the end of our faith, so that as we journey through the difficult, mundane, or downright tumultuous days, we can remind ourselves, “this ends in victory. In the end I’m going to be in awe of how He got me to this point and I will be caught up in joyous praise!”

May you be strengthened to endure today knowing that you will be in awe of Him and how He got you to stand before Him despite the difficulties you face in this age.

JuliAnn

With ALL the Saints: Honoring one another so that we may be one

Wow.  I knew it had been a long time since I wrote a blog…but almost TWO YEARS?  My my.  I’ve started about 10 blogs over these two years, but nothing has come to fruition.  Writing is a labor of love, and for me demands a lot of energy as well as creativity. With the addition of our second child, Elijah Nash, to our family, my demands have definitely been elsewhere!  Now that he is eight months old, sleeping and eating well, I’m sensing it’s time to once again labor over the words God puts on my heart in hopes that it might encourage and strengthen your walk with the Lord.

A prayer I’ve prayed a lot as of late is Ephesians 3:17-19 “… that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  

The phrase that has struck me is  “WITH ALL THE SAINTS.”  With all the saints.  When you stop to think about who “all the saints” are, it becomes clear that God wants to do something miraculous amongst His people.  “All the saints” encompasses that believer you really struggle to be around because your personalities clash, it includes the believers in that church whose doctrine is very different from your own, it involves those weak in faith who you can barely tell are Christians yet the Lord sees the yes in their hearts, it includes those whose style of worship you don’t like, and it also comprises those whom you have regrettably lost relationship with because of misunderstandings. It involves the rich and poor, the strong and weak, educated, uneducated, American and every nation under the sun.  When you really stop and think about who “all the saints” are and pay attention to your heart response to each individual or group, it becomes clear not only that God wants to do something miraculous with us, but also that we have to prepare our hearts to enter into this collective and corporate encounter of God’s love.  We as individuals can enter into a measure of His love, but there is a greater revelation reserved for the collective body of Christ.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of comprehending the extent of His love with all the saints! 

Paul was moved to pray for the unified comprehension of the love of God amongst believers in Ephesians 3:17-19 because he understood it is the Lord’s end goal for us, but we need prayer because we are so far from that reality!  Jesus also prayed for all those who would believe in Him because what He desired would take the Father’s grace in each of us.  Jesus did not merely want a bunch of individuals in heaven, but a unified, glorified body of believers who enter into the oneness of love He experiences with the Father and Holy Spirit.  Before going to the cross, He prayed His hearts longing:  

“I  do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their [the disciples] word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us…23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one…Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory who You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”” John 17:20-21, 23a-24

The type of relationship Jesus desires for us as believers encompasses so much greater unity and oneness than what we experience today.  His end goal for us is comprehending the vastness of His love together as one as He experiences the Father’s love with the Spirit.  Wow!  That is so powerful to think about, and it demands for us to change the way we think about the body of Christ.  Seeking the Lord and following Him is not just about me and my relationship with Him, it is a corporate journey with those who call upon His name.  And yet there is something that prevents this type of oneness from manifesting today:  DIFFERENCES.  There are so many differences amongst, “all the saints.”  Often these differences create tension, tension creates conflict, and conflict creates offense which usually leads to division.  

Biblically, differences are supposed to be a celebration of God’s unique design rather than a catalyst for separation.  Paul uses the imagery of a physical body in 1 Corinthians 12 as an analogy of how we are to function as the spiritual body of Christ.  Each member is made different, functions different, receives different, has different gifts to give, but those differences are not supposed to fracture the body, they are designed to allow each part of the body to give and receive, to be nourished and to nourish.   As each part does what it is supposed to in connection to the head, Christ, it allows the other parts of the body to function properly as well.  We each have an individual responsibility to love God and receive His love, and also to learn how to enter into the corporate body to learn how to give and receive so that the body can be properly nourished, edified, and strengthened.  If we continue to focus more on our differences, annoyances and grievances, we will continue to be separated and at odds.  The Lord has a better way for us.

Jeremiah Johnson, a prophetic voice in our nation, recently posted on Facebook, “You cannot receive from that which you do not honor.” In order for us to truly become one, a body properly functioning together, we need to learn to honor one another, to honor one another’s ministries– despite our differences.  Where there is honor, we can receive from the other rather than reject the beauty of what they have to offer.  Are there ministries that need areas of growth? Yes!  Are their individuals who need to mature?  Of course!  We all do– ahem, I do.  We are all on a journey.  But the Lord’s desire is that we all mature, together, focusing our attention upon Him and extending honor to the other parts of the body.  Every part of the body of Christ has insight and revelation of God the Father and Jesus because the Holy Spirit is in them teaching them these truths (John 16:13-14, 1 John 2:27).   As I position myself to honor “all the saints” rather than see where we are different (and let’s be honest, perhaps where I think they are wrong!), I am now able to see the beauty God has put in them.  We can now mutually edify and strengthen one another rather than tear one another down.

Of course there are times when separation is needed.  Members or ministries who openly support immorality, idolatry and drunkenness are really separating themselves from Christ and the body.  We are not to be united with that.  But to those who are seeking after God’s glory, His holiness, righteousness and love, we are to learn how to nourish, strengthen and edify…not tear down.  I believe that this is a necessary preparation for the ability for us to comprehend the vast expanse of God’s love together, as it says in Revelation 19:6-7:  

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia!  For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  

There is one mighty voice thundering before God’s throne in the end.  It is a multitude of voices from every tribe and tongue, people and language.  It is ALL THE SAINTS lifting up their voices to create one voice of praise and honor to Him who delivered us out of the perils of this world.  And note, we have  made ourselves “ready”.  There is preparation we as the Lamb’s wife enter into so that we are ready to not just love Jesus individually, but side by side, fully united and connected to the rest of the body, as one bride ready for her husband.  

So today, just at Paul prayed, just as Jesus prayed, let’s contend for our hearts to connect with “all the saints,” that we may be one, that we may experience the greatness of the love of our Bridegroom God– together.

Just Sow…He Will Increase

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.  And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.  Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five tents.  And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.  But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.  After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, “Lord, you delivered me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents beside them.”  His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.”  He also who had received two talents came and said, “Lord you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.”  His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.”  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground.  Look, there you have what is yours.”  But his lord answered and said to him, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.  So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.  Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even wat he has will be taken away.  And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.  There will be weeping, and gnashing of teeth.””  Matthew 25:14-30

Working in the gardens at HOPE Ranch the past few months, I’ve found this statement very true:  you have to sow and labor in order to reap a harvest.  A bag of seeds on a shelf will remain a bag of seeds, but if sown into prepared soil; tended and kept, a harvest will come forth.

Two of the servants in the above parable “sowed” what they were given through trading.  Though each were given a different amount, each received increase as they labored with what they had.  Their reward was three-fold:  they increased what they had, they were given rulership over more because of their faithfulness with little, and they were granted permission to enter into the “joy of their lord.”  In contrast, the third servant did nothing with his talent.  Rather than increasing, he lost what he had and was not called “good and faithful.”  I don’t know about you, but I have a deep longing for increase in my life, and especially to hear the Lord say at the end of it all, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  

The past few months I have felt both the smallness of what I’m doing and the difficulty of it.   Tending the gardens has made me to come to terms with my propensity to give up, it’s forced me to let go of my desire for perfection, and created a clear-cut context for the revelation that you must sow in order to reap.  I have felt God’s encouragement to offer myself fully to this labor with the ability He has given me despite my inability to do it as perfectly as I’d like.  From the parable of talents in Matthew 25, I have found three principles needed to be encouraged to “sow” that which God has given so that increase may come and the affirmation, “good and faithful” heard:

• First, God has entrusted us with something to take ownership of
• Second, we have to do something with what we have been entrusted with
• Third, we have to believe in God’s good nature to liberate us from the fear of failure

First, we must recognize God has entrusted us with something so that we take ownership of it.  God has entrusted Jason and I with being the only ones present at HOPE Ranch in this season.  With just two people taking care of the gardens, I’ve been overwhelmed, frustrated and even discouraged because the work load is so large and our experience so small ( also our time divided as we take care of EJ and labor at the house of prayer). It is incredibly fun to harvest, but there is much knowledge needed in order to properly maintain and care for each plant. Each seed has to be sown at the proper depth,  pests have to be identified and deterred, diseases have to be remedied, soil pH and fertility have to be kept at their peak, water must be administered properly and plants pruned timely…its a lot to learn!  Despite our  minimal knowledge base, acknowledging what He has entrusted us with allows us to take ownership of it and find solutions to the problems we encounter.  The two “good and faithful” servants acknowledged what they were given, took ownership of it, did something with what they were given and doubled what they had.  God has entrusted each of us with something we are to take ownership of and take action with– it is only then increase can come.

After acknowledging what we have been entrusted with, the second principle to glean from the parable is  to do something with it!   A bag of seeds on a shelf will remain a bag of seeds until we sow it.  God does not want us to be passive with what He has entrusted to us, but to see them as opportunities for growth.  The gardens are by no means perfect (IN ANY WAY), but we have been harvesting vegetables and fruit, and most important increasing in knowledge and skills.  If we did not take ownership of the gardens, we wouldn’t grow in understanding of what each plant needs, how to maintain good soil composition, etc, etc.  For many of the things I planted this year, the pests got the best of me, but I’ve learned about which pests are attracted to which plants and how to remedy it.  Yes there are pests, and no things are not perfect, but we are harvesting more than if we never sowed anything at all!  He’s not expecting perfection, but He is expecting our best.  And that’ s just it– He’s expecting my best.  Not the expert gardener’s best, not the super organized person’s best.   Just as in the parable, my increase will be different than someone else’s.  The servant with 5 talents doubled it and had 10, the servant with 2 doubled it and had 4.  In the natural, it would be easy to look and deem one servant’s efforts as greater than the others, but to the Lord they were both faithful with what they were given.  The results were different based upon their capacity and what they were entrusted with in the first place, but they both did something with what they were given, and therefore had increase and heard, “well done, good and faithful servant!”

But in the midst of all of this, we have to understand the third principle from the parable, that God is good.  Believing in God’s goodness liberates us to try without fear of failure.  When I see different problems with the plants and am figuring out solutions, I can get a sense of dread:  “What if this doesn’t work?  What if I fail and all the plants die and I don’t get any harvest?  I’ll feel so foolish!”  It’s a fear of failing.  Sometimes it feels easier to not try because then I won’t fail!  Fear clouds the face of a loving Father who has invested things into us and given us opportunities to grow and learn.  The third servant believed his lord to be “hard” and was afraid.  This belief paralyzed him and he did nothing with the talent he was entrusted with– instead he buried it.  His belief about the lord prompted his actions.  We must therefore choose to believe what the bible declares, that  God is not “hard,” He is not cruel.  He is incredibly patient and understanding and simply wants us to do our best.  “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”  Gnesis 4:7

The third servant also believed the lord would “harvest where he did not sow.”  In other words, the servant believed the lord expected something of him he had no ability to give.  God is not going to expect us to harvest 1,000 lbs. of food if He only had us sow 1 seed.  He knows our frame, He knows our individual capacities, abilities, and resources.  He will not expect something of us that is unrealistic for what we have been given, but He does expect our best as we labor beneath His smile.  There is so much freedom in this!

No matter where you are or what you have been called to, these principles will apply.  God has entrusted you with gifts, abilities, financial resources, social spheres of influence, etc, that He wants you to utilize faithfully, trusting Him for increase.  When you are faithful with the little God has given you in this season, He will reward you with greater opportunities to rule over more in the future, in this life and in the next.  The question is, what is the Lord calling you to labor in during this season?   Where is He calling you to be faithful, what  is He calling you to put your energy, money, efforts, time, and attention to in this season?  God wants to give you increase, but if you never sow, if you never labor, there will not be a harvest!

I pray that God will give you insight to what He has entrusted you with in this season.  I pray that you will labor not with your perception of what is enough, but what God says is enough.  I pray that you will have joy in the labor as you sow what God has given and trust He is smiling over you as you learn and grow.  May you have strength to endure when the labor gets difficult and be able to throw off every accusation of the enemy to make you feel like a failure or like you are not doing enough!  Amen.

 

Joy in Labor and Hope for New Life

Now that’s a pile of blackberry branches!!

New life from that which was dead

 

“Behold!  My Servant whom I uphold, my Elect One in whole My soul delights!  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will ring forth justice to the Gentiles…He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth…”  Isaiah 42:1, 4

“There shall come forth a Rod (shoot) from the stem (trunk) of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”  Isaiah 11:1

These passages have stuck out to me this year in light of the gardening Jason and I are doing. In them contain important aspects of who God is and how He does things that can be great encouragement to us as we face problems in our individual lives and as we see the issues in our nation and beyond.

We are the only people living on the 30 acre ranch property owned by the ministry we are on staff with.  There are two large gardens, one containing 17 raised bed gardens, the other containing       4- 70ft rows of blackberries, 2- 70ft rows of asparagus and 5 extra 70ft rows of things yet to be planted.

At the beginning of the spring, the blackberry vines had to be pruned, which was a massive endeavor as each branch shot out “laterals” that replanted themselves into the ground.  What ensued was a labyrinth of blackberry branches that needed to be trimmed and ripped out of the ground.  It was a mess!  Then of course there was last years debris scattered about, new weeds coming up, and the need for new layers of wood chips to cover everything.  You might just say a lot of work lay before us (and still does), and I found (find) it a bit overwhelming.

As we began to tackle the blackberry labyrinth, the Lord brought to my mind Isaiah 42:1-4.  In this passage, Jesus is promised to bring forth justice to the Gentiles, and it also specifically states He will not be discouraged until He accomplishes it.  I began to see the world as the Lord’s garden, and just like the garden before us, the world is– quite frankly– a mess.  The constant conflicts in the Middle East, the struggles for power in our nation, the impoverished places of Africa and India, the oppressive dictators in Venezuela and soon Nicaragua…what a mess!  The nations, the Gentiles, are a  labyrinth of labor for Jesus, yet the promise is that He will bring forth justice– He will have His way with the nations and bring forth the Father’s vision for them.  That means that every nation will have the wrong things made right, corruption will be brought down, unrighteousness will be removed and righteousness will replace it, the poor will be cared for, the fatherless will find homes, the sick will be healed.  Jesus will bring justice to the nations of the earth, and He will not be discouraged until He does it!  When Jesus looks at the garden of the earth, He is not discouraged at the work that needs to be done.

This amazes me, because just looking at a few rows of unruly blackberry bushes can discourage me.  But when Jesus looks at the garden of the earth and all the “clean up” and “pruning” that needs to be done, He is not discouraged. Oh how God’s ways are not like our ways.  He sees a task before Him and He takes it head on, full of faith, full of joy, knowing He will make it right.  I am in constant need of this revelation of who God is to wash over me, not just for the sake of our garden exploits, but also in relation to all the problems of life in our nation and beyond.  Jesus will make the wrong things right, and He will not be discouraged until He does it.   We can know that Jesus is laboring, Jesus is bringing forth justice– He’s pruning back that which does not bear fruit to make room for that which will, He’s removing the old to make way for the new, He’s cleaning things up to make things beautiful.

Another thing that has caught my attention working on the ranch this year is that when I look at something that should be dead, somehow life begins to come forth from it!  I stumbled across a dead tree stump, truly an eye sore.  And yet this spring new branches began shooting out and there’s life springing up!  It made me think of the prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 11:1, that out of the stem or trunk of Jesse, a Rod would come forth.  Israel was “cut down” as a nation and kingdom throughout their history for not being obedient to the Lord, and yet the promise was that out of that old, dead stump, God would bring forth a new shoot, a Branch that would become the mightiest tree on earth (Isaiah 4:2, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15-16, Zechariah 6:12).  Though the nations continually try to bring Israel low, and at times it has looked as if Israel was perishing, the Lord has brought new life from their nation in Christ.  There’s multiple layers of meaning of Jesus as the Branch of the Lord which I don’t want to delve into in this post– my point is simply to highlight that God’s ways are not our ways, and His knowledge surpasses ours.  When we see something that is “dead”, He sees the life He will bring forth from it, and that is exactly what He did with Jesus springing up from the nation of Israel.

When we see the labyrinth of labor that lies before us, we can ask for God’s strength and perspective because He never gets discouraged at the task before Him.  When we see that which is dead and dying, we can trust God for the new life He will bring forth against all odds. There is joy in the labor, and there is hope for new life. This is simply who our God is!

“I Don’t Buy Junk”

I was listening to the IHOPKC web stream one morning, and after worship the worship leader prayed:

“God, we want to be all that you paid for.”

All that He PAID for.

This phrase stuck out to me…Jesus paid for me…He paid for my life with His.  As I continued to think about Jesus literally paying for my life, I felt like He whispered to me, “I don’t buy junk. You are not junk, because I paid for you, and I don’t buy junk.”  He was planting the knowledge of my worth before Him deeper in my heart, and it filled me with a sense of contentment and joy.

“Of course Lord! Who willfully buys junk?…”  My thoughts went on.  Who in their right mind looks at an item, whether it be clothing or a home furnishing or a car and think, “Wow, that’s a piece of junk that will probably break in two days…I’ll take it!”  Who buys things with hard earned money that are not desirable?  The whole reason it costs money is because there is value attached to it.  We purchase things because they have value, not because they are junk.

Jason exemplifies this more than any other person I know (okay, maybe my dad is like this too).  He does extensive research on anything he purchases, making sure it is all that he wants it to be, complete with warranties if it breaks or something goes awry.  Though buying things can sometimes take LONGER, he does it to make sure he gets the greatest return for his money.  If it is known to break in a short while or has terrible reviews, he won’t buy it– he’ll wait until he finds something to suit his needs.   Jason, and I’m sure most of us, don’t buy junk…and God doesn’t buy junk either.

What fascinates me is that Jesus paid the highest price He could for us, but we do not come with warranties or money back guarantees.  Quite the opposite.  Jesus paid the highest price for us– His own flesh and blood– not when we were all spiffed up and looking amazing and desirable, but rather when we were broken, weak, foolish, and frail.  In reality… we kind of were junk.  But that’s not how He saw us as He carried the sins of the world to the cross, and it’s not how He sees us today.  Through all of our filthiness of sin, our frailty to be faithful, our proneness to break and break others, He still gave the highest price for us:  His own life.  With absolutely no guarantees we would be worth it, He purchased us so that we could become His because in His eyes, we have incredible value.

Truly, we all have failed God and have lived less than He created us for in some way or another.  There are times the shame of our choices and the brokenness we feel seems to overshadow the well known melody, “Jesus loves me THIS I KNOW, for the bible tells me so.”   Rather than feeling loved, we feel shame and we feel dirty because we see our brokenness and foolishness.  But that is not how God sees our life, no matter how “off” we feel we have gotten.  He honestly doesn’t see our lives as junk…He doesn’t want to return us to get His “money” back, nor does He get angry He paid such a great price for our lives. On the contrary, He continues to lavish His love upon us because despite our brokenness, our foolishness and weakness, He sees beyond it at the incredible worth we are to Him.  The truth of the incredible value He places upon our lives is what transforms us.  Internally we no longer believe we are junk, broken, frail and sinful.  Instead we begin to live as His beloved, knowing we are chosen, accepted, and strong in Him.

The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price in Matthew 13 reveal this so powerfully:

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”  Matthew 13:45-46

There are different ways to understand these parables, but I’m interpreting the man who buys the field and the merchant seeking pearls as Jesus Himself.  Jesus is the one who, upon finding a treasure in a field, gave up His entire life WITH JOY to purchase the field, and upon finding a pearl of great price, sold all He had to possess it.

Jesus found treasure in the field of our life, and rather than taking the treasure out, He hid it once more and bought THE ENTIRE FIELD.  By purchasing the field of our lives, ALL of who we are became His so that no one else could lay claim on us.  Though we may have been overgrown with weeds and thickets and rocky in areas, He saw value for our life knowing that hidden within was great treasure ready to be unearthed.   Our hearts are a treasure to Him, the place He wants to possess and worth all that He has, even when it is hidden from the world and at times from our own eyes.

I remember years ago when Jason and I were in a very difficult place in our marriage he turned to me and said, “I forgive you and I will keep loving you because I know you are worth it and that there is treasure in your life I will see in time.”  WOW.  Jason understood the Lord’s heart.  He saw the value of my life even when he was experiencing some of the thorns and rocks, and he kept loving me because he knew there was treasure in me.  Jesus purchased our lives seeing the treasure in our hearts, even when it was hidden in a rocky, overgrown and forgotten field.  We are not junk, we are treasure to Him, and He joyfully purchased us with His own life.

The parable of the pearl is much the same.  Jesus is like the merchant who was SEEKING for great pearls.  The Lord’s eyes scan to and fro throughout the earth searching for those whose hearts will be loyal to Him (2 Chron. 16:9).   When He found us, He saw that we were a pearl of great price, so He gave everything up (the comforts of heaven), and surrendered His life to acquire us.

Jesus had eyes for one pearl, the pearl of your life.  It’s amazing that while there are so many of us, God possesses the ability to have single devotion and love for each and every person.  As a new mom, I’m beginning to see how this is possible.  I love Eternity so uniquely and completely, yet I know when we are ready to have a second child, I will love them just as much!  Their life will have just as much value that I will be willing to do anything for.  God’s love is complete for each pearl on this earth. We are not junk, we were sought after and found to be pearls of great price.  

Thank You Lord that You see our true worth, and that You gave everything to possess us.

My prayer is that the truth of our worth and value before Him will be planted deeper in our hearts and increase more and more.  It truly is what transforms our life, and what allows us to love others as He has loved us.

 

 

Let Me Remember

Lord let me remember the goodness of who You are,

When I feel anxious and confused, and You seem to be far.

Let me remember the many times You have broken through,

How year after year, You’ve drawn my heart after You.

Let me remember the things You have spoken,

The comfort You’ve given when I’ve felt lost and broken.

Let me remember the truth about what You see when You look at me,

Because my heart feels dark, and I need Your tender mercies.

Lord let me remember.

Let me remember again and again,

Until I see Your face; until the end.

His mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness endures to all generations, but today feels different.  Today feels alone, today feels chaotic, today feels depressing…

Have you ever had one of these days?  I have!  There are days I just “feel” off.  The new challenges of “today”, the new circumstances and new emotions expose once again my need to remember who God is and what He has spoken, because it is truth that sets free and gives peace (John 8:32).  Today I might “feel” depressed, anxious or alone so I must…

I must recall to my mind the truth of who He is and how faithful He always is…

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,  because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”  Lamentation 3:21-23

I must gird up the loins of my mind and not allow accusation against myself, God or others remain in my thinking…

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…” 1 Peter 1:13

I must allow the Holy Spirit to bring to my remembrance all things the Lord has spoken…

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” John 14:26

I must set my mind on things above and not on the things of this world that perpetuate my present emotions and keep me in bondage…

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Colossians 3:1-2

When the day feels off, when my mind is full of anxieties and I feel down cast, it requires me to intentionally sit and let my soul get quiet, that I might forsake present thoughts and emotions and allow God’s truth to flood my soul. Some days this is easier than others; some days I have to cry out for grace to just sit still!  But it’s always worth it in the end.  My prayer is that the Lord will “let me remember” Him, even if I have good days and bad, that in the end I will have a history of keeping Him in my mind, of keeping truth as my foundation, of keeping a thankful heart for what He has done in my life.  It is a choice we get to make (though we may need help doing it somedays!)… it is a choice we make to bring Him to remembrance.

The Israelites did not always do this and it fostered complaining, frustration and doubt in their hearts.  This was costly for them:

“Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by the Red Sea…13 They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.  And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” Psalm 106:7, 13-15

And today we receive the same warning of the peril of not keeping God and the truth of who He is in our thoughts:

“because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts… 24 therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…” Romans 1:21, 24

Remembering God, what He has done and who He is, is such a simple thing to do, and it is extremely powerful. So let us remember Him!  Let us intentionally think about the ways He has blessed us, let us think about His faithfulness, let us think about His love, His comfort, the times we felt His nearness, the times He has released provision…let us remember and give thanks.

Lord, as we enter into this season of remembering Your birth, let us be ever mindful of You. Let us remember You and what You have done each and every day, being thankful and expecting You to do the same now and always.

A Reflection: Learning who God is through experiential knowledge

I remember years ago sitting with a woman who was pouring into my life.  I was all smiles.  I had just completed a 6 month internship at the International House of Prayer and felt closer to God than ever.  I had a hunger for the word, a desire to pray, and to top all of that off, my boyfriend of about 8 months had just proposed.

This woman, out of genuine concern for me, was asking questions…questions about the timing of my marriage, questions about our relationship.  Sure, those questions agitated me a bit, because when you are going to get married, you just want people to rejoice with you.  And yet she simply was asking questions because she sensed that perhaps I was rushing into things.  It had nothing to do with the brevity of our relationship, but more because she had insight into what the Lord was doing in my heart in that season, and thought perhaps I should let the Lord continue to work on my heart before entering into a blessedness of marriage.

All of that is just context for what she asked me next…

In one of my conversations with this woman she asked me, “what is your favorite thing about the Lord?”  Don’t get me wrong, I knew I loved the Lord. I had been overcome with His presence, tasted His goodness, and was giving up all that I knew of my life to seek Him further by going through bible school.  I genuinely loved the Lord.  But to be honest, I had no clue how to answer her question!  What was my favorite thing about the Lord?  I was faced with the reality that I didn’t really know the Lord that well.  What I mean by that is, I couldn’t articulate what about the Lord I loved.  Sure, I knew some biblical answers of the Lord’s goodness, His love, but I walked away realizing that I didn’t really know those things about the Lord.  Just as I could read a biography of someone’s life and know intellectually what they were like, my understanding of God came a lot from reading and believing what the bible said at face value, but I hadn’t necessarily experienced those truths for myself.  I didn’t have experiential knowledge of the Lord, and thus didn’t have much to reveal what I loved about Him.

Don’t misunderstand me– believing what the bible says about God is an essential foundation because we draw upon who He promises Himself to be from the Word, but I believe we experientially learn who God is by receiving these truths throughout the various seasons of life as we walk with Him.  It’s in the midst of relating to Him, having Him lead you through life, that you learn who He is and what He is like, and then your realize, “Oh my goodness, You are who You have declared Yourself to be!”  When you read, “God is full of lovingkindness,” there is a witness in your spirit that it is true because you have received that lovingkindness time and time again.

Back to the story…

When she asked me the question, I offered that I loved the Lord because of His faithfulness.  I didn’t realize that over the coming years, God would reveal just how faithful He is.  I wonder that when I said to her I loved the Lord’s faithfulness if He took that as a challenge to show me just how faithful He can be!

I made several bad choices during the first couple years of our marriage out of brokenness, pain, and unresolved issues of my identity in Christ.  The brokenness was masked by anger; I allowed anger to take hold of my heart and mind and I directed it towards myself, Jason, and our marriage.  I had a loose tongue that would speak whatever frustration came to the surface of my heart, and like the Proverb says, “the wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands”  (Proverbs 14:1).   In many ways I was the foolish woman, tearing down myself, Jason, our marriage and any other blessing God wanted to give.  Most would not have known this because it was primarily behind closed doors, but I can attest those first years of marriage were the most trying years either of us have ever faced.

It was many of my own choices to turn against the Lord’s ways in that season that brought so much destruction to our relationship.  And yet despite all of that, the Lord never left my side. Amazingly, neither did Jason.  Psalm 139:8b-9 says that “even if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me.”  I was choosing anger, fleeing form the Lord’s ways, but He was right there to lead me back to walking in His ways.  He was right there to release mercy to me again and again when I repented of my ways and words of destruction.

I did not change overnight.  But after 6 years, knowing the place our marriage began and where we are now, all I can see is the Lord’s faithfulness.  He never gave up on me though I was so angry and stubborn and doing things that were very hurtful to Jason and myself.  He continued to lead me, He continued to teach me, He continued to be merciful to me, He continued to love me.  And now, my heart is in such a different place.  This morning as I sat with the Lord all that overflowed out of my heart to Him with tears was “You have been so faithful, You have been so faithful!”  Because of His faithfulness to lead me and help me, He’s transformed my heart so dramatically I can’t even believe they way I used to be and the way I used to think.  He never gave up on me and He truly has led me even when I made my bed in the ways of hell.

I’m sharing all of this hoping to reveal that God truly desires you to draw near to walk with Him and discover Him in whatever circumstances you find yourself in life.  We can know things about Him as we read the Scripture, but more than knowing Him from afar, He wants us to be up close and experiencing who He is.  Don’t allow today’s present difficulties and trials keep you from marching right into the Lord’s presence to seek His face.  Open your bible and cry out to Jesus to come and help you.  He is right there!  He’s there to offer wisdom, counsel, peace, comfort, truth…whatever it is that you need. It’s in these moments we experience God and are walking in real, honest relationship with Him. It’s here we gain experiential knowledge of God, so much so that when others are going through a trial we can testify, “It’s going to be okay!  I know because of how God has led me…”  Then when asked, “What do you love about the Lord?”, you’ll have a testimony to share.

“Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight.”  Jeremiah 9:24