The vine of Jesus

Last night I was given the opportunity to teach on Discontentment. It has really opened my eyes to so many things that I have watered down in my life and tried to make acceptable in my walk with Him. I’ve had many things resurface in the past few weeks as I prepared for last night that I had thought were long dealt with. Just when I think I have this all figured out and have forgiven, and asked for forgiveness and have laid down all I know to, God gives me something like this to study on. It has been a long journey but so worth it.

So, here are some of my notes from last night. I pray that you will be able to take from this that living a life truly content and at peace is achievable, but we must be given the tools that we need to apply it correctly to our life.

So let’s ask God to speak to our hearts and allow him to carve the love he has for us in the depth of our souls.  Freedom and contentment are waiting for you…are you willing to receive it?

Our God is faithful and loves us so much, I know he will equip each of us with exactly what we need to accomplish this.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Today we are going to dive into two different passages of Scripture and do exactly what 2 Timothy says. We are going to use them for teaching, correcting & training so that we may be equipped for every good work that he has called us to.

The Vine and the Branches John 15:1-8

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Ok, what this means for us is this. When we give our life to Jesus we are agreeing that we believe certain things. A few of them are that we are proclaiming that He is our Lord and Savior, we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that through him (and only Him) we will have eternal life in heaven. When we do this we become part of the vine of Jesus.

What happens then is that God begins to pluck and prune each thing in your life that does not bear fruit, in other words the things that he wants removed out of your life, now here is the tricky part. In most circumstances…you have to be willing.

I think what often happens when we hear these verses is we tend to overlook the part that says, “he (God)cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit”, because really what we want to focus on is “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, (The KJV says, desire) and it will be given you. 

When we come to Him we are not presenting ourselves as pure and holy and sinless. We are all sinners and all fall short, we come before Him in our real life circumstances, our real life problems and real feelings of discontentment. I believe that the feeling of discontentment alone is probably one of the main reasons that some of us even turn to Jesus. I know that was one of the main reasons in my life. I was so miserable at times and so discontent that I can remember thinking that there had to be more to this life. Oh how thankful I am that he showed me.  

#1 GOD CAN HANDLE THE PRUNING (on the Listening Guide hand out)

We were created to worship him and when we choose to fill the voids in our life with anything other than God then I can promise you one thing will continue to happen time and time again. We will live a life unsatisfied and never content…how miserable.

Around 6 or 7 years ago I was sitting in my room with my bible laid open in my lap. I had already at that time re-committed my life to Christ. I remember out loud asking God why this didn’t seem or feel real to me like I had seen in other people. Were they more spiritual then me? Did they honestly love Jesus more than I did? Was the past sin in my life so bad that part of my punishment was always searching but never fully being fulfilled? I wanted to believe so bad what the Bible was telling me, but the fact is I just didn’t always “feel” it.

So I asked God this question and it changed every aspect of my walk with him from that moment on. “What is it in my life that is hindering my relationship with you?” The thing that happened next was more than just some “feeling”, it was more like an urgency to grab a pen and piece of paper. I truly believed that God would answer me, and boy did he ever. Before I knew it God laid out before me the most detailed intricate list about my life, and it was not pretty. Three days into it I already had 8 items on this list. I want you to understand that I let God lead me to what I needed to put on this list, they were not things that I suggested or considered, it was all from him and I was floored.

Most of the big ones were things that I expected, the BIG sin in my life...What I didn’t realize at that time was that God not only wanted me to walk away from sin, but he had no intention of mending every relationship that I had back into a healthy relationship in my life.  More of the things that he required of me to lay down weren’t as obvious to me as why they were a problem. Then he then began to show me that even good things taken out of context can be sin and those had to be laid down too. You want to talk about pruning?!?! I felt like I was being plucked to death. And it was death, death of the old me and this process had to take place so the new life could bear fruit.

I know that this would be a lot more fun for some of us if I were to give you the personal details of the people, places & things that God required of me to lay down, but the fact is that the things that hinder my relationship with him are probably so different for each of us that it wouldn’t even make sense to you if I shared. My struggles aren’t necessarily your struggles, and the things in my life that caused me to sin may not hinder your walk with God in any way. All I can tell you is if you want to see just how well God knows you, then ask him that question and then get ready.

*#2. GOD WILL PROVIDE US WITH OUR LIST

This list is my testimony…you will hear me say this as often as God gives me the opportunity to because it is the most active part of faith for me in my walk with Him. I often keep blank index cards in my car or Bible and when I just don’t feel him sometimes or if I’m struggling with something then I ask God to give me clarity over things and to be specific at what it is that I need to lay down. Then I jot it down on my card and start praying over it, I may not lay it down that day but eventually when God equips me with the strength and the desire to lay it down I do just that and then the craziest thing happens…I feel free of it.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman John 4:1-14

4 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”⁾

What was Jesus saying here? Was this a promise that the road that we would face ahead would be one without doubt or fear or discontentment? No, you see we all still have to keep on living real life here. There is nothing about being a Christian that exempts us from that.

You know as I say this I keep thinking about Tanya Coons and the Donlon’s and so many others in this room and even in my own family that have been through so much. Jesus didn’t come to take away our trails, but He came to empower us by trusting Him and believing that when we enter the other side of it that we will know Him and love Him and feel loved by Him in a way like never before. I talked to Tonya before study started and she said that she was reminded that being content isn’t the same thing as being happy.   

Jesus says, you will thirst no more, not that you will never have tragedy or disappointment or questions…and for me it’s when our heart and our mind agree to trust the plan that God has for us and to choose to live content within the boundaries and the load that he has entrusted to us to bear. Then somewhere, somehow God fills those voids and we receive contentment over them and eventually joy and happiness in his plan.

One thing that I hear Theresa say all the time is that she has to stay in the Word and read it over and over again because right now her mind knows it, but her heart doesn’t believe it.

I know that what I am suggesting here today is a lot to process but I believe that it is the very first step in the walk towards real freedom and contentment.  

Jeremiah 17:5-10

⁵ This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,^(M)
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.^(N)
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places^(O) of the desert,
in a salt^(P) land where no one lives.

⁷ “But blessed^(Q) is the man who trusts^(R) in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.^(S)
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought^(T)
and never fails to bear fruit.”<sup>(U)

9</sup> The heart^(V) is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart^(W)
and examine the mind,^(X)
to reward^(Y) a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”^(Z)

The KJV says, ¹⁰ I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

And when we begin to live our life in such a way that we produce the fruit God says,

Psalm 37:4

⁴ Delight^(A) yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.^(B)

John 15:9-17

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{(O) 12} My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(P) 13} Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.^{(Q) 14} You are my friends^(R) if you do what I command.^{(S) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(T) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(U) to go and bear fruit^(V)—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.^{(W) 17} This is my command: Love each other.^(X)

I don’t know about you but I want to bear the fruit that I was created to bear, not the fruit that you were created to, not the fruit of my husband or children but my own. I want to walk with Him and never thirst again. I want to know that when I feel parched that I simply need to come to the foot of the cross and learn how to lay some things down. I want to run through this journey and not grow weary and I want to learn how to live content with the life that God has created for me. I believe that when we allow him to so personally invade every crevice of our life and accept his will then in return we become servant, wife, mother, sister, daughter and the friend that we were meant to be.

*#3. GOD WILL EQUIP US WITH WHAT WE NEED TO LAY THEM DOWN

A few years ago I had lost my Wedding ring. At that time I had a 3 year old and a 1 year old so I knew that there was no telling where it had ended up. During that time in my life I was always taking it off and setting it somewhere to change a dirty diaper, bath a child or cook. Will was always getting onto me knowing I was going to lose it at some point, I had misplaced it before but this time it was really gone.

We spent the next two weeks combing through every part of my house, under every piece of furniture, through every drawer, high and low we looked  everywhere I could think of and nothing.

I woke up one morning and had decided to give it one more shot. I walked into my closet and got down on my knees to go through some low drawers hoping that one of the kids had dropped it in there and maybe I had missed it the last two times I searched there. Of course I looked again and found nothing. I was so obsessed over my ring, I had worn it since I was 19 and the thought of never having it again made me so sad. I was also dealing with the materialistic side of it because I knew that Will would not and replace it with something of the same quality. Since I was already down on my knees I decided to pray. I asked God to give me peace over this and to not obsess over it anymore. I also asked for forgiveness over being caught up in the value of my ring for it was just the outward expression of my marriage and it didn’t matter if I had a ring or not we were still married (ha!).

Just as I began to get up I felt the heaviness of God come over me as if he did not want me to get up yet. It was such a strange feeling but as strange as it was I knew it was him. I asked him (in my head) what do you want me to do. Then I was reminded of something that Will and I were going through.

What I haven’t told you is that I was upset with my husband over something and I do mean bitter. Don’t think life altering situation here but make no mistake I was mad. I’m laughing knowing that he will read this and he is probably trying to figure out what in the world I am even talking about. The truth is I’m not even sure I fully remember why I was so mad, but then again I did have two kids under the age of three that I was with 24/7 so I know it didn’t take much to set me off.

As I sat there in my closet I have to admit I was a little perturbed that God wanted me to pray about the situation. After all Will was in the wrong and I was mad (ha!) but the longer I said those things the more I felt God press my actions towards my husband on my heart.  I realized that even though my feelings were valid, my actions were not acceptable and if God could heal me in this area than certainly he could deal with Will… I got up off that floor after pouring my heart out to God, I asked for forgiveness over the way I had acted and promised to make amends with Will, and I truly believed that God would also lay it on Will’s heart what he had done and I was happy about that!

I walked into the laundry room started a load of clothes and headed back to the kitchen. There hanging on my pie stacker, eye level in a place that I pass by a hundred times a day was my ring. It was like a single ray of light shone upon it from a far window and I stood there in shock. I had taken apart that pie stacker and everything on it twice, my sister once, and there it had been all along.

We have to learn how to trust God and lay it down because when he wants to, he will get our attention and believe me it hasn’t always been as simple as a diamond ring.

I hung onto that hurt and bitterness for weeks, for some of us it’s been years…

All he wants is for us to bend the knee and trust him.

*#4. GOD WILL FILL THE VOIDS

Pastor Scot preached a few weeks ago on the fact that everything we have is God’s and that he has entrusted us to be good stewards of it. He also said that he believes that God is more concerned with our holiness then our happiness. I want you to know that some of the things that God has required of me to lay down did not make me happy and honestly a few of those things at times I have run back for because the thought of letting them go or giving up the “control” I have over them is too much for me.

I am a work in progress, just like the rest of us. And I will continue to hold on to those things and carry them around with me until I can bear the weight of them no longer and then I will bend the knee and lay them down and walk away with that part of me healed.

This is all part of our walk with Him. God loves us so much that Jesus died the most horrific, humiliating, gruesome death on the cross for us. So that we may have real relationship with Him and eternal life and to live free and content within the boundaries he has set for us.

We will close with this last bullet point. This for me is the most important one of all and was told to me when I had just started “The List” with him.

*#5. GOD CAN CHANGE THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART

I had no idea how I would survive some of the sifting God was doing within me. It wasn’t until someone told me that God could change the desires of my heart did I realize that I did not have to go at this alone. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He desires a real life relationship with you and I promise you he will equip you with what you need to complete the work to which he has called you.

I want to live free and content and I want to desire the things and produce the fruit in which he has created me for.

Have a blessed week!

 

 

 

It's all yours LORD

I have felt like I have literally been in a whirlwind the last 5 or 6 weeks. I have involved myself in so many things that I haven’t know which way was up or which path I am supposed to be on. This is no one’s fault but my own; the problem is that I enjoyed everything that I had committed myself to. It’s my “love language” I guess you could say in the area of serving, and serving I did right into exhaustion.

God has given me an opportunity recently and unfortunately I am experiencing the preparation of it with many obstacles. I realized a week ago that instead of feeling God’s pleasure over my doing I felt almost a presence of disappointment. I know have to be careful in saying that but maybe it was just a disappointment in myself.

I think I have allowed busyness to divert me from what God has laid on my heart for me to do. I’m not giving all the credit to the enemy here, but I have learned that he doesn’t always try to lead you astray to something horrible. Sometimes he just pulls you in a direction that leaves you busy and non-effective. It’s a hard place to be, it’s a hard place to walk away from but no less it’s important to evaluate your circumstances and ask God to take back the wheel and press on toward His plan…not ours.

I have had to walk away from a few things this last month that have been so hard. The Sanguine in me has nearly died a dozen times letting go of what is exciting and fun and focus on the things of commitment and solitude. Make no mistake; my quiet time with God has far exceeded any joy I have ever experienced before! I mean that with every ounce of truth that I can offer you; sometimes it just takes an act of God, literally, to get me still enough to listen.

I’ve missed my moments where I can sit back and read the Word and soak up a fresh vision for my service that God has placed me here in this crazy dark world. I was painfully reminded yesterday during our church service that everything we have is God’s. All of it…and I had that all to uncomfortable gut check as I walked into my closet that afternoon and stared at all that I have. It’s not what I have that matters; it is what it means to me that is important to God.

I wonder if we are honest with ourselves would we really say that we are living out our full potential as believers in Christ for Him. Or would we look at our life and realize that we are just busy. As I had mentioned I had to step down from some things recently and can I tell you that before I even experienced one week of relief from it my son’s baseball started!!! I know this will be too dramatic for some of you but I had a minor meltdown over it, ok since I know my husband reads this and a friend that I called in the middle of it I should go ahead and say a major meltdown over it. I’ve wiped away and walked away from all that I know to do, I’ve recommitted my “God time” and I’m trying to stay focused. I’m asking for prayer for my commitment and strength and then I am letting God take over.

Our Pastor said yesterday that he believes that God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness, I needed to hear that. I am the happiest when I am living my life holy and honoring to God. This is what I am choosing to focus on. Being holy and leaving the being happy up to him. So today as I scrub another toilet and wash who knows how many more loads of clothes I will ask God what it is that he wants from me and how I am to handle the things of his that he has entrusted to me. And by all means I am going to be a lot more thankful for the things that I have!

I pray that today we have a new understanding of how blessed we are.  I wonder if we were to really step out of the life we live and choose to see the need all around us could we ever be the same. Would we splurge like we do? Would we take for granted the things that are such a luxury? Would we honor him with our time, treasure and talent?

I’m not asking you to give up everything and feel guilty over every little thing that you splurge over. I’ve had my eye on a cute little bag for the last few weeks and I have to tell you that after what I heard yesterday and the experience I’ve had the last 5 or 6 weeks I’m not rushing to the store to purchase it. I’m not saying I won’t (grin) I’m just saying a healthy dose of perspective does us good at times. As I watched the news this morning I sighed at the junk they were coming up with. I’m so sick of hearing how awful it is that the tabloids are defacing another celebrity by posting nude photos of them or how the weather team is tracking a thunderstorm with one lightning strike – oh wow, really one…what to do?!?! I’ll tell you what to do, don’t be naïve over what is happening in our communities and world, but instead of spending so much focus on the things we have no control over pick up the remote and turn off the tv, pour yourself another cup of coffee (if you don’t drink it start! Just kidding) and open up the thing that God has given you to really make a change...a difference. Stay in the word. Read your Bible! There is no greater story…no better way to be equipped and effective.

So my question for you today is this, What can we do this week to take the focus off of ourselves and our real life problems and be willing to look outside our circumstances and minister to someone else? That is my challenge I give to you (myself included). I’d love to hear your stories.

This is what we can do through the love of Jesus Christ…

Isaiah 61

 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

This is what we can do through the love of Jesus Christ…

Holding onto Hope 7 & 8

Since it has been so long since I have been on here I decided to post the last two sessions of notes on the Holding onto Hope study. Throughout those last two sessions we shared so many things that I wish you could have been a part of. We looked at slideshows, went through albums and cried with each other as we shared personal stories. God was good, so very good to each of us and I personally will never be the same because of it...

Conditional Love VS. Unconditional Love

 

1 John 4:9-10

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

I wonder if when you think about Jesus and the cross if it means something completely different to you now? Now that many of you have lost your loved ones could you even imagine willing allowing this to happen for a world that is unappreciative and evil and ungrateful? How do we grasp the power of the cross unless we understand the depth of the sacrifice?

Have you ever considered Mary? This was her baby that God entrusted to her and yet before He was even conceived He was set to die on the cross for us. Make no mistake that Mary was still human and she loved him unconditionally just as we do with our children and yet from the very beginning she had to lean on the sweet Words of God and trust him through this experience and the many storms she faced. 

As humans we handle love conditionally, not so much with our children but in most situations this stands true.
 

We use this approach in friendships, in our marriages in our churches and yes even with God. We agree to love unconditionally on one condition…that we don’t get hurt.

 

So I ask you the question that I often ask myself. Through the tragedies and fears that we are experiencing in our life are we putting those conditions and stipulations on our healing with God?

 Thy will be done

Last week when we recited the LORD’s prayer we talked about how we are willing to say to him, “Thy will be done” but the truth is we only mean that when it is in our favor.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”.

No greater love than the love that God has for his children and yet we constantly put conditions on the love we have for him. I’m guilty of it…I find my heart wanting to say ok God, “I’ll do this as long as this doesn’t happen” or “I’ll submit to you or lay this certain thing down at your feet as long as you promise this to me.”

It is so hard to not want that or think this way. Isn’t it?

Courageous

 Will was given this saying in a frame last week.

It says, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

 I’ll tell you that I was scared to death of this study, some of you may have been scared to death to show up to this study. I have prayed over each of us week after week to help us not to live in fear and in conditions, but to live in faith and unconditional trust and love.

There comes a time that we have to be courageous. Even if we are scared to death, we have to submit to God the things that we are afraid of giving to him, even if it is our hearts that are broken.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

The definition of steadfastness is: resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering. That is the love of God and steadfastness of Christ.

What the Bible is teaching us here is this.

We should not let conditions wavier our love for Christ. He died the most horrible, humiliating death for us and we automatically question his love for us when storms arise.

Why did Jesus die for us? Because of Gods unconditional love that he had for his children. The sacrifice was severe but the glory of God that was revealed was more valuable than the pain. Even in the midst of those raging waters God is consistent and unwavering: abiding, enduring, firm, fixed, never-failing, steadfast, steady, and unfaltering.

Supernatural

Most of us have that knee jerk reaction when life deals us a blow and in our flesh the most natural thing for us to do is put up a wall and our list of conditions, but just as we have learned over and over again “serving Christ and loving Him is supernatural not lived out in the flesh but in the Spirit.”

I know that everyone grieves differently but please don’t think that this message isn’t for you. If you have listened to me any over the past 7 weeks you should know that I am not expecting some “Get healed quick remedy here”. I just want us to see that just as we didn’t avoid the storm therefore we cannot avoid the pain.

The Names of God

And since we continue to wake up and face another day I want us to wake up with the security and peace of knowing who we serve leaning on the One who calls himself the “I AM the I AM” he is our Counselor, our Healer and our Father and our friend. 

I want to know that as hard as this storm may be that God has a purpose for this suffering and I want to know that there is freedom to not live the rest of our lives terrified of what the future looks like or what is to come next.

 

Psalm 33:22 says, 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

*That is an action that we have to take. We have to make that choice to put our hope in Him every single day, and every single day he gives us the choice to. I want to see the beauty from the ashes…

 

Exodus 15:13 says, “In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.

KJV says,

13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

 

If you look closely at the 2 translations mercy from the KJV is replaced with unfailing love. So, with his unfailing love he will pour out his mercy upon you.

Even when we are weak, He is strong. Even when we are mad at him and feel as if he allowed this tragedy to all but be the death of us, he still loves us unconditionally.

 

The Gift

I want to put it all on the line for Him. I just know that I can’t in my natural being but through the gift of the Holy Spirit we have His mercy and grace and a supernatural ability to live our life in faith. 

 John 15-21 says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

 And through this gift of the Holy Spirit we receive the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, and it is through this that we will be mended, taught and healed.

Romans 5:1-5 says, 5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 My Portion (Holding onto Hope 8)

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

     “Therefore I hope in Him!”  Lamentations 3:24

I wanted what I shared tonight to be the perfect ending, as I prayed and prayed over it I knew that the only thing that was fitting was by reading an abundance of his Word.

 For some of us this is too much to say to Him right now that He is my portion, but I wonder if just for tonight you would let these scriptures pour over your brokenness and say yes to the Healer and allow him to love on you in a way like never before.

 You know the saying, “You get out of it what you put into it”? Tonight I want us to give him our all, if we are able and soak up his word…   

What I am praying for is that each of us will be able to start the journey with God that leads us out of the Ragging Waters into the still waters of his rest and peace. That’s my hope throughout this journey we’ve had together.

 Psalm 23:1-6 says,

      ¹    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

     ²   He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

          He leadeth me beside the still waters.

     ³   He restoreth my soul:

          He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

     ⁴   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

          I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

          Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

     ⁵   Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

          Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

     ⁶   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

          And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. ^[1]

This has been a long journey for most of us. We have each been through a tragedy or a loss of some kind or sickness that has brought us here. I don’t think God expects us to know exactly what to do with all of this but he does want us to turn to him for the answers.

  We need to make a commitment to ourselves and one another to stay in the Word everyday. I don’t want this to be a group of women that leaves here and goes our separate ways, I’m not sure after this that would even be possible. We may not be able to walk around everyday with our heads held high but I want us to even in the hardest times to be able to say…

The Lord is my portion;

I promise to keep your words. Psalm 119:57

God promises to take care of his children. We all know how hard that is to grasp when looking at our current circumstances but we have to know he loves us and that his ways are for us.

 Isaiah 61:1-3

61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

³   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord

for the display of his splendor.

Thank you for your willingness to do this.  You may not realize what you have done by just coming here and showing up but I promise you it is far more than most are willing to do in their times of suffering. You have been an inspiration to myself and so many others and although you may not feel this or understand this now just as we read about Jesus in Isaiah, we were also sent to bind up the brokenhearted by our faithfulness to our God throughout this tragedy and this storm. It is a testament to our Lord and savior that you are willing to serve him thorough our ………

This was not easy but you have done exactly what God has wanted you to do, when we have had nothing left we turned to him and I promise you God will honor that.

 

---

^[1]

 

 

 

Holding on to Hope 6

Thy will be done…

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

for ever. Amen.

 How many times have you prayed this prayer? I wonder if we realize what it is we are telling God. It is not a chant or catchy phrase that was made up, no it is so much more than that. We may recognize it as the Lord’s Prayer but what some of you may not know is these words flowed straight out of the mouth of Jesus spoken over his disciples as pattern in which to live by.

I love what Nancy says this week in the chapter titled Submission about changing the layout of our prayers.

She says, “Often, I see the body of Christ put so much into pursuing God for healing. With great boldness and passion and persistence, we cry out to God, begging for physical healing. And in these prayers, there is often a tiny P.S. added at the end where we say, “If it be your will.”

But shouldn’t we switch that around?

Shouldn’t we cry out to God with boldness and passion and persistence in a prayer that says, “God, would you please accomplish your will? Would you give me a willing heart to embrace your plan and your purpose? Would you mold me into a vessel that you can use to accomplish what you have in mind?” And then, perhaps, we could add a tiny P.S. that says, “If that includes healing, we will be grateful.”

Isn’t real faith revealed more through pursuing God and what he wants than through pursuing what we want?

On the outside we cry out to God saying things like, “Your will God, your plan. Then we boldly ask for him to provide for our daily needs (hence the word daily), then we wrap it all up in a pretty little package proclaiming all his great power and glory…that is until we have a bad day.  

On days that our world is upside down I wonder if we ask God for these same things with the same purpose.

I think we are more likely to ask things like, “How in the world could this be your will and part of the plan you have for my life?”

The Rope

(Start wrapping up in the rope)

And there we stand all wrapped up in a tangled mess of lies from the enemy and distrust in our God. We are bitter and hurt and confused. We are full of sorrow and sadness and we want answers.

I’m going to be so bold to say that I don’t think there could ever really be a good enough answer as to why these things happen in our life. Although at times it may bring us a little peace when something seems to fit, we are ultimately torn apart by the trials that we face here on earth.

I believe that one thing God has shown me over and over is that our answers are found in our willingness to bend the knee in obedience and the flexibility we allow in the stretching of our faith.

The Sword of the Spirit

When we take our Sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God) and began to put it into action (start cutting the rope and laying it at the feet of Jesus). That is when we began to feel the presence of God in our situation.

Listen, we all have days that it isn’t going to be easy to lay some of these things down, there are even days that we may yearn to wear the heaviness of those things again because at least at those times we don’t feel so exposed & vulnerable.

There are many times that I run back to the cross and take back the things that I don’t have the will to lay down that day. (go grab a few pieces of rope and start tying them back together). And that is ok, you can start again tomorrow…

As I stand here today I am not a person that is free from all of the things that I am burdened by. There are things that I yet to trust Jesus with and together with Him I am a work in progress. But I know that there will come a time that I will have the trust and courage to lay them all down.

This is part of the submission that Nancy was talking about this week in her reading chapter titled Submission. 

I love Matthew 16:24, that says, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.

Through our act of obedience and submission things become clear.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (talking about the Paul and the thorn in his flesh)

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sufficient in this passage means to ultimately be satisfied. So therefore my grace (His grace) is to satisfy you. Would we be willing to accept what God is saying to us here? To delight in our weaknesses and to know that when we are at our weakest state, through Christ we are the strongest.

Profiting in our trials

Let’s look at a few things that the Bible says about profiting from our trials:

James 1:2-4,

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-7 (this one keeps coming up everywhere for me),

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

Papa’s Land

I wanted to share with you what happened to me yesterday. For the first time since my grandfather has passed I loaded up my kids and followed my sister, mom and aunt out to his place. I was very anxious about going there and having the initial reality that as we drove over the hill he would not be waiting at the gate to greet us.

I kept thinking how this man had helped me so much by his encouragement he poured into me and by the simplicity of his life. If I had burdens they seemed to be put into perspective by sitting on his porch solving all life’s problems one historical story at a time. But yesterday my burden was deep and my sorrow was heavy and I was weary.

We made our way into the house, after we all pulled ourselves together, and begin to rummage through some of the things that we each wanted. After a bit I just sat in his chair and took it all in. Man was it quiet, too quiet, even with the energy of my kids and I wanted to get outside.

I walked out to his shop and realized that the oddness of the quietness had followed me. I began to look around I realized that there were very few animals, if any that were roaming about. You see he qualified for Ag exemption on his property which meant that he literally had feeding stations and nesting stations set up at various places around his place. He fed the birds, the squirrels, the chickens and even the coons. Things that are a nuisance to us were friends to him. He had a butterfly garden and sometimes even bee hives. But now the absence of his presence and the food that he had once provided resulted in an absence of the animals. I thought, “how they must miss him…” It made me wonder how many times the animals that he tended to daily came back to see if he had returned and how long did it take them before they gave up and went elsewhere.

I stared out into an open field and began to ask God if this was a place that was meant for Will and I to purchase. Would we be able to be happy when visiting here and could this be a place that would bring us closer to God? I felt God lay these words on my heart.

“I have never once left you but at times you don’t notice me there because you don’t like how it looks. Don’t fear that I am not there, I am. As I took that short walk with God I felt that he made clear to me in my spirit, that If we choose to not put in the work & commitment it takes to seek him and fill up on what his Word has for us, then our hunger and our thirst for figuring this all out will never be quenched and we will undoubtedly go elsewhere for food.

How many of us are looking at an empty, lifeless landscape trying to figure out where God is in all of it? Maybe it is us that have turned away and chosen to not bend the knee and dive into his Word for healing and fresh revelations. Or maybe we are spinning circles trying to find him when all along he is right there. Sometimes the best place to start is on our knees. 

The Bible says, ⁶ Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6.

How many times do we get discouraged waiting on the LORD when the whole time morning after morning he continues to pour out the manna we need to fulfill our daily needs. 

He pours out his love for us through his word, but how will we ever know if we don’t open it up and read it? Don’t say it’s too hard or confusing, if I can do this than so can you. Sit down and ask God for discernment and wisdom and a heart and mind to receive whatever it is he has to show you. Tell him when you are confused or don’t understand something. Beg him to open your eyes to the bigger picture and to help you bend the knee into submission and obedience to accept the plan and His will over your life. I say this to you so boldly because for me I see no Plan B. I want to live in freedom through Christ and I know this is the only way.

                                    The beauty in nature

For some reason after walking with God Papa’s place became even more beautiful to me. God reveals himself to us in so many ways and for me yesterday, it was through nature.

 I began to thank God for the things that I take for granted. Theresa has mentioned several times that the appropriate response for a gift is gratitude. When was the last time that you thanked God for a sunset? Every evening he paints the most beautiful picture in the sky for all to see, and do we even take the time to notice it? And when we do are we giving him credit for it? I love that he gives us a small window into his beauty. I listened to a preacher a while back and he said, “God is Holy and majestic and so powerful, and yet we treat him like a hobby.”

All of this made me think of all the many ways that God reveals his love for us and how often we over look them. Are we so bitter or self-focused by some of the things that have happened in our life that we miss out on the things he is laying right before our eyes?

I’ve often wondered if God doesn’t allow me to enter through trials so that I put aside everything else and seek him. Where else can you experience the immense amount of love that he has for you? I want to experience the kind of love from God that I don’t forget in a day or two…don’t you?

Several years ago I began praying this scripture over my life. I started out saying it with hesitation, but now I say it with confidence in who He is to me.

Proverbs 30:5-9 says,

5 Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
6 Do not add to His words,
Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

7 Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

I am committed to trusting God to provide for me in my daily needs in my walk with him. And I am praying this same verse over my husband and children. It is not easy for me to lay my kids at his feet and pray “thy will be done”, but if I have no trust and confidence in my savior what do I have at all? I ask God constantly to help me correctly speak the truth in his Word for I don’t want to mislead you or myself in anything that I bring forth.

I speak in confidence when I say that your God loves you and cares about you with unconditional love. I know for most of us when looking at our tragedies the answers as to why aren’t always clear. I am just thankful that we serve a God that gives us the opportunity to seek him and find some peace in the storms.

Matthew 7:7-8 says,

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Nowhere does this passage imply that we will find the answers we want, but we will find the answers he has for us.

I have prayed that each of us will open our hearts to him in a way that he is able to fill us to the measure of his love. I pray that through trials and sifting we become spiritually mature and have an increase in faith that surpasses all doubt, because we serve a God that is far more capable of anything that myself or anyone else could ever bring forth. He is our healer and our great deliver. In Him I will put my trust and through Him I will survive this storm.