Do you know how often I walk into a room for something and can’t remember why? It could be because I’m getting a little older, it could be having too much to do or distraction. Whatever the case – what helps me remember is to visualize what I was just doing previously, which often leads to connect the missing pieces together to form an understanding.
It would seem that people easily forget what’s not on the immediate radar. Out of sight, out of mind.
Just as I so easily forget an item off my to-do list or what I need to do next; we so often forget the good things God has done in our lives. This is nothing new. The Bible speaks about the Israelite people, who God rescues from slavery through a series of miracles (see Exodus 7 +). After being rescued, they were often fearful and complaining, saying they would have been better off left in slavery.
Psalm 106: 7 – our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love…
You see, they only saw their present struggles, not their past victories. That’s been my habit as well, focusing on what’s wrong with the present and what’s uncertain about the future rather than being thankful for the blessings already given me. Let’s choose to believe together that if God came through for us before, He will again.
If you’re still not sure you’ve ever seen God’s power or provision, pray that your eyes will be open. And by the way: He’s not scared off by your uncertainty, anger, doubts, or questions. He just wants the chance to get to know you. Ask away.
I usually am quick to fall asleep and sleep pretty soundly through the night. This fall, something changed. I started having trouble falling asleep. I’m not sure exactly what started it, but every night I would be bombarded with thoughts. They didn’t really seem like anxious thoughts to me, more like plans for what I was going to do for the next day. Or week. Or month.
Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to plan out the next month of your life while you’re laying in bed trying to sleep. So after an hour of lying in bed awake, I would walk downstairs and pray and journal. I wish I could say that helped. There were some nights that I walked back up to bed after and promptly fell asleep, but there were many more nights that I still lay awake, thoughts running through my head.
Now, I am very familiar with Philippians 4:6-7, which says:
“6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I genuinely tried to give all my anxious thoughts to God, but every time that I prayed about them and offered them up to him, I just felt more stressed and bombarded by them afterwards. I didn’t really know how to give my thoughts up and they were still there after my prayers.
I tried everything that I could think of to get to sleep faster: different positions, not eating before bed, counting sheep, doing sit-ups, taking a shower. Nothing helped. I’m not big on taking medications if I don’t have to, but I even tried taking a pill/vitamin a couple of times. It didn’t work.
Then one day I read a devotional written by Sarah Young. If you’ve never read any of her books before, I would highly recommend them. They will help you hear God’s voice and work through issues that you never even knew you had!
So anyway, the devotional started like this:
“Worry is largely a matter of thinking about things at the wrong time… To avoid wasting mental and emotional energy, timing is very important. If you think about certain things at the wrong time–for example, when you’re lying in bed–it’s all too easy to start worrying about them” (Young, 2001, p.176).
Don’t you just love it when God speaks directly to you like that? It always amazes me how he gives me just what I need to hear, exactly when I’m desperate to hear it. The devotional went on to say that you should tell your thoughts “not now” and direct your thinking toward God.
I had already tried everything else, so I thought, “why not”? That night, when thoughts of work and the bazillion other things I had to do crept in, I prayed for the thoughts to stop, told them to leave, then focused my mind on how amazing God is. The thoughts tried to creep back in a couple of times, but each time I told them to leave and refocused on Jesus, His love, and the awesome things that He’s done in my life. Five minutes later, I was fast asleep.
That was a few weeks ago. I’ve tried this a couple more nights since and every time, it puts me to sleep in less than ten minutes. And my sleep is so much more peaceful and restful than it used to be!
So if you’re having trouble sleeping, I would encourage you to try it. Refocus your thoughts on Jesus and pray for the peace that only He can bring. I can’t wait to hear about your results!
Reference:
Young, S. (2012). Jesus Today. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
In a world of drive-throughs and instant access to information, we forget that things take time. We see extreme home remodels that are completed in one week and YouTube sensations becoming famous overnight.
And then there’s me, and maybe you? Stuck in the slow lane…or in that awkward middle phase – not knowing your place or purpose in life. Not seeming to advance. Living the same ole life day in and day out. Maybe relating to the phrase “Another day, another dollar”?
If you currently feel like this, know you’re not alone. Know God’s heart is for you and I to experience abundant living – even during and through the dry seasons. Know that He is not done with you. Our Father God has plans, a future and a hope for us. He is crafting your story and my story just as a potter manipulates clay. It won’t always be easy, the journey may be bumpy, but He can and will bring beauty from the awkwardness.
Think about Jesus growing up. He didn’t just pop into this world preaching and forgiving sins. As was pointed out in church recently, He was an infant. Silent. He had to learn to walk, talk, and use carpentry tools all under the careful watch of His parents. It seems that Jesus went through a growing/waiting process of 30 years before He started preaching/teaching.
I never thought about this before, but when I pray to be more like Jesus, I am in fact praying for more patience, and peace and joy in the waiting!
So while you and I wait…let’s encourage each other to continue to pray for wisdom to understand God’s times of waiting and wisdom to see how and when He’s leading us to something new.
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Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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2 Corinthians 3:8 And we all, With unveiled face, behold in the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from 1° of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is a Spirit.
Before John the Baptist was born, the angels gave his father Zechariah a prophesy about him from the Lord.
“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” –Luke 1:17 (emphasis added)
John’s job was to prepare people for the first coming of Jesus. He did this through preaching about the coming of Christ and giving people a baptism of repentance. Now Jesus has already come, but Advent is also a time of preparation. It is a time of preparing our hearts for Jesus to return. It has been about 2,000 years since Jesus’ first coming and it could be thousands more before he returns. Or he could return tomorrow. The bible says that no one knows the day or the time that he will return. During this Advent season, let’s ask ourselves: If he returned tomorrow, would you be ready?
This reminds me of the story that Jesus told about the virgins with the candles. If you want to read the whole thing, it is in Matthew 25:1-13. Basically, there were ten virgins who went to wait for the groom to enter the wedding ceremony. Five of them brought extra oil for their lamps, but five did not. The groom took too long to come and they all fell asleep. When they awoke, the wise ones still had the extra oil, but the foolish ones had to go buy more. The groom came while the foolish ones were buying more oil, and only the wise ones with the extra oil were there when the groom arrived and got to join the wedding feast.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be one of the wise ones who gets to join the party in heaven! If we want to join, we have to be prepared. I cannot tell you what being prepared will look like for you. But later in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells two more parables that show what being prepared entails. I encourage you to read the whole chapter and decide what you are being asked by God to do in preparation for His return to Earth. May we all prepare our hearts during this advent season so that we may be ready for Jesus’ return!
I’m not aware of any better season like Winter to enjoy comfort foods such as soup, oversized sweat pants, and a warm cup of tea at night.
When we’re truly comfortable, we’re truly ourselves. Most people don’t know this about me because I have the “joy” ( quotes indicate sarcasm here) of being shy and introverted – but I can be quite silly, dare I say funny, on occasion. This side of me usually only shows up when I’m home or with people I know quite well.
One evening a couple years ago, I came home from work and immediately changed into my pajamas. I was wearing plaid pink pj pants, a black and white striped shirt, an olive green sweatshirt and fuzzy slippers. I paused at the mirror and realized how silly I looked, but of course I was home so I was comfortable being myself.
You know what? Jesus is inviting you to know Him – and you don’t even have to wear a 3 piece suit and set up an appointment with His receptionist. He’s already near. Did you know the word Noel means “God with Us”?
God wants to know you and for you to be comfortable coming to him just as you are. Jesus has put up zero barriers for us to access Him.
The door is unlocked. Come on in! There’s a warm fire and coffee brewing.
And Jesus says “Come just as you are” and “Come, all you with heavy burdens.”
Every once in a while, I (Jamie) hear God speaking to me, like a whisper in my head. God spoke to me yesterday and said this:
“You are in me and I in you. I am the vine and you are the branches. Remain in me and you will produce a crop.
Why have so many gone astray? So many call me Lord, yet they do not know me. If they did know me, they would turn from wickedness and follow me. As it is, they are headed for destruction.
Remain in me and I will remain in you. Together we will fulfill my calling on your life. You cannot do this without me.”
This is very similar to what Jesus said in John 15:5-8. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Remaining in God means no compromise. I think that most of us have had some compromise in our relationship with God at some point. It might be getting a new job that works on Sundays and not attending church “just until I get my foot in the door”. It might be deciding to date a non-Christian because “maybe I can save them”. Or it might be something smaller, like complaining to a coworker, even though you know the bible says not to, or spreading a juicy bit of gossip “just this once”. My personal compromise is “just one more cookie” even though I know that my body is a temple and that I should be taking care of it for my God.
The problem with compromise is that even small compromises tend to lead to more compromises (like the five cookies I ended up eating yesterday). If you’ve done something once, it becomes easier to ignore the Spirit inside of you and do it again. Every little compromise takes you one step closer to sin and one step farther away from God.
You might be wondering what all of this has to do with advent. Advent is a season of preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ. If we are prepared for Jesus to come, there cannot be any compromise. So listen to God. Remain in Him and follow Him in ALL of your ways. Show the world that you are His disciple. God has such a promise for you when you follow him. He will lead you to fulfill His glorious calling for your life. He will help you to do things that you did not even think were possible for you. And He has promised to provide you with whatever you ask as you follow after His will. Life is so much easier and more amazing with Jesus. We really cannot afford to compromise.
Let’s talk about fear. Through no specific effort on my part, fear is a subject in which I excel. Maybe it’s something you struggle with as well? Though I understand that we all have our own struggles – I dare say that fear is at the top of the list for many of us.
If you grew up attending church and reading the Bible. then you understand that God is not the author of fear. (see 2 Timothy 1:7) I know that, but oftentimes still have fear. What do we do with something that we know is not healthy or sent from God, but is still a very normal, human emotion? Read part of the Christmas story below and I’ll then try to tie it all together.
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The Birth of Jesus Foretold
Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God.36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
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Notice how it says “Mary was greatly troubled”, and that was before she learned that she would be a teenage mother in a time of history and culture where unwed pregnancy could equal death! I would be more than fearful, I would be terrified. What happens next is what fascinates me. Mary has just seen an angel and been given the most shocking news about her future, but she’s able to say “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
I guess what I get from the passage above is that fear will come, but the fear does not I any way mean that God does not have exciting plans for our future. His love is real and vast!
When we experience fear, come to Jesus. Step by step, He can hep us work through our fear and take us into our future.
Romans 15:18 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope…”
Sometimes in this dark world, it can be hard to find hope. You may be struggling financially, just trying to pay the bills. A family member may be sick, or someone you love may have passed away. Disappointment may cloud your thinking and you may find yourself dwelling on negative thoughts, or simply questioning why your life is this way?
In these times, it is hard to press forward, but press forward you must. The best thing that you can do (and the most powerful) is to pray. Tell God about the hurts in your life. Pray about your disappointments. Pray for answers to the whys. Ask for God to renew your mind. Ask him to help you trust Him fully again. Ask Him to give you the peace and hope that is promised to His followers. Take a leap of faith and pray these things, even if you feel like God will not listen or answer.
Then I would encourage you to listen for how He is speaking in your life. It may be a whisper in the silence. It may be a passage in scripture. It may be a word from a friend, or it may be a circumstance in your life.
We have such great hope because Jesus came into the world. We know that our future is secure because He lived and died for us. So don’t get stuck in the circumstances of this world, but bring them to God. Trust in Him for hope and healing.
Welcome to our little writing experiment, it involves sharing Jesus – so while we are just amateurs – it’s our desire and belief that our humble posts will still encourage and bring hope into your lives.
We are Jamie and Sarah: women of faith trying our best to follow after Jesus.
We believe God is telling us to share His love through this blog; you are welcome to read and be encouraged no matter what your faith background. We hope you enjoy what you read!
Please stick around because we will be posting everyday for Advent.
Do you know how often I walk into a room for something and can’t remember why? It could be because I’m getting a little older, it could be having too much to do or distraction. Whatever the case – what helps me remember is to visualize what I was just doing previously, which often leads to connect the missing pieces together to form an understanding.
Words of Life 