• Devotional,  Faith

    If You Ever Doubt If God Is In Control, Read This

     

    Tommy and I switched churches back in January and the messages have been really blessing us each Sunday at our new church. I wanted to share with you what I learned this Sunday. It is something that has been helping with my anxiety, and helping me to trust God more. I hope it will be as encouraging for you.

    Luke 22:9-13

    They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” 10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters11 and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.”

    13 And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

    A Little Bit Of Background

    This is the scene right before the last supper. It seems small and insignificant honestly. It’s just Jesus telling his disciples to prepare the feast, and the amazing part is so small that it is so easily missed. If our pastor didn’t point this out to me this Sunday, I wouldn’t have really given it a second thought.

    At this point in the story, Jesus and his disciples were traveling to Jerusalem for Passover and this supper specifically, so it doesn’t seem all that strange when he tells them to prepare it. I’m not sure what the regular customs would be, where they would normally celebrate, but look closely at how comical it is when Jesus tells them what to do.

    Jesus’s Instruction

    He tells them “Go and prepare the feast”. And their response is so funny, “Where do we prepare it?”. I find it funny that Jesus doesn’t just tell them where to prepare it because they had just gotten to the city, and he knew that they didn’t know but he waits for them to ask.

    But his response is so astounding. He tells them exactly where to find the man whose house they will be staying at and exactly what to say to him.

    Jesus Shows He Is Always In Control

    The details of what Jesus tells them is what shows his sovereignty over the whole situation, even up until his own crucifixion. He tells Peter and John that a man will be holding a jar of water, which our pastor told us is not common during this time in history; it would normally have been a woman getting water. I love how he tells them that the room will be furnished as well. It’s such a small detail, but it just shows how in control Jesus really is. And the best line in the whole passage? “They left and found things just as Jesus had told them.” Of course they did, but I wonder if they ever stopped and paused and just laughed at how cool it was to be so close to someone who knew literally everything.

    Why This Is So Comforting

    In the rest of the chapter, Jesus also goes on to say and do things that shows his sovereignty over everything that happens until his death. They’re easy to miss, but they are huge when you notice them. He also asks Judas why he is betraying him with a kiss, even before everyone else knows what is going on.

    This is so comforting to me because if he was in control and knew what was going on during the worst thing that has ever happened, then he is always in control and knows what is going on with me, even when I don’t understand it. It shows that things are never as bad as they seem because Jesus is in control. This helps to ease my anxieties because it shows me that I can trust my Savior. You can find the full sermon here that I am recapping, it goes into much more detail.

    \\How does this make you feel? Does it help you with trusting God like it does for me?

  • Faith

    Rededication

    For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. – 2 Chronicles 16:9

    I have a confession. I do not know what my spiritual life is supposed to look like now that I’m married. Everything feels different. I don’t feel like I can connect to God as easily as I used to. When I pray I don’t hear His voice as easily as I used to. This could just be a dry season for me – before we were married I was consistently seeking God and desired to spend so much time with Him. I don’t feel the same lately and I know we all go through phases and some seasons it is easy to connect with God and others it is harder but being in a new season of life and not being able to connect with God well has been really tough.

    Sometimes I even feel like it’s my fault. Like maybe I’m doing something to keep myself from connecting with God (besides the obvious, not spending as much time praying and reading my bible). Maybe I am living too much for others opinions or maybe I just got lazy because I finally “got what I wanted” being married and all. But I still do desire God and wish to connect with Him like I have before.

    I also think part of it might be because I am not used to having to connect with Him while other people are around. I used to read my bible and pray in my room behind closed doors and now my desk that I normally read at is in our living room so this makes it much more difficult to be alone. Or maybe God is just trying to teach me to try to connect with Him with my husband now. We just bought 30 day devotionals for married couples. I linked the book in case anyone is interested.

    I wrote the bible verse above because this verse convicted me a lot today while I was reading my bible, but also encouraged me as well. Friends, I don’t feel as though my heart is “fully committed to Him” although I do desire for it to be. Like I mentioned in my post yesterday I feel lost and I guess I’m not sure what having my heart being fully committed to the Lord in this season should look like. I am excited to find out though. Especially because this verse says that the Lord strengthens those who are fully committed to Him. I am praying for an increased desire to know the Lord and praying for obedience and discipline when it comes to reading my bible.

  • Faith,  Life

    Life To The Fullest

    I’ve discovered the secret to living life to the fullest- well God’s let me in on the secret and well actually it’s not much of a secret at all….

    Do you ever feel like there are so many things that you want to do but never really have the time for? Things that you think you’d enjoy but after doing all the “regular” every day things that need to get done you don’t feel like you have the energy to do anything else? Things like going for a run. Or reading that book that’s been sitting on your shelf for months that you’ve been meaning to get to.

    For the longest time this is how I felt and still do feel most of the time. There are always things I wanted to get done but I always feel like I lack the motivation to actually get them done.

    The past two weeks I’ve been trying to get into the habit of running regularly and it’s been hard. This week I’ve slacked a lot actually- I only ran once but I feel like I can hear God’s voice more clearly when I’m out running. Out pushing myself to do the good things that I know I should be doing to better myself. During one of these runs I felt God telling me why I hadn’t had the motivation to get all the things that I wanted to get done.

    The problem was I wasn’t seeking Him first.

    But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33

    God spoke to me so clearly on this one particular run and He told me that when I seek these things first- the desire to be healthy, or be more adventurous and try new things, or even just try to read more- I am not putting Him in His rightful place. When I don’t seek God first, these things become my main goal and they were never meant to be and that is why I lost focus of them so quickly. I’m still struggling with this now. I desire to wake up a little earlier each morning and spend time with God before starting my day- but far too often than I care to admit I choose sleeping over this.

    God showed me how when I seek Him first, He’ll give me the motivation to get done the things that He knows are good for me- like running or reading. He rearranges my day and gives me time to do these things and I don’t have to worry about that.

    I am striving to spend time with God first and not worry about all these “secondary” issues that aren’t mine to arrange anyway. I know that the things that I want are good things but they turn rotten when they are out of order in my life. I wish it were easier to seek God first. It’s convicting to realize how often I don’t but I am committed to continually striving after this until I can get it right.

  • Faith

    A Secret About Your Fears

    I felt like God wanted me to write about this specific topic earlier today but I reasoned with myself and told myself that I didn’t really feel in the mood to write at the time so I decided not to write about it.

    What I wanted to write though was that God has really been trying to show me the secret of why I fear things is because I picture the fear without God being there. 

    God’s really been telling me over and over again lately that He is always with me. And that this is the most important thing that I can remember, especially in those times that I’m worrying about something in my future. If I think back to my past, about the hard things I’ve gone through (and there have been a lot if I’m honest), and I realized that He was always there through all that, and that He is still here for me now, then I need to start picturing Him in the future as well.

    I just read my devotional, Jesus Calling for the day and I want to share it with you:

    Sit quietly with me, letting all your fears and worries bubble up to the surface of your consciousness. There, in the light of My Presence, the bubbles pop and disappear. However, some fears surface over and over again, especially fear of the future. You tend to project yourself mentally into the next day, week, month, year, decade; and you visualize yourself coping badly in those times. What you are seeing is a false image, because it doesn’t include Me. Those gloomy times that you imagine will not come to pass, since My Presence will be with you at all times. When a future-oriented worry assails you, capture it and disarm it by suffusing the Light of My Presence into that mental image. Say to yourself, “Jesus will be with me then and there. With His help, I can cope!” Then, come to the present moment, where you can enjoy Peace in my Presence”

    Once I read this I knew I had to write about it. This is the secret to conquering our fears. There’s no reason to worry about the future because He will be with us and He will give us the strength to get through whatever may cross our paths. What an awesome God we have.

    “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

  • Faith

    To The Perfectionists

    It’s okay.

    It’s okay not to have it all together.

    Sometimes I know this but for me to actually believe it, it’s impossible. There’s a verse in the bible about being perfect isn’t there? Oh yeah…

    “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48

    But what does “perfect” look like in the eyes of God? What is He expecting of us? This is something that I have struggled with trying to understand for quite some time now. But God has finally freed me from the slavery of trying to be perfect. All I had to do was ask…

    I prayed about how much I struggled with trying to be perfect and how I felt that I needed to be for Him to love me. I got that Jesus died for me because I wasn’t but I also knew that it wasn’t okay for me to keep sinning either. So I wondered, what did God expect of me?

    And he answered my prayer, He has led my heart down an amazing path of healing from perfectionism. He knows I’m not perfect, and He knows you’re not perfect.

    Yet He loves us anyway.

    What God cares most about is your heart. He desires to know the real you. The messy you. The you that you don’t even like. He desires for us to let Him in and ask Him to help us to be better. Only He can do that anyway, we can strive and strive all we want to be better, look better, feel better. But without letting Him in and asking Him to change us, we can’t and we won’t be better.

    “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

    This was the verse I was missing. The perfection I was looking for and God expected me to strive after was already completed in Jesus’s work on the cross. Now that’s all that’s left to do now is:

    REST.

    In his grace. Because it is sufficient.

  • Faith

    For Those Of You Who Have Anxious Hearts Like I Do….

    This post is for those of you who know how it feels to be anxious. Anxious about life. Anxious for no reason at all sometimes. This post is for those of you who want so badly to trust in God’s good promises for you, who want to experience the peace that Jesus offers – but just can’t seem to grab a hold of this peace and keep it in your hearts.

    Instead you know how it feels to keep repeating the same anxious thoughts over and over again not sure how to make them stop.

    “If only…”

    “What if…”

    Now I want to let you know I am no expert on this. I too struggle with grabbing a hold of the the peace that Jesus offers. I’m on the same journey as you but I want to share with you what God is teaching me along the way.

    I don’t know about you guys but sometimes when I’m feeling anxious I think that I can figure out God’s plan if I think hard enough about my life. Now I realize how ridiculous this sounds admitting it but I’ve realized that that’s exactly what I am trying to do when I can’t stop my anxious heart from worrying.

    Sometimes I even examine other people’s lives and think that I can figure out how God works.

    So she grew up in a Christian home and has had a good life so far so ultimately something bad has to happen to her eventually, right?

    Or, I’ve had a really good year.. that must mean that something bad is lurking around the corner…

    Or, I better not enjoy this too much because then it might get taken away from me…

    Just admitting those thoughts out loud and bringing them into the light makes me realize how ridiculously wrong they really are.

    ” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

    – Acts 1:7

    This verse hit me hard when I read it today. No matter how hard I try to figure out what is going to happen, I simply cannot. It is not in my ability to do so. That again is reserved for God alone. Just like I mentioned in my post “If God’s Ways Are Higher Than Ours Why Does He Allow Bad Things To Happen To Us?”.

    God must really be trying to tell me something huh? Our jobs aren’t to figure out our future, what might or might not happen. Our jobs aren’t to go over every bad thing that can happen to try to figure out how we are going to deal with them if they do.

    Our jobs are to rest in His great love and provision for us. God is faithful guys. He promises to always meet our needs. That’s His job, not ours.

    But more than that, let’s remember how good our God really is. What I’m learning is that this is at the root of our anxieties and worries – we do not ultimately believe that God is good…

    And how wrong we are. God is really transforming my mind about who He is and the main thing that He’s showing me is that He is good! So good we can’t even fathom. If something bad is to happen to us, He’ll be there – every step of the way.

    Holding us, loving us, and growing us.

    We’re never alone, and never without what we need.

    “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

    Pray that God will open your eyes to just how good He really is – it will rock your world.