![]() Why is it so hard to be obedient? When I was a child, it was easier. I was either obedient or I would be in trouble. Something was either right or it was wrong. Not much gray area there. But as I got older, the temptations were stronger, the gray area between right and wrong got bigger and obedience was a little bit tougher. I wonder why…maybe it was because I wanted to fit in. Maybe it was because it was easier to go with the crowd than to take a stand. Whatever the reasons were, the decisions were not based on biblical standards and they led to guilt and regret. I do know this, when we choose to be obedient, we save ourselves from lots of heartache and set ourselves up to succeed and receive God’s blessings. At the last workshop, I shared a personal story about learning to be obedient. My husband and I had bought a house that was priced at the very top of our budget. It was a foreclosure and the bank wouldn’t budge on the price. We bought the house, moved in and a month later Kevin lost his job. The house literally became a noose around our necks. We talked about selling the house, but pride kept us from doing so. We struggled for 4 ½ years to keep that house. When we listed the house last September, I thought we would have time to look at houses, pack everything up and move at a leisurely pace. Boy, did God have other plans! Our house sold in 3 days, we had 1 week to find a new place and had to be out before the holidays. We lost money on the house, but that was a small price to pay to be able to walk away. As Paul Harvey says, Now, for the rest of the story…We moved out of our house (with a little lot of help from our friends), put stuff in storage and waited to close on our new, less expensive but oh-so-much-better house. We waited. Celebrated Thanksgiving. And waited. Celebrated Christmas with our version of a Charlie Brown tree. Waited some more. Rang in 2013. Waited 2 more weeks. Finally on January 15, 2 months after closing on our old house we were given the keys to our new home. The wait was finally over! We felt like we had finally reached the Promised Land. God had blessed our obedience. The new house was only the beginning. Our desire as a family, has been to simplify: our lifestyle, our schedule, our clutter. Simplifying for us meant to be able to spend more time together as a family. It is hard to do, when Kevin works in Belle Chasse and our move added 25 more minutes to his commute. We have been praying for a while for a new job closer to home or at least this side of the Crescent City Connection. God has answered our prayers. Kevin has a new job that he recently started. Not only is this new job this side of the CCC, it is only 10 minutes from our driveway. So many blessings and all because we chose to be obedient. Is God asking you to do something that you don’t want to do? Don’t let pride or fear of failure hold you back. If God is asking, then you can trust that he will be faithful. He will provide. Give Him control. It will be worth it and will be better than you ever imagined! Blessings, Stefaney ![]() During the Expect a Challenge Lab, Suzanne and I shared many people who were amazing examples of how we all hope to face challenges: my precious sister Leslie who allowed God to use her challenge to show His grace and love, sweet Henry and his mother Jessie who clung to the hope of Jesus and heaven in the face of a crisis, and Michelle, who chose to praise God on her flute even though she was suffering from immense loss and grief. It is so easy to hear those stories and be moved to tears, and maybe even be inspired to want to face challenges with that much grace. But how did they do it? How did their faith get to that point? What did they do to get past the anger, grief, fear, or frustration? Though I cannot speak for them, nor do I know the exact details of their faith-walks, I can share a few things I have observed as I watch them and others face challenges . The principles I see are simple, but living them has to be intentional. 1. Remind yourself of Who God IS: the Lover of Your Soul, Protector, Redeemer, All-Sufficient One, God Most High (in control of ALL), the Beginning and End, Shepherd, Companion, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Creator, Provider, God Who Sees, and Immanuel, God With Us. Reminding yourself of the hugeness of God can often help counteract the hugeness of circumstances. 2. Remind yourself of who you are: God’s Beloved Child, a child of the King, Servant of the Master (Jesus), heir to a Heavenly Inheritance, an Amabassador of Christ, a Representation of the Savior, Holy, Set Apart for Good Works, In the Palm of His Hand. Remembering how precious you are to God can bring comfort and peace. 3. Remind yourself of your purpose: set apart, with a purpose for good works, God has plans for you – for good, hope, and a future, for HIS glory, to bring HIM praise. God has a purpose and plan for you IN THE MIDDLE of this challenge. 4. Intentionally Choose Trust. Trust Him with your future, with your life, with your plans, your hopes and dreams. Trust Him when things appear hopeless and bleak. Trust Him when everyone else fails. Then, ACT OUT that trust in responses (after all, our actions are what really show our beliefs). Live your life based on that trust. At first this can be scary, but the more you truly trust, the easier and more freely that trust comes. 5. Remember Who Has Won!! Jesus said it best: “In this world, you will have troubles, but take heart! I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33). The battle is won, victory has come, and nothing can change that. In your challenge, claim God’s victory, and set your mind on how he overcame. He overcame through suffering, forgiving those who hurt him, and living solely for others. In the most unexpected, most marvelous way, He overcame. And you can too. As you read this, I hope that you will be reminded of the amazing power we have when we choose to follow Jesus. I pray that you will choose Him when all else fails, when life is hard, when no one else does. I pray that you will be grounded in the knowledge of our Savior so that the storms of life cannot move you. I pray that through your challenges, He will shine bright, and that you will be blessed by peace even in the midst of life’s messes. Live With Purpose! Claire ![]() So, have you ever walked into your house after a long day, looked around, and thought, “How in the world did this BIG mess get in MY house??” I had this thought just the other day, and it made me began to think of the connections to my spiritual life. Have you ever gotten to a point in your own life and thought “How did MY life become such a BIG mess??” In my house, the messes come when one person leaves something out instead of putting it in its place. Then, someone else does, and then someone else. You get the idea. After a while, these little compromises become an avalanche of clutter that needs to absolutely be cleaned. I think to myself, “You know if you just cleaned it up as you go, this would not happen…..” Messes in our lives are exactly the same way. Some challenges that come into our lives are completely out of our control and catch us completely by surprise. We feel like we have been blindsided, spun around, flipped over upside down and inside out. Yet, other times, these challenges come from the little messes that become medium messes, that become large messes, that then become an out of control mega mess. How do I stop this pattern and learn to clean as I go in MY life? The scripture that keeps running through my mind is from Psalm 139. The key verbs are search, know, try, know (again), see, and lead. It starts with searching and ends with leading. Isn’t that what we want Father to do….search us, know us, and ultimately lead us?? Psalm 139:23-24 (NAS) 23Search me, O God, and know my heart ; Try me and know my anxious thoughts ; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. When translated in Hebrew, “hurtful” means: pain, sorrow, idol, and “way” means road, path, journey, course of life, or direction.” I want Father to look and see if there is pain or sorrow that may come from a choice I am making, or an idol that I am worshipping and putting before Him that will bring sorrow or pain. When choices I make lead me in a direction or on a journey that will take me to a place I never intended to be, I want Father to show me. Yes, it may be painful. Yes, it may require that I make changes in MY plans for MY life, but oh the pain and sorrow that I will not experience makes it all worthwhile. My prayer for each and every one of you reading this is that when these challenges or messes enter into our lives that they will never turn into a MEGA mess. I pray each day that your mind is showered with truth and full of His grace. Ask Him each day to search you and to know you. When that anxiety begins to rise, ask Him to show you why it is there. Let Him lead you and guide you. Letting go of our plans can be hard, but in the end it will bring joy and peace we could have never imagined of dreamed of. During our Unglued Bible Study, Lysa Terkeurst had us reflect on others who are affected by our decisions. That made me think about how my decisions not only affect my children and husband but my children’s children will be impacted as well. It is amazing that when I am asking Father to search me that ultimately it will impact my children and their children. I want them to walk in truth and to lean on Him. I know you want that too. Remember dear sisters that you are loved!! Suzanne ![]() “And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28) I love this verse! But I really only began to understand it in the past few years as circumstances that in no way were “good” came into my life. There was a point during the toughest times when I hated that verse. How could good come from what has happened to me? This is just NOT GOOD, God! I can’t ever imagine seeing good in the things that my family has had to go through. Those words became a part of my prayer life at that time, and sometimes I was ashamed to say those things to God. But, as I was honest with Him, He showed me something in that verse I had never noticed before. It does not say all things ARE good. They just aren’t. To pretend so would be to believe a lie. But when I really listened to the words, I learned that though the circumstance was not good, it just might work together FOR MY GOOD as I choose to love Him and follow His Purpose for me. And, when faced with a challenge, we can respond in a way that shows His good to the world. How does the good happen? Who does it happen to? Well, second half of the verse is clear: “those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Recognizing the good and fully receiving it are directly tied to loving and following Him. So, even though life was NOT GOOD, I had to choose to love the ONE WHO IS GOOD and focus on HIS GOOD PURPOSES. Easier said than done, and I have not always gotten it right, but progress is progress, imperfect though it may be. As I purposely and intentionally made the choice to love and follow regardless of how I felt, amazingly enough, the good did come! Not by a change in my circumstances, but because of those circumstances. So many people – family, friends, even total strangers became the arms of Jesus as they wrapped me and my family in hugs and spoke words of encouragement. Being loved like that is an amazing feeling. But even then, the greatest good came during the time when I felt all alone, when I had no one else but God to turn to. HE WAS THERE, right beside me. Walking through it all with me. I think God knew that in some way, I needed to “lose it all” to truly find Him. I needed to be in a place where He was my only source of hope, peace, comfort and JOY. Joy in the midst of my challenges and suffering, not joy in their absence. Joy in Who He Was, not in what I was going through. The struggles brought me to a place of utter dependence on God, and that has been good, VERY GOOD. Without the struggles, I would have never been in that place to trust so fully and completely. Looking back, I know that it was not that things were good, but that God used those things to bring good to me, to grow my faith and character in ways nothing else could. To make me who I am today. This is the epitome of God’s amazing mercy – making good come from the bad, making beauty from our ashes, trading our mourning for joy, giving a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (see Isaiah 61:3). I love how my daughter's Bible, the Jesus Storybook Bible, puts it: “Jesus makes sad things come undone, and death come untrue." Mercy brings hope, and hope brings a new perspective and attitude. The song “Fall Apart” by Josh Williams is easy for me to identify with. The chorus says: “My whole world is caving in, but I feel You now more than I did then. How can I come to the end of me and somehow still have all I need? God I want to know you more! Maybe this is where I start. I find You when I fall apart.” When life gets challenging, my prayer is that you will FIND HIM. Find the God who loves you, has good plans for you, and is always there. Find your Savior, the Friend of Sinners. Find peace knowing that even in the challenges, God has power to bring good. Allow Him to use the challenge to chisel away the things in your life that keep you from being a Masterpiece. Rejoicing in His Goodness, Claire ![]() 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. - Jeremiah 29:11 What does your life look like? Does it look like you expected it to look at this stage of it? Maybe you are in the middle of a situation right now. Maybe you just can’t seem to shake those negative thoughts from your past and fear-based worries for your future. Maybe you KNOW all the "right" things and all the "right" scriptures, but you just can’t wrap your arms around them to make them a reality. If that's the case, then ... CHOOSE HOPE! Jesus is not a magic potion. You don’t become a Christian and never have another problem. You can’t just say, "I believe in Jesus" and magically everything in your life is now clear. We aren’t promised everything will turn out the way we expect. And I'm not encouraging you to wish for some magical change to take place. On the contrary - I'm challenging you to be proactive with your life and to Choose Hope grounded in Christ as your Foundation. We won’t have all the answers and we won’t find some new and perfect equation to solve all the problems in our lives. But, what I know we can all Choose Hope. When you struggle with guilt from the past, choose hope. When you struggle with fears about the future, choose hope. When you can’t yet believe and claim the promises you read in the Bible and hear about from others, you CAN choose hope. Take responsibility for your life and Choose Hope. Put your hope in Jesus and He will carry you when you can’t take another step. He will set you on solid ground and help you build anew. He will guide you along the path of becoming and give you strength to make the best decisions. He will teach you how to fly again and will even breathe new air under your wings. He’s cheering for you, even when nobody else seems to be. Choose Hope! And like Kari Jobe's song, "Steady My Heart" says, "Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart. I will run to You, 'Cause I know that you are, Lover of my soul, Healer of my scars. You steady my heart!" Choose to let Him steady your heart today! Thanks for being a part of my journey! - jenny ![]() Are you busy? Several years ago, I had an awakening to what it means to be busy. When my oldest, now 14, was a little guy, my husband owned his own delivery business. He delivered documents, groceries, prescriptions, t-shirts, flowers, King Cakes ... you name it. He delivered all over Baton Rouge and New Orleans and worked 12-15 hour days. I would run deliveries for him most days, packing our son into a carseat and driving all over town. I was nursing, running between naps, keeping up the house, keeping the books for our business, leading a small group for church, attending a small group at church, and building a house 30 minutes from where we lived. I felt rather busy. One night at our small group, a friend of mine who was newly married and very young, didn't work a job, was taking 9 hours in college, and her parents had given her a house for her and her husband to live in, said, "I almost didn't make it tonight. I'm just SO BUSY." I about came out of my skin! I gotta tell you, I was not exactly sympathetic with her that night - I didn't say anything to her, but I certainly wasn't going to console her for her "busy" schedule of taking 9 hours in school with NOTHING else on her plate and no mortgage. For the next few days, I actually stewed over her innocent statement and then I came to a conclusion. We are ALL busy in our own ways! We can't compare our schedule to the schedule of others. God gives each of us what we can uniquely handle. Just to let you know, this beautiful young lady now has 2 kids and has worked very hard to finish school, build their own nice house with almost no mortgage, and stays active in church leadership. She WAS busy, in her own unique way, at that time in her life. I'm sure she feels a different kind of busy now. :) So, I ask you again, are you busy? I'm positive we are all busy in our own ways. Different seasons of life bring different schedules and different types of busy. Marriage, kids, career, homemaker, caretaker, work relationships, church relationships, leadership - all require us to be "busy." And it can be difficult to find time to even sit down and enjoy a moment of silence. For this reason, we have got to be intentional and proactive with our relationship with Christ, especially during our busy seasons. It can be very obvious when that relationship gets pushed to the back burner because of our business. Our attitudes, our moods, our perspectives, our self-images...the way we work, the way we mother, the way we lead and manage...our emotions, our responses, our reactions. Everything can suffer if we allow our Spiritual life to suffer. Choose today whom you will serve. Will you serve a calendar? An emotion? A sleepless nite? A lesson plan? A client? Your checkbook? Your family? Your job? None of these in and of themselves are bad things, but when you serve them and put them above your personal growth and relationship with Jesus, they become idols. Even good things can become idols when they are put above God. Build your life on a solid foundation, THE solid Foundation. Maybe He's already your Foundation, but maybe that's all He's allowed to be. Maybe you’ve been focused on asking God for things and asking Him to be on your side. Maybe it's time to ask what can you do for Him and evaluate whether or not you are on His side. Ask Him again what He wants you to become for His glory, and spend time listening to His answer. It’s a choice and you HAVE a choice – it’s up to you! We are all on a journey of becoming. It’s ok to reevaluate our lives and discern when we need to tweak some things. We have a choice to stay where we are or continue growing. Choose today whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Thanks for being a part of my journey! - jenny ![]() CHOOSE to be Present!
This may seem rather obvious, but many times, this is one of the hardest things to do. We spend time looking back at our past, with regrets, dwelling on what’s happened to us months ago, or even years ago. We spend time pining over what we feel we’ve lost or missed out on. Sometimes we even allow our past to dictate what we think we can accomplish today and who we think we are. While it can be healthy to REFLECT on your past, it can be very UNhealthy to dwell on it. Reflecting on the past can help us learn from our mistakes, and learning from situations and circumstances in our past can help us grow and help us understand more about ourselves. However, dwelling on it can cause us to stay focused on the things that are OVER. You know you can’t change the past. And hopefully you believe that God wastes nothing – there are No Wasted Moments! So, TURN THE PAGE! Learn from yesterday but live for today. For some of us, it’s not our past that preoccupies our minds, it’s our future. We are so concerned and worried about every detail, that we miss the beautifully intricate details of our lives now. God’s word tells us not to worry about tomorrow, it will take care of itself. It even reminds us that we are not promised tomorrow. It’s healthy to plan, and plans can help you avoid missteps. Plans and goals can help you stay on track and stay on the path God has set before you. When you have a clear identity and purpose for your life, you can even avoid some bumps in the road as this helps you avoid bumpy paths you weren’t meant to travel. However, when the focus becomes the future, you again miss today! We’ve got to Choose to be present, and choose what we focus on. Not in past, not the future, but on what Philippians 4:8 says – what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Set your expectations on what God has in store for you today – in the PRESENT! Don’t miss what He has for you today! What is God doing in your life TODAY? How is He using you? What opportunities is He setting in front of you. EXPECT Him to use you! EXPECT Him to bless you! And, as you spend time with Him today, as you take time to listen to Him and build that relationship with Him, you can EXPECT to learn more about who you are and who He created you to be. Thanks for being a part of my journey! - jenny Before the Shaping Her Expectations SHE event last October, I was chatting with a friend about our topic for the event. Her response when she heard it was expectations was, “Wow, expectations are the driving force of the world.” I reflected back on that recently and realized how true that was. Expectations often have deep emotions tied to them and when those expectations are not met, we become sad or depressed. Do you remember having expectations as a kid about what you would find under the tree on Christmas morning?? Then the morning came and you did not get what you wanted. You only focused on what you did not get, yet pushed aside what you did get. Your focus went from celebrating the joy of Christmas and Christ’s birth to having a pity party for yourself.
In her beautiful book, Silver Packages, Cynthia Rylant tells the story of a young boy who lived in a poor Appalachian town. Every year, a train would come and give presents to the children. The protagonist of the story was a young boy who dreamed of receiving a doctor kit year after year, yet that dream was never fulfilled by the Christmas train. He usually received socks, hats, mittens, or some other toy. He would walk away filled with disappointment every year. When he grew up, he became a doctor and ended up going back to the town her grew up in to practice medicine. He finally had a real doctor kit. As he watched children reach out for gifts his first year back, he realized that without the socks and mittens he received as a child, he would not have made it through the harsh winter conditions. He saw how each gift was perfect including the toys. He ended up giving them to his siblings to play with and he saw happiness fill their souls. His desires ended up causing him to pursue his dream, but his immediate needs were met as a child, and that was what he really needed. He did not know it as a child, but as an adul,t he can see it. Remember children are wonderful recorders, but horrible interpreters. When our expectations are not met, we need to ask Father what gift He was trying to give us. I think about the scripture in James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Many times our definition of “good” is very different from the way Father defines “good.” Go back and take a look at expectations and answer these questions (some of you may have done this at the SHE event in October.) · How would you define expectations? · Who do you place expectations on? · What do you expect of yourself? · Who do you feel places expectations on you? · How do all these expectations make you feel?? Take time to reflect on this. Share it with a friend. Talk to Father about it. Pray about it. Think about whether or not you need to release yourself or others of expectations. If you have high and lofty expectations on yourself, chances are that you place those same expectations on others. I want to leave you with a few expectations God has for us. · Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46 :10) Sometimes we need to just sit back and realize that. He has a purpose to accomplish in a way that seems unbelievable to us at times. Remember “For your thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” Isaiah 55:10 · Trust in Him and His word. Trust means to have confidence in or rely upon. Twila Paris wrote a song called “Do I Trust You Lord” and it really paints the picture of what we go through sometimes when our expectations are shattered! Lyrics to “Do I Trust You Lord?” Sometimes my little heart can't understand What's in Your will, what's in Your plan. So many times I'm tempted to ask You why, But I can never forget it for long. Lord, what You do could not be wrong. So I believe You, even when I must cry. Do I trust You, Lord? Does the river flow? Do I trust You, Lord? Does the north wind blow? You can see my heart, You can read my mind, And You got to know That I would rather die Than to lose my faith In the One I love. Do I trust You, Lord? Do I trust You? I know the answers, I've given them all. But suddenly now, I feel so small. Shaken down to the cavity in my soul. I know the doctrine and theology, But right now they don't mean much to me. This time there's only one thing I've got to know. Do I trust You, Lord? Does the robin sing? Do I trust You, Lord? Does it rain in spring? You can see my heart, You can read my mind, And You got to know That I would rather die Than to lose my faith In the One I love. Do I trust You, Lord? Do I trust You? I will trust You, Lord, when I don't know why. I will trust You, Lord, till the day I die. I will trust You, Lord, when I'm blind with pain! You were God before, and You'll never change. I will trust You. I will trust You. I will trust You, Lord. I will trust You. Rest in Him. Read Matthew 11:28-30. Remember His burden is light! Let go…are there expectations you need to just let go of ?? May He free you up my sister as He reveals truth to you this day! Love, Suzanne |
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