Grace is the greatest Brave

 Grace is the greatest brave.

 Everyday we face battles, and for each of us those battles look a little different. But we all live in a  world with broken people and so relationships, friendships, and family are hard. 

 

Sometimes its battles of people persuading us that we’re failing

Tearing down all that we’ve tried to achieve

Or its gossip and rumors

Other times it’s people breaking our trust, lying to us, hurting us

The battle of trying to be good enough, smart enough, pretty enough

The battle of trying to be accepted and loved

But no matter what it is the battle never seems to end

When we’re caught in these battles with people giving grace doesn’t come easily or feel natural at all.

It takes a lot of courage to give grace to the person who hurt you, the one who gossiped and slandered about you or the one who won’t let you live down your past.

But, as hard and difficult as it may seem, it is possible to give grace, and Jesus proved it. He showed us how to give grace even when it is hard

 He gently and lovingly reminds me that

 I was the one who was warring against him

 Living for myself and worshiping the world

 Yet, Jesus gave me grace

 I used to do things to him that people do to me. 

 Promise things to him and then break those promises

 Tell him that I loved him, and then turn my back on him

 And I took from him

 I lied to him and made fun of him

 Yet he was courageous enough to take all of that sin and give us all of his grace

 We didn’t deserve it, but he gave us a second chance.

 So yes, I am weak and unworthy and I don’t want to forgive people who have hurt me, but his grace  is enough for all of me 

 I can be brave, because Jesus Christ was brave

 "We don’t get the luxury of looking like Jesus and holding on to our hurts"

 Grace restores, rebuilds and changes mindsets

 But grace doesn’t just happen, someone has to be brave enough to give it.

 Will you?

Hold on to hope...

                                                                                                     
 Dear friend,

Are you overwhelmed?
Overwhelmed by the struggles of life
The pain that feels so strong that you can't breathe
The sin and brokenness that's so prevalent in this world
The to-do-list that seems to never end
The uncertainty that looms over the future
The burdens that seem too heavy to bear...



I have talked to quite a few people in the past week, and although the causes, circumstances and reasons are all very different the theme of feeling overwhelmed seemed pervasive. It's a feeling that comes all too frequently and one that everyone can understand because let's face it life is hard, it's full of curve balls and all too often it's painful and breaks your heart.

But today I want to fill your heart with hope and truth. To remind you that with every reminder of the pain that is in your heart there is a reminder of the hope and comfort that we have in Christ. That we don't have to listen to those ugly lies that try to overpower the voice of truth. The lies that tell us that it will always be this hard, or this painful, or this overwhleming. The ones that tell us that things can never change, that there will never be true joy or peace again.

My dear friend don't listen to those lies, because no matter how hard the day is, no matter what is bringing you so much heartbreak and no matter what makes today feel like it is the hardest day of your life...here's the truth

You're going to be okay.

Your heart will find healing, peace and joy again. This is not the end of your story, and you are SO deeply loved.

Your pain is not worthless, it may be hard to see right now, but God is creating beauty out of the ashes.
Yes, it's okay for you to feel sad and hurt, but remember that it is not the end, hold on to hope. Hang on to the promises of God.

So instead of letting your heart become overwhelmed with pain and the struggles of life in this broken world, allow your heart to become overwhelmed by Jesus. To be overwhelmed by his amazing, boundless unending love, his peace that surpasses all understanding and the beautiful joy that only he can fill your heart with!

When you become overwhelmed with your failings...

Some days I look in the mirror and stare at myself.

I sit there and see the person that I am 

I think about the deepest darkest parts of my heart 

the thoughts and feelings that no one knows, except for me

& sometimes when I stop and look at myself if I'm completely honest

my heart sinks a little and I hate the person that I see 

sometimes I'm so overwhelmed with all of my failings 

all the ways I mess up and all of the ugly thoughts that roll

through my head throughout the day. 

"I wanted to love people better this week, yet I didn't

I wanted to be more intentional with my time, yet I failed to plan well

I wanted to be more prayerful, yet I spent the week depending on my own strength"

How can I be so sinful, how can I fail so many times?

I know that God loves me and is gracious with me, 

but sometimes I think that he has to get tired of me continuing to sin 

over and over and over again.

I mean I even still struggle with some of the same things that I did when I first came to Christ 

Why haven't I grown? Why am I such a failure? 

These thoughts constantly flow through my mind 

And when I let myself dwell on these thoughts I fall into despair

I don't think I'll ever arrive and I wonder what others would say 

if they saw what a horrible Christian I really am. 

I become defeated, weary and burdened down by the weight of my own sinfulness, insufficiency and failings 

It is in these moments that God tenderly whispers to me and simply says "Look Up"

He gently reminds me of how self-focused and self-centered I'm being 

That instead of being consumed with God I am being consumed with myself

That my eyes are only looking inward and I've failed to look outside of myself 

and see who God truly is. 

And when this happens I become so focused on who I am that I forget who God is.

I forget that God wants to take my mess and turn it into a masterpiece.

That his power is greater than ALL of my weaknesses

That his grace and love for me are so deep and wide that I cannot fully comprehend the depths of them. 

That he knows EVERY sinful thought and deed, all of my failures past present and future and yet he still chose me to be his beloved daughter. 

That it is through my weaknesses and inadequacies that God gets to show off and display his transforming grace, unending love and his ability and power to change hearts and lives!

So yes, I still mess up a ton and yes I still sin and fail 

But now my reactions to this knowledge changes 

instead of falling into despair and condemnation I get to run to my savior! 

I get to come to him in my weakness and learn how to depend on him in greater ways 

to learn to trust him when he tells me that HE is the one who began the good work in my heart 

 and HE promises that HE will finish it (Phil 1:6)! 

I get the opportunity to realize that I am empty and nothing without my savior 

and that makes his love and grace so much sweeter, it and makes me want to 

run to him and grow in depending on his power and strength instead of trying to do life on my own. 

And this, is such a better, sweeter place to be than in than depths of despair.

So friends take your eyes off of yourself and your shortcomings and place your gaze upon

Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of your faith. The one whose grace is sufficient for us and whose power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-12). 

"True sanctification is all about growing in humility, dependence and gratitude. Joy blossoms in our hearts not as we try harder and harder to grow, but as we see more clearly the depths of our sin and understand more fully our utter helplessness. Only then will we take our eyes off ourselves and look to Christ for all that we need in life and death. Only then will we truly cherish our savior and believe that we need him every minute of every day, and that without him we can do nothing (John 15:5)."

By Grace...

So these past two weeks have been filled with follow up appointments.
Where I get to meet with awesome girls on my campus who are interested in Cru (our Christian student ministry). Most of them have been eager to get
involved and grow in their Christian faith and that makes my heart fill with joy.

However, there's one thing that has really stood out to me. Most of them are not 100% sure of their salvation and whether or not they would go to heaven and be with God for eternity. They list reasons why they think they would, such as going to church, trying to put God first, one girl even gave me an extensive list of volunteer and service hours that she has done. Hearing them give me these answers over and over again breaks my heart. I see their desire to please Jesus, but they are missing the most beautiful, amazing, and freeing parts of the gospel! These girls are all missing GRACE! They feel as if they have to live up to some "Christian standard", be a good person,  follow God perfectly etc. in order to stay at that 100%.

As I've been talking with them, and explaining to them the beauty of grace, that we can never get to God on our own, all of our good deeds will never be enough BUT God is gracious and loving and came down to save us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins as a free gift so that we could be forgiven and have a relationship with God. My heart desperately wanted them to understand and feel the freedom of knowing our position in Christian.

Later after one of my meetings I realized that maybe God was using all of these encounters with these girls as a reminder for my own heart. I know all of these truths, but how often do I slip back into the rut of perfectionism and trying to earn my favor with God. He wanted to remind me that these truths are not just for these girls that I am talking to, but that they apply to me as well. That yes, maybe I have failed or slipped up in some ways lately, but that does not affect my identity in Christ, or the fact that God loves me unconditionally and I am his beloved daughter. Instead God wanted to use these girls to remind me to look up and find my perfection in Christ and not myself and rest in his work instead of striving in vain on my own.

Just like my heart hurts to see these girls not understand grace, God's heart hurts when I don't live in the freedom of that grace. Now that I know and have experienced true freedom, why would I ever want to go back to the weary days of perfectionism? Lord help me believe that my perfection is found in you alone and that your grace is there to cover all of my failures, that no matter how many times I fall and mess up you are right there to pick me back up again and remind me of who I am in YOU!

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." -Eph 2:4-9

Life is like a puzzle!

Anyone who does large puzzles knows that you always want to start with the border first. You dig through the box and find all the edges and then quickly put together all the pieces to make the border of the puzzle. This part is always my favorite part, because I get to make the framework for the puzzle and it's also the easiest part to, there are only so many edges and so it's easier to put them together and find the right matches and it goes by a lot quicker then to rest of the puzzle. 

I think life is a lot like that. We love the exciting parts of life the parts that seem productive and fruitful or adventurous or new, like starting a new job, traveling or seeing a ministry blossom. But then we dread and don't appreciate the harder, more mundane parts, the parts where there are a million yellow puzzle pieces that all seem the same, where we have to seek joy even in the midst of the mundane tasks of life like writing papers, studying, and working. The parts of life that seem painful and cruel the pieces that frustrate us so much that we'd rather leave them in the box. But it's in these hard times where we see the most growth. The times where relationships are in shambles, where there is hurt, where circumstances seem to overwhelm us 

 You see a puzzle would look pretty silly if you simply left it with just the frame together and a few random pieces inside it would be empty and would be a broken picture, it wouldn't be able to display it's full beauty and purpose.

That's much like us, without the hard parts of life to refine us, change us and help us to grow we would be like an incomplete picture, we would be lacking the character, wisdom, faith, love and Christ-likeness that is only born through adversity, fighting temptation and learning to trust God. Those times when you're forced to completely rely on God because you are at your wits ends and he's the only one who has power over the situation or you who really truly understands the depths of your pain! Yes it's in these seasons and times where God is gently placing more of the challenging pieces of the puzzle into our lives and oh just wait and see when he is finished what a glorious, beautiful masterpiece it will be! 

So yes, sometimes I'm impatient, and want to rush past the boring parts of life or sometimes I seek comfort and ease and want to fly over the valleys of darkness instead of trudge through the middle of them. But oh it is so worth it to persevere, to blossom and grow and not stay stagnant and I for one do not want to rush the beautiful picture that God is putting together in my life piece by piece! 

My friend be encouraged God is doing wonderful things in your life and heart and making something beautiful out of all the chaos, mess and pain! And for now while the picture is still in progress and still incomplete simply take that step to trust him and rest in his promises and faithfulness! He has never left us and he won't start now!

Restoration

This week's theme: God is a God of restoration

Here in South Asia it is so easy to see all of the brokenness and pain and suffering and to feel overcome and overwhelmed by all of it! It is easy to question God and ask him why he allows all of this suffering. But this week God gave me a new perspective.



He showed me that he is a restoring God, that he didn't create all of this brokenness. Instead his creation was good and perfect but we as humans used our free will to sin and rebel against God and to destroy the perfection and beauty of his creation.

God could have just left us there but he didn't he is now actively working to restore all things to himself and he has promised us that he will reconcile everything to himself and create a new heaven and earth where there will be no more pain and suffering but joy forever more!

"For behold I create new heavens and a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind....I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress, no more shall there be an infant who lives but a few days, or the old man who does not live out his days....They shall not hurt or destroy in all my Holy mountain says The Lord."
Isaiah 65:17-25

Thankful for the hope that this brings in the midst of such suffering! This isn't permanent and one day it will be restored to beauty! 

Give up on yourself

When you give up on yourself you begin to rely on him. When you are willing to abandon your own little dreams you begin to get excited about his plan. When your way has blown up in your face again you are ready to see the wisdom of God's way 

This is something that I really need to remember, I want to start embracing those moments when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope, and I'm confused, and don't know what to do and I feel like I've done everything that I can and things seem out of my control, to seize them as an opportunity to completely trust and rely on God. To be excited about moments where God has to be the one to move and come through, where I can totally let go of control and realize that he's the one in charge and he has a bigger, more magnificent plan that I could ever imagine. To remember that his way is always better than mine and that even though I might fail, feel hopeless, defeated and want to give up, God is all powerful, never tires and his plans always come through! 

With God there is no better place to be then at the end of myself ...when I am willing to confess how weak I am I am most ready to reach out for the grace that can only be found in Christ

"I'll sing of the wonderful promise

that Jesus has given to me;

'My strength is made perfect in weakness,

My grace is sufficient for thee.'

And lest my poor heart should forget it,

Or ever forgetful should be, 

He still keeps repeating the promise,

My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, over and over and over 

My savior keeps saying to me;

My strength is made perfect in weakness,

My grace is sufficient for thee."

The truth will set you free

Sometimes it's so easy to believe lies that our hearts or the world tells us, instead of believing the truth of God's word and what he says. We all have lies that we listen to, so I challenge you to figure out what lies you've been believing and see what God has to say about it, start telling yourself the truth and memorizing scripture to help remind and encourage you and free you from the lies of satan. 



Recently I made this list of lies v. truth for a friend and it ended up encouraging me, so I thought I'd share! 

God will never forgive me for what I've done 
 Truth- "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) 
  We are fully forgiven in Christ 

God can never use me 
Truth- "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
   God will empower you to accomplish the plans he has for your life  

I am full of fear 
Truth- "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline." (2 Tim. 1:7)
  When I am in Christ I have nothing to fear 

If God loved me he wouldn't let bad things happen to me 
Truth- “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)
  God has my best interested at heart in all he does 

I'll never stop hurting 
Truth- "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalm 147:3)
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 24:12)
  God will heal our broken hearts

I'll never be good enough 
Truth- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork,created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

" How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[b] so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:14)

  Because of Grace we are viewed through Christ's perfection 


No one will ever love me 
Truth- "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
  God's will always love us, with an everlasting love

I'm not strong enough
Truth- "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."(2 Corinthains 12:9)
"Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."
 God will give us grace and strength when we are weak." (Isaiah 40:31)

I'll never change 
Truth- "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17) 
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) 

God will finish the work that he has started