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Showing posts from January, 2020

Final Journal Entry ~ 01/13/20

Hi friends -  This is a bittersweet post.  This journal entry will be my last post on this forum. God has been moving in my heart and the heart of my husband, and He has called us to join forces to write a blog together on marriage. I still plan to post daily devotions, but they will be focused on marriage and posted on our new platform. There will also be additional content - our testimonies and stories, as well as my husband’s  thoughts on marriage. We don’t know where God plans you take us in this journey, but we are excited, humble servants and willing to go where He leads.  I want to take a moment to thank all of you. I am deeply grateful for those of you who have taken this difficult journey with me. God has done some amazing things through this blog, and I will be forever grateful for the way He has used it to grow my heart closer to Him.  I would love for each of you to continue to follow my husband and me at our new site: graceinmarriage.com Hope to se

Journal Entry ~ 01/12/20

2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.  - Psalm 27:2-3 When we have been wronged, our flesh often wants to respond with anger and hurt. We want to either we retaliate or withhold and isolate, and we end up in one of two places: fear or judgment. But those responses only add to the trouble we're already experiencing. This verse reminds us how we are to respond when we experience another's sin. We are to run to God, not from Him. Instead of meditating on all the nasty things that were said or done to us by another, we are reminded to meditate on the glory and goodness of our Father. Don't allow yourself to think you're the center of the universe - our story is no longer our story, we are part of a greater story. Meditating on His greater plan takes the focus off of us. We must also remem

Journal Entry ~ 01/11/20

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  Psalms 27:1 If we're being honest with ourselves...we would have to admit that nobody likes to appear weak. It's humbling to not know the answer, to fail at a task, or not to be able to solve a problem. We live in a world that values success, so we try to take control. We fear failure. So we spend our time trying to hide our anxious thoughts or our broken relationships, trying to make it look like we’ve got it all together. We post pictures of smiling faces, and we stuff those fearful thoughts deep inside our hearts. But we love a God who promises us strength, a God who promises to bring light into the darkest of places, a God who promises to send out an army to rescue us. We don’t have to hide the mess from Him - He already knows it all, and He still promises to hold your hand through it all. When He is the stronghold of your life, you have nothing

Journal Entry ~ 01/10/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 As we continue to meditate this verse, we find the danger of not softening our hearts to hear other people's exhortations - the opposite will happen - our hearts will harden.  When we continue to hold our hand up as people in our lives try to reveal the truth about our hearts to us, if we continue to distance ourselves from the people God has sent into our lives to share the truth with us, if we continue to knowingly sin when confronted with the truths in our lives, eventually we will become unable to see our own sin. We lose the ability to see ourselves as others see us, or as God sees us. When our hearts are hardened, it becomes more difficult for His truth to penetrate, which means we need to be more broken for the truth to

Journal Entry ~ 01/09/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 We are called to bear one another’s burdens in this passage. A burden is translated as a heavy load that’s difficult to carry.  We are instructed to carry those burdens because doing so is what God commands in His law. It’s our responsibility as believers in Christ that we would bear one another’s burdens - that means we would do the hard stuff for others with a smile on our face.  We joyfully work for others. When others ask us to serve, we willingly offer our services without complaint. Some of us will do the hard work, but will complain about it to anyone who will listen - this isn’t bearing one another’s burdens. We carry one another’s burdens because we are called to love one another before ourselves. While bearing one

Journal Entry ~ 01/08/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 If any of our believing friends or family members are caught in a transgression, when they’re living in an unguarded way in some aspect of their life, we who are spiritual are called to restore them. But God knows our tendency toward judgment, so we are immediately instructed to restore them with a spirit of gentleness. Restoring is to put something back together, as a bone that’s out of place. Gentle is how Jesus describes himself in Matthew 11:29, when you are burdened, take my yoke on you for I am gentle. Gentleness is sweetly reasonable and approachable. If you’re angry at the person for their sin, if you’re offended, if you’re judgmental, you’re not going to be gentle. Again, God knows our heart well enough to continue th

Journal Entry ~ 01/07/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 When we see the sin in other people, we are called to point out that sin with a spirit of gentleness. Think about the last time you called out your child or your husband when they offended you, or maybe it was a co-worker or the customer service rep who failed to remember the customer always comes first - were you gentle? Gentleness is an inward calmness and a peace with God. We achieve gentleness when we completely surrender to God's will and His way in our lives. A true spirit of gentleness is simply not achievable without the grace of Holy Spirit washing over us. I just love the moments when I feel this sense of gentleness in my soul....when I can see the storm raging, but I know with confidence that He is at work, and

Journal Entry ~ 01/06/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 This verse reminds us of one of the most important truths in scripture - we need each other. God created us to live in community with one another because He knows our hearts' tendency toward deceitfulness. He knows that on our own, we will never see the evil that exists in our own hearts - we are blind to it. We have no problem seeing the evil in other people's hearts, but we don't see the evil in our own. Even if we are someone who struggles with depression, or with self-esteem and we're always putting ourselves down, we still don't see the true evil behind it in our own hearts. God puts people in our lives to help us see our hearts as they truly are - that is why we are called to be a part of community. W

Journal Entry ~ 01/05/20

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2 It is tempting to ignore  the promptings of the Holy Spirit because we think we have a more accurate view of ourselves than we really do. Sin is deceitful, it blinds us, and our hearts easily become hardened against the truth. So when someone confronts us with a reality about who we are or how we made them feel, the sin in our heart immediately starts spin control. We deny, blame shift, argue, or refuse to listen. Few of us really believe we need other people in our lives to tell us where our sin issues are. But we are reminded in this passage that one of the reasons we are to live in community with one another is to exhort one another. It is so much easier to see the sin in another, so we are instructed to confront one another

Journal Entry ~ 01/04/20

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. - 1 Peter 4:19 When you really embrace the massive, unshakable promises in scripture, when you entrust your soul to a faithful Creator and continue to do good, your life takes on a whole new stability. People who live by these truths are the freest, strongest, and most generous people in the world. They don't fear what is coming, they live by grace in the moment, trusting in His plan and in His future grace. They don't get tossed in the waves of emotion when a crisis hits, or when that difficult person walks into the room. They aren't tripped up by the challenging moments because they know and trust that God is sovereign over everything that is happening in their lives. They lean in to their trials rather than avoid the conflict because their deepest desire is to grow more like Christ, and they know He refines us most in those difficult moments. When yo

Journal Entry ~ 01/03/20

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. - 1 Peter 4:19 Life’s difficulties can catch us off guard sometimes, leaving us wondering if God is good. We are often puzzled over how a frustrating, hurtful, or shocking development in our lives could possibly contribute to anything good. The problem is we're focused on us and our limited ability to change the current situation. We need to stop looking at the circumstance—and get our eyes back on God. If He wasn’t going to use that circumstance for your good, it wouldn’t have happened. He has to sign off on every single thing that touches your life. That’s not to say He wanted it—God is not the cause of evil, but He is the solution. He’s the master chess player who takes every move we make and strategizes the next move to ensure His purposes are accomplished. I think one of the mistakes Christians make is to hear "good" and interpret it as God's

Journal Entry ~ 01/02/20

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. - 1 Peter 4:19 We are reminded in this verse when we suffer, we are to trust in our Father. If we’re going to trust our God, then we need to have confidence that He is faithful. Our God is faithful. He has shown up in my life in so many ways that I cannot possibly deny Him. My story is a story of God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promises over and over again. When the road seemed impossible, He showed up to clear the path. When I have faced unspeakable injustices, He has shown up with the truth. When I have needed wisdom, He has shown me the way. When my heart is filled with grief, He has wrapped His arms around me in comfort. He doesn’t always show up in the way I ask Him to or at the time I would like Him to, but He never fails to show up and fulfill His promise to work all things out for good. Even when it doesn’t make sense, He has shown me His ways are better

Journal Entry ~ 01/01/20

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. - 1 Peter 4:19 Suffering well comes only with a full understanding of the attributes of God. His sovereignty is at the top of the list we need to consider. No matter what we face in life, God is sovereign over it all. Sovereignty, by definition, is having supreme power and authority. He is reigning and He is in control over every single thing we encounter. He knows what’s happening in each of our lives and He promises to be there with us. And even though He has the power to stop or change it, He has chosen to allow each specific situation because He has a plan for our good in it. God has the capacity and control to accomplish His will in all things. Scripture is filled with stories of God using people to bring about His will - He even uses people who have no belief in Him to accomplish His will. Understanding and believing in His sovereignty can shape who we are. F