Knowing God

  • Knowing God

    Standing on the Promises of God

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    I grew up going to an a capella church and have loved singing pretty much from the moment I could form words. Now and then, one of the old church hymns will get stuck in my head and become the soundtrack to my day. It cracks me up that somehow my brain still remembers the words to just about every song, but I can barely remember my email passwords.

    One morning, a few years ago, I woke up with the hymn, “Standing on the Promises of God” stuck in my head. As I got ready for the day, the second verse was playing on a loop in my mind.

    Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
    When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
    By the living Word of God, I shall prevail,
    Standing on the promises of God.

    The fact that this particular song came to mind during this particular season of life, was no coincidence. My husband and I were facing major job changes, we had a new baby on the way and it was pretty unclear how all the details of our suddenly complicated life would fall into place. This song reminded me right when I needed it most, that we could stand firm on God’s promises, even when everything else felt like shaky ground.

    That’s a big deal when the world we live in often operates under a different model. You may have even heard the expression, “Promises are made to be broken.” We’ve all experienced the sting of disappointment when someone breaks a promise, great or small. But where other people fail, our Unfailing God never disappoints. 

    Author, Jennifer K. Dean said in one of her books “A promise is only as good as the person who makes it.  The character of the promiser is what gives the promise its value.” One of the ways God reveals His character to us is through the promises He makes in the Bible. Knowing that God is who He says He is, and that He will do what He says He will do, helps us to respond in faith. 

    In Exodus 3:13-15, God told Moses that he would free the Israelites from hundreds of years of captivity and lead them out of Egypt to a land that God was promising them. Moses asked God who he should say sent him when He went to lead the people, and God replied, “Tell them “I Am who I Am” sent you.” In one statement, God established His character as the God who always was, who is now, and who always will be. He is constant, and never changes, He is eternal, with no beginning and no end. Everything He says is true because He himself is Truth.

    And because “I Am” said, “I Will”, Moses believed in God’s promise. Moses’ confidence was bolstered and he stepped out in faith, not because of his own ability or credentials, but because of God’s. 

    Throughout the Bible, God makes and keeps His promises in relationship with people. His covenants are invitations for His people to partner with Him, to work together to ultimately renew God’s relationship with everyone. God gives them a role to play in His plan and asks for commitments on their part. He gives them instruction and guidance for how to live so that they can enjoy the blessings He has in store for them, and for generations to come. 

    And even though they grow impatient with God’s timing, or fail to do their part, God still does His. There are consequences for sin, and sometimes the blessings are delayed until they return to God and to right relationship with Him. But despite their failings, God’s promises are not dependent on their perfection, ability, or flawless obedience. Instead, God reveals himself as “The God of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. He lavishes unfailing love to a thousand generations and forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin.” Exodus 34:6-7a (NLT) 

    And we are just the same today, aren’t we? Time and time again, in our relationship with God, we make commitments to follow Him, to strive to be more like Him, only to stumble and fall. But God’s faithfulness and love are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And because of His lavish love for us, God sent Jesus as the fulfillment of every promise, to be the faithful covenant partner that we could never be so that anyone can have a renewed covenant relationship with Him forever. Because of Jesus, we can stand on God’s promises and the truth of His character. We can enjoy the blessings of relationship with Him, and receive His compassion and grace when we fail. 

    And every season, whatever we are facing, we can turn to God’s Word, remember His promises, and the truth of His character, and we will stand firm. God’s track record is flawless. So when the I AM says “I Will”, we can rely on it. We don’t have to be perfect, because Jesus is. We will make mistakes, but God already planned ahead for that. The storms of life will come, but we are safe in the arms of the Almighty God. And there’s nothing that can separate us from His unfailing, lavish love, because God himself is love, and he has gone to the ends of the earth to make sure that we can always be with Him. 

    So stand upon His promises that cannot fail and when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God, we shall prevail, standing on the promises of God.

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  • In The Word, Knowing God

    Experiencing Revival Through God’s Word

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    I sat there, curled up in a swirl of blankets, with my open Bible in my lap. My mind was racing and my heart was weary. This quiet time I was supposed to be spending with the Lord felt like it was more out of obedience than a longing to be near Him. In my anxiety and stress, it was hard to feel like God was close or understand how He was going to work things out.

    My eyes hovered over the pages as I skimmed Jeremiah 29:11 hoping for a little encouragement. 

    “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

    I must have read that verse a hundred times before, and even though the greater context is God speaking to Israel after a time of exile, it still reminds me of His love and perfect plan that we get to be a part of as His children. But this time, I kept reading. 

    “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…”

    It was exactly what I desperately needed to hear. A promise that God will be found by any willing heart that seeks Him. 

    The words were the same as they had always been, but in light of the week I’d had, they settled in my heart differently. It was like God was reaching out to me in that very moment through these ancient words, to breathe new life into my tender heart.

    That’s the beauty of God’s Word. It is steadfast and unchanging, but also powerful, dynamic, and transformative. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “…the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

    I love that! God’s Word is neither stagnant nor indifferent. It can reach the deepest places in our hearts and minds and transform us. It meets us where we are, but does not leave us there. God’s Word is powerful in every circumstance, in every corner of the world, and in every generation. Whatever you are facing today, wherever you are in your faith journey, God has something to say to you in His Word. And if you want to get to know God better, there’s no place better to start. 

    Through the Bible, God reveals His character, His heart, and His thoughts, especially as we look at the life of Jesus. God sent His son, Jesus to reveal Himself to us, so that we can know Him better. That means that when we see Jesus’ compassion, love, kindness, justice, and patience, we are beholding the character of God himself. Through this lens, we begin to experience God’s love for us, and God’s ultimate story of redemption and restoration comes alive. 

    As we find our place in the story of God’s people, we discover that the Bible is also a practical tool for every facet of life. It guides us, helps us grow, and equips us thoroughly for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It helps us discern what is true, right, and good as we navigate a world full of opinions, pressures, and temptations that are all competing for our allegiance. 

    A friend was recently sharing how workers at the U.S. Mint can quickly spot a counterfeit bill. They don’t memorize all the different kinds of fake money. They spend all their time studying the real thing. As they learn everything they can about the true bill, the phony becomes immediately obvious. The same is true of the Word of God. As we study and learn the truth of God’s Word, the counterfeit gods that the world offers are easily spotted. We can measure what we hear, see, and experience against God’s character because we know it firsthand through Scripture. 

    My prayer for you is that each time you read your Bible, God’s words will settle deep in your heart. I pray that as you see God’s character unfold, your knowledge of His love for you will grow and the depth of your love for Him will flourish. And I pray that you will cultivate a longing to spend time with Him each day, reading His Word.

    It only takes a few minutes a day to start on a journey of discovering and experiencing the love of God through Scripture. If you are looking for a place to start, the first 4 books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are great ways to catch a glimpse of God through the life of Jesus. Maybe there’s a local Bible Study Fellowship or Community Bible Study group that you could join and learn how to study the Bible more. Or you can find a friend and take on a few paragraphs at a time together. 

    I pray that you will seek God with all of your heart, my sweet friend, and dive into His Word with eager anticipation. Just like God met me that day, sitting alone in a pile of fluffy blankets, He is waiting to meet you too, right where you are. You won’t have to look any farther than the pages of the Bible.

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  • Knowing God, Purposeful Living

    A Divine Invitation

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    I squinted and pulled the visor down as I sat in my car, waiting for the car ahead of me to turn onto the highway. My kids and I were on our way to church and I was lost in thought, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel and wondering if we had enough time to get some Starbucks on the way.

    Traffic was pretty heavy and I didn’t think much of it when a few minutes passed and the car ahead of me still hadn’t moved. But when the passenger door suddenly swung open, and an older woman stepped out onto the road, it snapped me out of my daze. 

    She looked around for a moment, turned west, and started walking on the shoulder of the highway toward town. The car she’d been riding in turned east, and left her to continue her journey on foot. 

    I was truly perplexed and turned to follow her for a moment. Her steps were shaky on the uneven gravel and I worried that she might fall, or worse, accidentally step into the steady stream of traffic whizzing by. 

    I’d never picked anyone up from the side of the road before, but as my car idled past, I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I needed to pull over. It felt like a voice inside me was shouting “Stop the car, NOW!” 

    I immediately pulled over and told my kids to stay in the car while I checked on her. As I got closer to her, she was not at all what I expected. She was dressed in her Sunday best and her soft, silvery hair was swept gently back with a barrette. 

    I asked her if she was ok, and her bright eyes met mine and she replied, “Yes, I’m on my way to see my daughter.” She said her name was Hazel* and explained that she had caught a ride up to that point and planned to walk the last few miles to her daughter’s house. 

    I paused briefly to pray and ask God to help me discern my next step. I took a deep breath and told Hazel that we were on our way to church, and offered to give her a ride to her daughter’s house. She smiled and said “Oh, I’d love to go to church! I’ll just go there with you!” 

    Hazel hopped in the front seat and down the road we went. As we drove, she was talkative and cheerful but was also struggling to remember what town she was in or where her daughter lived. By the time we arrived at church, it was clear that Hazel suffered from dementia and was lost. A friend from church called the police while I sat with Hazel and within minutes they were able to contact her daughter Susan who lived 30 miles away! 

    Susan arrived with tears in her eyes and hugged us all. Her family had been getting ready to go to church that morning too, when Hazel wandered off from the house, something she had never done before. They had called the police and been frantically looking for her, hoping and praying that she was ok. Susan laughed that not only was Hazel ok, she still had managed to go to church! 

    Our laughter was still hanging in the air when Susan’s countenance suddenly became serious and her voice earnest. She leaned in and quietly asked at what time exactly did I pick up Hazel from the highway. I told her I remembered it was at 9:30 am because that was the moment I had been overwhelmed by the feeling that I needed to stop the car right then. 

    Fresh tears filled Susan’s eyes as she said, “It was at exactly 9:30 this morning that our family knelt together in the living room and prayed that God would find Mom and keep her safe.” 

    I was utterly speechless. I could scarcely wrap my head around what God had done. Not only had He heard their prayer and placed me in the right place at the right time, but God had also invited me to participate in His miraculous work.

    In John 5:17, Jesus says, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” That means that in every moment, God’s love, power, and presence are working all around us. We just have to have to recognize where He is working and have hearts willing to join Him.

    It all begins with our relationship with God. On the Experience Revival Podcast, we have been talking a lot lately about being aware of God’s presence throughout our day and actively directing our thoughts toward Him. We become intentional about inviting God into what we are doing by having an ongoing conversation with Him. Dallas Willard calls it ‘living prayer”, where we talk with God throughout the day about what we are doing together. 

    As we spend time in God’s Word, in prayer, and in community with other believers, we get to know God’s character and better recognize His voice. We are transformed to be more and more like Him and our focus shifts from what God is doing in our own lives, to becoming more aware that God might be inviting us into what He is doing. 

    It’s a shift in our thinking because sometimes we just can’t quite imagine that what we have to offer could be of significance in the Kingdom of God. But God is more interested in our willing hearts than our skill sets. We see time and time again in the Bible that God calls someone to join Him in the work He is doing, and then equips them for the task. He uses ordinary people in ordinary circumstances to do extraordinary things. 

    The word calling comes from the Greek kaleo which means “Divine invitation”. In the Bible, it’s used most to describe a divine invitation to partake of the blessings of redemption. In every moment, with every breath, we are given a divine invitation to join God in the redemptive work He is doing all around us.  

    Henry Blackaby wrote a book many years ago called Experiencing God, where he encourages people to “look for where God is working and join him there.” Practicing the presence of God will help us to see Him working around us, but it’s the Holy Spirit that will help us know how to respond. 

    It is through the Holy Spirit that we can discern what our role in a given situation is, as well as what it isn’t. While God is always working, He doesn’t call us to do everything, everywhere, all the time. Our job is to lean into Him, and prayerfully surrender to His will. 

    And it’s not always the big, obvious things that God is calling us to. A lot of times the Lord is working in the details. The big stuff is often hiding in the little stuff. But in God’s hands, the little things can have a divine purpose and a huge kingdom impact. In fact, there’s a good chance that you have already been joining God in His work and maybe didn’t realize it. 

    Like that time you saw your neighbor and sensed that they could use some encouragement, so you stopped to visit for a moment. 

    Or that woman in the grocery store who was a few dollars short, and you felt the Holy Spirit nudge you, so you added it to your bill.

    Maybe it was a kiddo on your son’s soccer team whose family was going through a hard time, so you invited him over to have dinner and watch a funny movie, just to take his mind off things for a bit.

    Maybe it was that time you simply obeyed the Holy Spirit’s prompting to pull the car over to check on someone. 

    They may seem like small things at first, but in God’s hands, they can have a Kingdom-sized impact on their life, and yours. It also changes how we see the details of our lives. Suddenly, what once seemed trivial or mundane now has a bigger purpose. 

    As you go about your week, I want to encourage you to practice being aware of God’s love, power, and presence throughout your day. Talk with Him about what you are doing together. Then look for where He is working, and join Him. The Holy Spirit will often take you outside of what makes sense or beyond your comfort zone, but God has already gone ahead of you. He is always working and He can’t wait for you to be a part of what He’s doing.

    *Names in the story have been changed to protect privacy.

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  • Heart Stuff, Knowing God

    The Faithful Love of God

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    I truly love living in the Pacific Northwest. My family moved often when I was a child, and I have lived in every region and climate of the US. My 20 years here have proven that are no more glorious rainbows in the country than in the PNW. The true bursting of color across a rain-speckled sky reminds me of a song I learned as a young girl, “Red and Yellow and Pink and Green, Purple and Orange and Blue, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too. Listen with your eyes, listen with your eyes, sing everything you see, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing along with me.”

    “Sing a Rainbow”, what a profound thought! 

    Isn’t this what God does each day for us? He truly sings a rainbow into our lives with His promises, forgiveness, and unfailing love. Just like the colors of the rainbow, we can see God’s handiwork in the little things in life. Like a maple leaf in the fall or a spring daffodil. And in the most powerful ocean waves or the flames of a campfire. 

    God goes out of His way to remind us of His love and faithfulness to keep His promises. He is ever present in my child’s eyes as he wonders and asks if a pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow. In response, I answer, “Why of course, because God’s promises are bigger, brighter, and more valuable than any pot of gold. He says come as you are, and in turn, He gives everything according to His will.” Each vibrant color gives us a reminder that He is with us in the moment and in every situation when we need to lean on Him. 

    Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

    I especially love the way the Message words it, “God can do anything, you know far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” Eph 3:20 MSG 

    The science behind a rainbow reveals how truly miraculous God’s promises to us are. When rainbows appear, raindrops act as “tiny prisms.” White light from the sun shines on one side of a water droplet, then reflects out the other side of the droplet as a circular bow or arc of color broken up into the color spectrum. What’s amazing is that rainbows contain a continuum of around 1 million colors that are invisible to the human eye. Instead, we can only really see the seven-color hues if the full spectrum is visible. 

    The powerful love of God can almost be as overwhelming to try to grasp as the 1 million colors we don’t see. We must have faith that the colors are there, faith that God is ever present in every moment.

    Our human eyes can’t truly see the capabilities of God and all that He has done in our lives. But, if we take a moment to focus on the blessings showered on us each day; a child’s hug, the unbelievable ability of a bumble bee to fly, a co-worker’s smile, food on our table, a roof over our heads, the blessings are innumerable and become the gold at the end of the rainbow. When God sings a rainbow, He lays a path for us to follow and marvel at the blessings of His covenant with us.

    “Behold, I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth… This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth” (Genesis 9:8-16, ESV).

    The radiant theme that the rainbow illustrates for us is God’s gracious and grand purpose of redemption, to give humanity another chance to start again. Reflecting on all of the fresh starts He has given me in my life, each color reflects the forgiveness and grace offered to me through His redemptive love. God promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. He promises if we repent, He will forgive us. That can be difficult to rely on when we are amid troubled times, but He made a covenant with us, that He will fulfill! He is always faithful, always loving, and ever gracious to us. 

    So, the next time you see a rainbow filling the sky with the brilliance of His redemptive love for us, take in the moment and allow those raindrops of color to soak in. Let each color remind you of the promises our Heavenly Father has laid before us. Let the millions of colors you cannot see remind you of His unending love that gives you infinitely more than you can ask or imagine because God went out of His way with those millions of colors to remind us of His love and faithfulness to keep His promises.

    This week, I pray that you will feel the complete rainbow of God’s loving presence in every aspect of your life. That you will look at the world and “Sing a Rainbow” for others like God sings for us. And as you look across the sky and marvel at the colors that you can see, imagine each of those raindrops as an answer to prayer and have the confidence knowing that truly God is good, and that’s enough!

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  • In The Word, Knowing God

    Finding Strength in Quiet Moments with God

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    He was running for his life. A few short days before he had just experienced the most incredible God moment. He had watched God bring fire down on the drenched wood of the altar, causing it to burst into flames (1 Kings 18:36-38). In that moment, God revealed that he was a powerful God, ruler over everything including the false god Baal. He had rejoiced when the disobedient people of Israel fell to their knees and proclaimed that God was the one true God. Now Elijah, God’s ambassador, was a fugitive on the run now that Jezebel, the queen of Israel, had ordered him to be killed. Those feelings of triumph and victory were quickly replaced with fear and loneliness. After a long day of running, Elijah fell down exhausted and hopeless under a tree and slept. What should he do now?

    Have you ever felt like Elijah? In the outskirts of your mind, there are faint memories of times where you have experienced incredible God moments, but now your life is busy. The kids need to be transported to events. Deadlines at your job are looming. Don’t forget the decorations you said you would make for the church ladies’ event. Your life is defined by go, go, go. After a while, the constant running on the hamster wheel can take its toll and you start to feel a bit like Elijah. Those memories of God working in your life are replaced with feelings of exhaustion, defeat and hopelessness.

    God saw Elijah’s state and sent help. An angel appeared to Elijah with food and drink and said, “Elijah eat.” Elijah, sat up, ate and went back to sleep. Again, the angel woke Elijah up and told him to eat or the next phase of his journey was going to be too much for him (1 Kings 19:7).  After Elijah ate his second God provided meal, he journeyed to Mt Horeb, the mountain of God. After a grueling forty days and forty nights, Elijah finally arrived. He was setting up his living quarters in a cave when the word of the Lord came to him with a question. “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

    While God probably knew why Elijah was there, He also knew that Elijah needed to share and get some things off his chest. Elijah gladly took the invitation and boldly shared how he was feeling. He shared how he had worked hard as a prophet for God, but despite his best efforts, the King of Israel was not listening. He shared how he had done everything God had asked of him, and now he was running for his life. He also shared how he felt very alone in his faith in God (1 Kings 19:9-10).

    After God had given Elijah the opportunity to share his sadness, anger and frustration, God invited Elijah out of the cave to the top of the mountain to be with Him. The Lord passed by in strong winds, earthquakes, and fire, but it was not in these loud and very visible expressions of power that the voice of the Lord came. It came in a soft and gentle whisper. Once again, God invited Elijah to share his burdens, but instead of just listening, God talks back. In the response, God confirms He had heard Elijah’s fears and loneliness. He explains the plan of action that will take care of the problem of those that are seeking to kill him. He also reveals to Elijah that he wasn’t alone in his devotion to God, but that there were seven thousand like him, who had never bowed a knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:11-18).

    In this story we see the realities of life. Even when we are doing the will of God, life still seems to try to drag us down. It seems bent on trying to crush us with busyness and negativity, so that we forget the ways God shows up for us. But Elijah’s encounter with God shows us that even when we struggle to keep our heads above water amidst the crashing waves of life, God still comes to us to give us comfort and strength. He invites us to come to him for provision, knowing that otherwise the journey will be too much for us on our own. He invites us to share our burdens and frustrations. And he invites us to listen to His voice as He comforts us and shows us the next steps forward.

    We are only able to hear His soft, gentle voice when we spend time with Him. Often we look at quiet times with God as just another to-do item we have to fit into an already full schedule. What if we changed our view of time with God from a to-do list item to a life-giving invitation to share and to listen? 

    I know you have heard a million times how important quiet moments with God are, and you will hear it a million times more as God continually invites you out of the chaos of life to the quiet moments on the proverbial mountain of the Lord. The journey to those quiet times can seem difficult. Sometimes it seems downright impossible to make time for it. God provided what was needed for Elijah to make it to the mountain of God, and He provided Elijah what he needed to journey back into the daily grind of life.

    The journey to the Lord is always worth it, no matter the struggle to get there because something miraculous happens inside us as we spend quiet moments sharing with God. The Bible is full of examples of people being transformed by being in the presence of God. Moses turned from an excuse maker, hesitant to do anything with God, to someone who didn’t want to go anywhere without him. The woman at the well transformed from a woman who was trying to avoid the judging eyes of her neighbors to someone who boldly shared Jesus with them. And in the story of Elijah, we see a man transformed from a hopeless runaway into someone who boldly went back into the world to change it. These three people were radically changed from the time they spent in conversation with God.

    While Elijah’s journey to the mountain of God was a distance of many miles, your journey doesn’t have to be. Your journey to God can be to your couch in the early morning before the busyness of the day begins. It could be the journey to your car at lunch time to spend a few moments in prayer and meditation. Just like God was waiting for Elijah on the mountain of the Lord, inviting Elijah into relationship, so God is waiting for you to choose to journey to Him. Inviting you into a rich relationship. He wants to spend time with you–to hear what’s on your heart and to provide all you need.

    Will you go to Him?

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  • Heart Stuff, Knowing God

    Looking Back to Look Forward

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    “3…2…1…Happy New Year!” 

    I clinked my glass against the screen of my iPhone as I cheered in the New Year over Facetime with my two oldest sons. It was the first holiday we’d ever spent apart. My husband had caught a cold and planned to turn in early, and our toddler isn’t old enough to rally past 9 pm. So to ensure that someone in our family had a proper party, I dropped our older boys off to celebrate at their godparent’s house with their best friends. Just before the ball dropped, I added my parents to the call and for a few minutes, my screen was a flurry of favorite faces as we exchanged well-wishes and I love you’s. When the call ended, I was stunned by the abrupt silence. In these first moments of 2023, I was completely alone. 

    Sure my husband was in the next room and I could see the baby on the video monitor all curled up and comfy, but everything in the house felt conspicuously quiet and still.

    There was a time in my life that ringing in the New Year alone would have been occasion for a full-on pity party, with a sad playlist and everything. But now, I found myself savoring the silence as I wrapped myself up in a fuzzy blanket and leaned back into the presence of the Lord.

    I grabbed a pen and some paper and began to look back over all that had happened throughout the past year. As I scribbled down my thoughts, Isaiah 25:1 came to mind:

    “Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”

    Last year had its share of ups and downs, but as I looked back, more than anything, I could see the Lord’s faithfulness in the blessings, triumphs, and opportunities to join Him where He was working. I could see His faithfulness in how He sustained our family when we were sick or comforted us when we were feeling anxious, stressed, or uncertain about the future. I couldn’t help but marvel that while there are many things in life we couldn’t see coming, God in His perfect faithfulness had planned ahead for every detail. 

    Because of who God is, we don’t have to know what’s coming around every corner (even though we may still want to try). We are loved by a God who holds the past, present, and future all in one view. He will gently lead us each step of the way. He’s done it before, and we can trust Him to do it again.

    You may be in a season where trusting that God really is at work feels like a tall order, especially if this past year has not been gentle with you. Maybe you find yourself in that in-between place where God’s past faithfulness feels too distant to lean on, and the future blessing feels impossibly far off. I’ve been there too, friend. 

    I want to encourage you to look up and look back so that you can look forward with hope. Look up over the tippy-top of the mountain you are facing and gaze fully into the face of God. Remember who He is and lean on what you know to be true about God according to His Word. Because when we know God’s character, it is easier to trust Him, even when things don’t look like what we had imagined at first. His promises may seem far off, but in Christ, every promise of God has been fulfilled with a resounding “Yes!” (2 Corinthians 1:20) 

    So often when we’re in the middle of something challenging, it is hard to discern how and where God is working, how He will come through, or when. When we look back to the past, in our own lives, and in the Bible, we see His unchanging character on display and His breathtaking love and provision. By reflecting on God’s steadfast presence in the past, our faith grows in the present, and we gain a confident hope for the future. 

    Even if it’s hard to see God at work in your own life right now, there are so many examples in the Bible to encourage us! Because the same God who worked powerfully in all of those amazing stories in the Bible is working mightily in your story now. And God always does more than we can ask or imagine. He goes above and beyond, helping with the apparent challenges but also caring for the deeper need as well.

    We can observe how Jesus didn’t just heal the sick physically and send them on their way. He restored their identity, reconnected them to community, and returned them to their livelihood. (Mark 5)

    We see that God doesn’t just comfort the lonely, He puts them in families and in churches. He is a father to the fatherless, and a defender of the helpless. (Psalm 68:4-6, Acts 2:42-47)

    And we learn that God doesn’t just meet us in the middle of our mess, He invites us to be a part of His greater story, to be His sons and daughters, and to play a role in His Kingdom coming. (1 Peter 2:9, 1 Peter 4:10-11)

    As we look back over God’s faithfulness in the Bible and in our own lives, it builds up the foundation of our faith and we can look forward to the incredible things God has in store for us with great hope, anticipation, and joy.

    1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 

    Sweet friend, the best is yet to come. Because of Jesus, you have a hope and a future that shines. You can know and rely on God’s love and perfect faithfulness to see you through all the blessings and trials this year may bring. And above all, you can trust that your Heavenly Father sees you, knows you, and calls you daughter. As you look up and look back, may you experience the unfailing love of Jesus. May His love be the very thing that defines you this year. And may you look forward with hope, knowing that God has His very best in store for you.

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  • Advent, Knowing God

    Love Came For Us

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    It was Christmas 2006. I was visiting my parents for the holidays, but I was not much fun to be around. I was miserable. For a month I had been nauseated and puking. I had no energy and my joints seemed to constantly ache. The first trimester of my first pregnancy was proving to be difficult. I mostly sat around or slept. One evening, my dad announced he was going for a walk and wanted me to come with him. The fresh air would do me good, he insisted. Grudgingly, I pulled on my snow boots and coat and followed him outside. 

    It was snowing. The flakes fell softly all around. There was no wind. No typical town noise. Just the peaceful sound of snowflakes gently landing on my coat. We walked the streets in companionable silence, stopping occasionally to admire a Christmas light display. As we walked, my mind turned to the little person growing in my belly. What would it be like when he kicked for the first time? What would it be like to hold him? 

    Then, as we passed a nativity scene, I realized that God, thousands of years before, chose to enter the world the same way as the baby growing in me would. God, who is all-powerful and omnipresent, became an embryo that grew inside a woman and was born into the world as a helpless baby. When God entered the world, there was no room for him to be born in a house. There was no midwife present to help with his delivery. Instead, God entered the world in the lowliest of positions–a baby born in a barn.

    Why on earth would God choose to enter the world as a helpless baby born in a barn? The answer is so simple, yet so profound. Love. 

    As Gerard Manley Hopkins put it, “This is the staggering message of Christ’s incarnation: God’s glory became dirt so that we- the scum of the earth- might become the very glory of God.”  Because of His great love, He entered the world that way for us. And while it seems absurd to our human eyes, His radical love is what the Christmas story is all about. 

    Romans 8:38 sums it up beautifully. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

    How do we know this to be true? Because God would never allow anything to stand in the way of His love reaching us. Through His birth as a baby, He proved He would stop at nothing to be with us. He left all the comforts of heaven, surrendered all his power to be with us, to know what it was like to be one of us. He chose to be dependent on a human mother to feed and care for him just like any other human. He learned what it was like to be cold, hungry, tired, sad, and completely reliant on others for his care. He wanted to walk with us, but he also wanted to understand what it was like to walk as one of us (Hebrews 4:14-16). 

    And if you follow the whole story of Immanuel, “God with us,” you know that the baby Jesus grew up, and used his time on earth to comfort the hurting, feed the hungry, and raise the dead. Then he walked right up to a tortuous cross. For our sake he carried our sin and bore our shame, dying on that cross so that he could defeat sin and death once and for all through his resurrection. His Spirit could now live among His people comforting and guiding them for all eternity. Now, truly, nothing can separate us from the love of God. His birth as a baby, his life on earth, his death at the cross, and his resurrection from the dead made sure of that. Praise God!

    As the baby in my womb continued to grow, my body changed and adapted to make room for him. My husband and I began to rearrange the house to make room for his crib and the many things a baby requires. Most importantly, our hearts grew to make room for the love we would have for the new family member coming into the world. As God entered the world, there seemed to be little room for him. There was no room at the inn. There was no room in people’s hearts for a miraculous conception. Instead, Jesus’ birth was surrounded by rumor and scandal. 

    I wonder if people really knew who was being born that day, would they have made room?  Would they have let him be born in a barn among the animals? If they knew that God was at work, would it have changed how they approached Mary and Joseph, or how they interacted with the new baby?

    God is always at work in the world, but rarely in ways that make sense to us. Often his works are as inconspicuous as a baby born in a barn, but as life-changing as the love of God living among us. The question is: Do we make room for the work of God in our lives? Or do we push the miraculous gift of Immanuel, “God with us,” to the outskirts of our lives? What if we arranged our hearts and lives so that we can be molded and changed by the work God is doing in and around us? 

    As we celebrate Christmas, surrounded by gifts from family and friends, let us not forget the greatest gift. The gift of love born in a barn thousands of years ago. A baby born to fulfill God’s deepest desire, to live and walk with his people, to be in close relationship with his people. His deepest desire is to walk with you in love. Let us make room in our hearts and lives for the gift that will never fade or disappear…the unfailing love of God.

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  • Heart Stuff, Knowing God

    Comfort in the Holidays

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    The holiday season is coming. The local event schedule is filling up with holiday bazaars, concerts, and sales. The annual debate of whether listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving should be allowed is heating up on social media. The stores are filling up with Thanksgiving goodies and Christmas decorations. For many, it is a joyous time of year as they look forward to holiday traditions and time with family. 

    However, this time of year is not a joyous time for everyone. Unfortunately, many have lost a loved one around this time of year. For these people, it can be a time of sadness as they have to endure another milestone without the ones they love. If that is you, know I see you. I know it is hard.

    I want to encourage you that you are not alone in your sadness. You have access to a God who wants to walk with you during this difficult season. Our God doesn’t stay up on his throne, indifferent to the pain of death and sadness. Our God doesn’t watch us suffer from heaven without a care about what we are feeling. No, we believe in a God who knows what it is like to lose a loved one because he lost his Son to the cross. We believe in a God who has promised to comfort us in our times of grief.

    Jesus tells us, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) He never promised life will be easy, but he does promise we don’t have to do it alone because we have God living within us through His Holy Spirit.

    And as we slog our way through life, carrying the weight of having to lose the ones we love and other difficult trials, God gives us this glorious hope:

    “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

    Revelation 21:3-4

    During this holiday season, if you are looking forward to all the food, festivities, and time with family, I rejoice with you. I am thankful you get to enjoy all the joy the holidays were meant to bring. If you look at this holiday season with a sense of loss and grief, I pray you can find hope and comfort in the fact that our sympathetic and compassionate God walks with you in those hard emotions. May you also find hope and comfort in the promise that one day, God will wipe all the tears from your eyes for there will no longer be a reason to mourn.

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  • In The Word, Knowing God

    Approaching the Word of God

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    With warm tea in hand and a Bible open, I was excited to start my favorite time of week. It was an encouraging time when our friends from a Muslim-only country would come to our house, and we would study the Bible together. It was a joy to see their hearts leap with excitement as God revealed Himself to them through His word. Together we would read a passage of Scripture and discuss it. Then, because they were voraciously reading their Bibles at home, they would come with questions about what they had been reading.

    On one particular Sunday afternoon, the woman posed a question that I never thought of before, but impacted me greatly. “In the Muslim religion, before we begin reading the Quran, we have to shower and clean ourselves before we open the book. As a Christian, is there a ritual we should follow before reading the Bible?”

    The Bible doesn’t lay out a specific ritual we should follow, but in light of what the Bible is, is there an attitude we should have when we read the Bible? Before we answer this question, we need to think about what the Bible is.

    What is the Bible?

    In simple terms, the Bible is the written Word of God. As God communicated with people over the centuries, those people wrote those words down. Now, we who live today, can be blessed by words God has spoken through the centuries. The words found in the Bible are a testament to the character of God and how He wants to live in relationship with His creation. In other words, they are the actual words of a loving, powerful, creator God.

    At first glance, the Bible can appear to be just words on a page, but when those words are read or heard, those words become active and powerful. We first see the Word of God in Genesis, when His word spoke creation into being. The word of the Lord caused the sinful nation of Nineveh to turn from their wickedness (Jonah 3:6-9). Jesus hushed the storm with his words in the Gospels. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead with his words in John. The outcast Samaritan woman, whom Jesus met at a well, was transformed by Jesus’s words. The list goes on and on. The Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). It has the power to create worlds, control nature, bring life from death, and transform people’s lives.

    How should we approach the Word of God?

    In light of knowing that God’s Word is actual words from the ruler of the universe, in light of knowing these words have life and power in the here and now, what should our attitude be when we approach reading the Word of God?

    We want to first approach reading the Bible with joy. God desires to communicate with us. He longs to be in relationship with us. He could have just left us to our own devices, but He didn’t do that. Instead, He chose to share with us what is good, what is not good, and how much He loves us. His desire to reveal Himself to us was so great, His word became flesh in the form of Jesus, and walked among us (John 1:14). The words written on the pages of the Bible are a labor of love from our God, and spending time in His word can fill us with incredible joy.

    We also want to read God’s word with hearts that are open, pliable, and ready to listen. If we know the Word of God is living and active and has the power to change us, we want to sit before the Word ready to hear what God desires to say to us.

    The attitude of our heart is important

    In Matthew 13:3-9, Jesus shares with us how the soil of a heart impacts how the Word of God can change us. If our heart is unengaged or hard, the word has no way to grow. If our heart is open and pliable, the word is able to grow into a harvest that blesses not only us, but those around us.

    When we sit down to read the Word of God, we have to be ready to accept the words of love and encouragement written there, even if we don’t feel love for ourselves. We have to know those words are true, because that is what we base our identity on regardless of whether or not our feelings agree.

    We also have to be willing to allow the words of God to reveal the sinful parts in our heart that need to change. Knowing that the Bible is a revelation from a good God that desires to bless us, allows us to courageously make room for Him to change the unrighteous behaviors in our lives.

    When we come to the Bible with grateful joy and an open-heart, it honors the God who wrote it. As we honor Him in reading His word, He blesses us. I have seen this to be true in my own life. The word of God encouraged me when I didn’t know if my sick kid would ever get better. It was His very words, found in the Bible, that let me know He was walking with me during that difficult time.

    When my mind spins on sinful negativity, it is His word that renews my mind and helps me set my mind on truth, instead of my negative perception. I could name countless other times where His Word has helped me navigate times of conflict and anxiety with wisdom and hope. I have truly been blessed by spending time listening to God’s loving voice as I read His word.

    There are plenty of books and articles out there vying for our time and attention. Many of them promise to help make our lives better or to offer encouragement, but none can provide us with the love, wisdom, and challenge that the Word of God brings when we read it with a joyful, open heart.

    While we may not have to shower and prepare ourselves with physical rituals, like my Muslim friends did with the Quran, we should come to the word of God with a heart ready to honor God and eagerly anticipate hearing from Him. My hope is that time in God’s Word will become something you look forward to. The Creator of the universe loves you so very much and has gone to great lengths to talk with you. As you spend time with Him in His Word, I know you will be greatly blessed.

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  • Heart Stuff, Knowing God

    How Do You Picture God?

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    Have you ever stopped to think about how you picture God? Not what you know about Him, but how you picture Him. People are very visual and even if we have never seen God, our minds will still conjure up an image that we picture when we come to God in prayer.

    Sometimes when I come to God in prayer, I picture Him sitting on this magnificent throne. When I was 5th grade my family took a trip to Washington D.C. I can still vividly picture all the monuments and places I saw. They definitely left an impression on me. My favorite one by far was seeing the Lincoln Memorial. The vast proportion of the size of Lincoln sitting on what seemed like a big throne. It was so big in fact that I barely came up to the middle of his shoe. He sat there with his arms on the sides of the throne chair looking so majestic and dignified.

    Ever since then, when I think of God on His throne, that is what I picture. That He is so vast and so magnificent that I am grateful to be able to gaze upon Him. Even though this picture might make Him seem a little more distant like He is watching from above, there are times when I need this view of Him. When I am facing something so big in my life that I can’t see a way through it. I need the God who is big enough to handle it—who is on His throne in the Kingdom of God and who is in control.

    Other times when I come to God in prayer, I picture Him receiving me like a loving father. When I was a kid one of my favorite things was to curl up on my father’s lap when he was sitting in his recliner chair watching tv. I would climb into the big oversized chair and snuggle into his big strong arms. I felt safe and I felt loved. Now, when my heart is feeling tender and vulnerable and afraid, I come to my Heavenly Father, picturing Him as a loving Father opening His arms up wide and allowing me to snuggle into His embrace. There I find shelter from the storm, a peace in my soul that everything is going to be alright, and that I am loved by Him.

    What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

    A.W. Tozer

    What we think of when we think of God is one of the most important things about us. Our view of God and his relationship with us, especially how he deals with us when we stumble and fail, is critical to us growing in our faith. If we don’t have an accurate view of God or how He sees us, then it will keep us from coming to Him. The way we follow Jesus, how we read the Bible, how we live out our faith, how we see ourselves, all revolve around and are influenced by how we see God.

    Sometimes we struggle with coming to God in prayer because we are afraid of His reaction. The more we walk with Jesus, the more we try to actually do what He says, the more we are going to start running into our weaknesses, limitations, and sins. Unless we are equipped with grace, shame will rear its ugly head and we will give up.

    This is why what we think of when we think of God is so important. Do we picture Him looking upon us with disappointment? Do we see Him looking angry and ashamed of us because we just can’t get it right? Maybe we just see Him as aloof and uninterested, or even simply absent.

    Dear friend, making us second-guess God’s love is one of the devil’s oldest tricks. He will twist our thoughts and parade our failings before us until we shrink away in shame and self-doubt. He’ll tie us up in knots, until we are prisoners of self-loathing. He wants to make us forget who we are, and believe that we’ve wandered beyond God’s reach. It’s the biggest lie ever.

    We need to confront the lies of the enemy with the truth of who God is. This is why it is so important that we have an accurate view of God and of His character. The God we carry around in our minds needs to align with the God we see in the Bible. We read about Jesus interacting time and time again with compassion for the people He encountered, but it can sometimes be harder to see God this way. It is easier for us to have a screwed up picture of God, to see him more distant and stern and upset with us. What we need to remember is, if you can picture Jesus doing it, then you can picture God doing it, because Jesus is an exact representation of God (Colossians 1).

    When we approach God for help and go to Him in prayer, we need to know who we are encountering. Scripture tells us that He is a God of love, and more specifically—of grace. Remember the song? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. We know this in our heads. But how far down into our hearts does this go? Do we truly believe this to be true about us?

    Here’s what we know to be true….God is love and it is the defining thing about him. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.”  1 John 4:16

    God is not just loving but He is the embodiment of love itself. He knows no other way. Born out of His great love, He chose to create us and give us life. Out of His love He also chooses to give us His grace, mercy and forgiveness.

    The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)  

    If you have children or a niece or a nephew, how do you feel about them? You probably have a fierce love for them–the feeling that you would do anything for them. Now, If they came to you upset because they messed up or feeling repentant, how would you respond? If it were my kids, I would want to receive them well and be a safe place for them to come and tell me anything. I would want them to know that their mistakes don’t change the love I have for them. That they are now and forever will be my children and nothing can change that. Now imagine your best version of yourself and how you want to be or respond as a parent, aunt, grandparent, etc. God is this times 100 million.

    God does it the right way every time. He doesn’t look at you with scorn or disappointment. He isn’t shaking His head because you messed up again. When we see God this way, it is because it is how we see ourselves. We end up making God in our image, assuming He would feel as we do or act as we would. We end up transferring our shame on Him, because of how we feel about ourselves.

    What’s so amazing about God is that He isn’t us and He isn’t a broken human–His love is not dimmed by the Fall. He is love itself! He knows no other way.

    Ephesians 1:5-8 reminds us of the truth:

    “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.” (NLT)

    Dear friend, I want to invite you to take a moment today and think of how you see God. Are there insecurities or broken places in your heart that are affecting how you perceive God’s love for you? Are you projecting how you feel about yourself onto God and how He feels about you?

    Take stock of some of the things that come to mind and then go over the Scriptures in this devotional again. Meditate on the truths of God’s character and how He loves you. Sit in that space with Him for a little while and ask Him to help you form a more accurate view of Him.

    I pray that as you begin to see the truth of who God is and how He sees you, that you will not fear coming to Him. Invite Him into your mess. Bring Him all your fears and your doubts. May the truth of His love settle deep in your heart. Your Heavenly Father delights in spending time with you. You are God’s beloved daughter, and you are so very precious and loved.

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