This post is unlike others; it is straight unfiltered scripture. Why am I sending it today, on Saturday? Why am I breaking my pre-scheduled posts with a random post like this? Because I feel deeply, there are a few of you – or maybe your friends in need- who need to read it. His will be done. I am expectant it will speak loudly to at least one of you, today.
Dear God, please highlight the words that need to be highlighted to my brothers and sisters today. Through your words, reach the deep places of their heart. Awaken something in them. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Psalm 91
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.
9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. 13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name. 15 When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them. 16 I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”
I’d never walk up to you and say it, but underneath my smiling and warm veneer, my heart often says…
Me first. I’m not sure I can trust you enough to give to you.
Me first. I want to make sure I am provided for.
Me first. I need to get my words understood before I understand yours.
Me first. I must hold my money tightly to make sure there is enough.
Me first. It is better to keep distance from you, so you don’t irritate me.
Me first. I need to be seen/recognized/loved first, before you are.
Me first. If you serve me, then I can serve you with peace about doing so.
Me first. If I feel good about me, then I can feel good about you.
Me. Me. Me.
My mouth would never say it, but overwhelmingly and often, my heart does. This is a massive problem.
“People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Sam. 16:7
What is your heart speaking that your mouth would never admit?
Where are you putting yourself first instead of last?
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Mt. 20:16
Where are you making it about your interests, not theirs?
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” Phil. 2:3
Where do you figure because others act this way, you can too?
“When they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” 2 Cor. 10:12
Often, we think it’s in going first, getting first, and securing our place first that our life becomes full. What a lie. The enemy was the first liar. He put himself first, before God, and now suffers the consequences: eternity-long discontentment. Me-first mentalities never bring ultimate fulfillment. They may abate an insecurity for a moment, but to the detriment of overflowing soul-contentment.
Contentment is only found when our heart is content in God. And joy is found only God’s way, not via our hyper-dense, over-packed mega-highway to self-glory, achievement and fulfillment. On this road, we only get stuck. In miles and miles of congestion that leaves us breathing in choke-inducing fumes, not peace.
What me-first mentality might God be calling you to surrender today?
I was driving to a conference the other day. With a quarter tank, I had my mind on a gas station, but I didn’t feel tremendous urgency as I drove. Pulling onto a new highway I’d never driven, I realized 20 miles in…I was headed for trouble. Left or right, five miles and five miles, there was not a single exit. Miles grew on miles and little by little, my heart beat with the anxiety of I-am-not-going-to-make it. There was no turning back.
I was deep into the trenches of my problem. Maybe you are today too…
In the pitch dark surroundings of the early morning, I imagined myself stalling onto the shoulder. One that there wasn’t much of. Would my car be stuck, partially out onto this dark highway? I imagined myself confronting a stranger on the side of the road as a random car pulled over.
Maybe your life appears dark today, too. Maybe your imaginings are starting to get out of control.
All I had was God. All I had was him and prayer. A hope and a desire that he, the one who says he is King of the Impossible, could do the impossible. The little gauge to my gas was now below the empty line. I prayed. But when I prayed, I decided to 100% believe God was going to pull through for me.
He was:
Going to pull a gas station exit out of nowhere.
Going to supernaturally fill my tank with gas.
Going to do some other wild thing that would make all of this good.
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Mt. 21:22
I don’t believe this bible verse is dead. It is our deadness – our fleshness, that does.
I believed. I believed in the pitch darkness, no matter how doubt was screaming at me. I didn’t listen. I told it to shut up.
And, I kept believing…until I saw a sign: a service exit was coming in three miles.
I pulled in. God restored the gas. He also restored my mind’s belief that there is no impossible scenario for God. God runs on full, no matter how empty we feel. He sees where we need to head. By believing, we open the spiritual doors to our place of victory.
Believe. Don’t let doubt scream at you any longer. I don’t care how many years you’ve been suffering, how far off your husband is, what you’ve done, or what kind of mess it looks like around you. Let the spiritual truth of God give you supernatural gas to carry you through. He will. Oh yes, he will.
Let me say it again: God will give you the gas you need. He will provide.
Today is your day of belief. Take it. I am believing with you.
Prayer: God, thank you that you can do exceedingly, abundantly, more than we can ask or imagine. We praise you for this. You are not only good, but you are glorious, glory-filled and gracious. Thank you that right here, right now, we can start believing, trusting and abiding in you. You will answer. We will wait on you, in faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
My husband noted, “God has lined everything up just right. It’s almost as if I thought nothing was happening, but God was doing everything.”
We continued to talk. He had no idea, at the time, he was meeting just the right people to help him in his time of need. He had no idea that chance encounters in a Starbucks, random introductions by friends, and shifting situations behind the scenes, would produce SO much. But, at the right time, when all things were laid out just so, everything changed.
While my husband had no idea what God was orchestrating, God was orchestrating it all. He was orchestrating what could not be seen.
God is always working. God’s timing is perfect. His plan is perfection.
Just yesterday, I had planned to go take a walk by the ocean. After I dropped the kids off at school I was going to make the drive. There was only one problem, I remembered I had to run back to the house to tackle something.
Ugh. Now, I can’t go. Frustrated, I headed home. I tackled what I needed to. Then, I met with God.
During that time, with God, some lightbulbs went off. I realized I so often don’t expect God’s great; I expect average or a blah-meeting. While God is a good dad, I expect him to give me a bit and then turn away to do other things.
I decided I wanted to see His goodness. I wanted to know His abundant heart.
After praying, I felt prompted to take that walk with Him at the beach. I am so glad I did. There, orange butterflies came flying in off the ocean. There, dolphins were jumping all around me. There, I established: God is brilliantly beautiful. God is giving. God orchestrates perfect timing.
What if I didn’t make that layover at my house? I probably would have missed the show of his wonder he had planned to set off at just that hour when I was at the beach. I probably would have gotten there hours earlier.
But, God knew. God always knows. He knows what He is lining up for you. He knows what he is doing behind the scenes. He knows the details he is currently working out. . . that will come to fruition at just the right time. You are not lost to Him. You are not outside of His working plan. There is a time for beauty and He is working on it.
“God has made everything beautiful for its own time. (Ecclesiastes. 3:11).”
As I sat in the cold metal chair in my Oshkosh B’Gosh overall shorts and red flip-flops, I nonchalantly chewed on my fingernails. The waiting area was chilly even though outside, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. I folded my legs under my bottom on the chair and hoped for warmer.
While I waited, thoughts tumbled in my head like the clothes in the dryer. Worst-case scenarios were tugging at my ten-year-old heart. I didn’t comprehend why I was here other than I was naughty and if I didn’t behave, I would live with another family.
My palms began to sweat, my legs became weak, and I thought I might get sick.
Even though my worst-case scenario didn’t happen, in some ways it already had.
Those who were supposed to love me unconditionally made it contingent on my behavior. The people I could trust deceived me.
As a child, I was alone and abandoned, although not in the physical sense. I grew up believing I couldn’t trust anyone. I learned to become a people pleaser. I made every attempt to control situations around me. Defective was how I looked at myself.
Right there, I decided God was just like everyone else. If I broke His rules or failed to live up to His standards, He’d eventually figure me out and desert me too.
Here’s the thing. The stress trying to keep me together so no one could hurt me again was hard work.
Fear from my past kept me from the possibilities of my future.
I wish God would change my past and remove these gaping heart holes. My anxiety tells me it will never change. I will end up alone and abandoned.
The truth is that God already made a new way for me through the wounds of the past.
Each hard thing was a step I needed to become the person He created me to be.
God can do the same for you. He can make a way when there seems no way. He can help you overcome what looks impenetrable.
Will you trust Him and believe He can make all things new?
Are you so focused on the pain in the past that you are missing the blessings of the present?
He is able if you are willing.
Even though I have grown up physically, the little girl part of my heart still longs for the acceptance and love of those around her. In those moments when my mind returns to that waiting room of my past, God applies His healing ointment to my heart and whispers to me, “I am here, I love you, and I am trustworthy.”
And He has been there through each step of my journey, both in good times and bad, mending the holes and wounds within. I know someday my heart will be mended up entirely, right in His presence.
Julie Loos is the mom of 5 kids and has been happily married to Greg for 17 years. She loves to read, eat chocolate, drink iced tea and spend time writing in the midst of messes. You can find her blog at www.unmaskingthemess.com.
May I tell you something vitally important to your faith life?
Jesus is not casting stones at you.
“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stoneat her.” Jo. 8:7
Jesus picks up no rock to sling at your face. Sure, He sees what you do and what you have done. But He grabs nothing to pummel you, like you do to yourself. He does not rip your insides. He does not call you, “Idiot” or “Stupid.” Or say, “Oh, look, she did it again.” He launches no accusatory words at you, like you may do to yourself. Jesus doesn’t hurt his daughters.
He approaches them, arms open, ready to receive them again. And he fights off the violent voices rising against them. He lets not condemnation speak any longer.
“Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” Jo. 8:10
“No one, sir,” she said.
The violent stone throwers were no longer there. Why? Because of Jesus. Because of the voice of simple and authentic love. Love that spoke over condemnation to bring love-filled, sin-shattering consolation.
What if you were to let Jesus’ voice of consolation, rise above the stone-slinging voices of condemnation? What freedom might you seize? What life would you be able to return to?
“Then neither do I condemn you,’”Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” Jo. 8:1
It is easy to leave sin when you’re confronted with authentic, soul-seeing and heart-changing love.
Why not let the one and only Jesus lead you into deeper, life-freeing love? The perfect consoler waits, not with a stone, but with a heart to care for your deep wounds and pain.
I know the feeling. You tell God you want to be with him, but your mind goes left and right as you read the bible. You get in the car and start to pray on your commute only to get caught up in worry about that one thing or another. You try to pay attention in church only to get distracted by the lady’s shoes and matching handbag. You don’t hear a word that is said. You sing. Empty words.
You lose God.
Where did he go? Why is He far?
But IS God far?
“The LORD is near to all who call on him.” Ps. 145:18
God isn’t far. We are.
We are far from our first love. It hurts to admit it. We are distanced by our own days and ways. It is usually hard to see. We are far because some person, problem or predicament swallowed us whole and we are so caught up in it, we can’t peer over its immensity.
God isn’t far. We are.
This may hurt to admit today. How are you far? Are you far because you feel hurt? Are you far because you feel unloved? Are you far because life is hard? Because problems mount? Because you feel let down? What is it?
Refreshment and relationship waits for you. There is a simple how-to or must-do that God always answers. One way to bring connection that diminishes isolation. Here it is:
“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.” Acts 3:19-20
Repentance = refreshment. God’s presence comes. You get sent out full of the Lord. This is not a one-time thing, but an all the time thing. All the way up to the day the Lord returns. And you find yourself at home with the Creator.
This man with leprosy believed that Jesus could make him clean, if He was willing.
Luke 5:12-13 “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, ‘I am willing’, he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”
Lord, if You are willing You can make me clean.
Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-nego faced a fiery furnace. They knew that God was able to save them from it, but even if He did not they refused to bow down to another (see Daniel 3:16-18).
Lord, if You are willing You can save us from the fire.
He can rescue us from the fiery trials that we face. He can heal any kind of disease. He can restore broken marriages. He can free us from addictions. He can bring the dead to life.
Sometimes He doesn’t rescue, heal, restore, free or resurrect on this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean that He is unable to.
What does it mean then?
The night before Jesus faced the fiercest trial of his life, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).
Why was the Father not willing to let this cup pass from Jesus, His beloved child?
Was it because He was displeased with the one praying? Was God angry at him, ignoring him or apathetic towards him?
Not at all.
Jesus was His Son, the beloved of the Father. So why was He not willing to deliver His Son from the horrific, grave circumstances that He was facing?
It was love.
Not just love for Jesus but undying love for all of us. God allowed this suffering because He knew the end result would greatly impact the world forever; providing the way to a restored relationship with the Father and life everlasting with Him.
We have the privilege of knowing the rest of the story, but what if we were there in the Garden with Jesus or there at the foot of the cross as He hung upon it? Would we question God’s Sovereignty? Would we wonder why He wasn’t willing to save His Son?
Faith is being sure of what we do not see (see Hebrews 11:1) We choose to believe even when what we see seems contradictory to our beliefs. God is who He says He is or He is not.
I’m not trying to explain away your pain. I just know that sometimes our finite minds are limited and our eyes are short-sighted.
If God is not willing to let the cup pass in your life, I believe that it is for a greater purpose than what we can see at present.
God is Sovereign. Trust that He is Loving. Rest assured that He is Just.
You can take shelter in His Sovereignty and rest in His ability to cover you and keep you underneath the shelter of His wings. He cares deeply for you- so much so that He was unwilling to let the cup of His wrath pass from Jesus. He was willing to let His Son die so that you could live.
You are precious in His sight and loved beyond comprehension. You can be confident as you rest under the umbrella of His will, because He is faithful.
He is able to do anything. He is willing to make you clean through Jesus. He loves you that much. He did everything for you at the cross with arms spread wide open in love for you, that you may be saved.
I’ll leave you with a song declaring His power and His ability to do the impossible.
Nothing is impossible with God
Nothing is too hard for Him
He is able, more than able, to do anything.
He is Sovereign, He is Wise, He is Great, has limitless strength.
He’s the God who sees, the God who knows, the God Everlasting, the God of me.
Daniel 3:17-18 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Katie M. Reid is an author and speaker who encourages you to find grace in the unraveling of life (look for her first book coming out next July with Waterbrook!). She inspires you to embrace your identity in Christ and live out your God-given purpose. Katie delights in her hubby, five children, and their life in the Midwest. She is a fan of cut-to-the-chase conversation over hot or iced tea. Katie and her husband host the popular Facebook Live show, “Stop! Hammock Time” (which airs Wednesdays, 9pm EST). Join in the fun and unwind in this vibrant community.
I see you there…my try-hard girl, my striving for the “A” daughter—the one who handles it all.
You are My creation—painted with the brushstrokes of grace upon breathtaking landscape.
I know how hard you work…rising early, staying up late, constantly stirring thoughts around like stew, looking for the perfect blend to make it all right.
You are not an orphan, but an heir—privy to the inheritance that I died to give you.
Through each season, you strive to keep it all together—polished, shiny, bright. You do not like the idea of failing.
You strive to measure up. You scurry to keep up. You fear messing up. You dread fessing up.
Can I let you in on a little secret? You don’t have to be flawless.
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” –Psalm 18:32
Can I reassure and encourage you, this day? You don’t have to earn that which has been freely given.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 6:23
I AM perfect, so you don’t have to be. I AM enough, so you don’t have to do more.
The easy A is yours. That which you are striving for has already been done.
“Believe,” she said. “You just have to believe. And don’t settle. See belief all the way through.”
It sounded like a very good and faithful thing to do. It sounded like what I really should do. But as we all know, faith in practicality lives much more painfully than it does through words. You think things like: If God doesn’t come through on this, I am toast. If I don’t find my way, I’ll never be happy. If I don’t get this done, I’ll be left behind.
Belief wavers after that first jolt of confidence and fizzles out like day-old soda. It gets flat sometimes.
So, when looking for a house and walking through one that was “a definite possibility,” her words came back to me. “Don’t settle.” She had gone on to say, “If it is an orange light from God, don’t go, but it if it is a green light, only then proceed.”
I liked the layout. It was open. I liked the paint color. It was grey. I didn’t like the door frames that looked like water had gone up their side. I also didn’t like the musty smell. Internally, I debated if the place had mold.
I wanted to overlook the bad, so I could move forward and be done with this frustrating process of finding a new place.
I went home and told my husband, “I think I found a place that looks pretty good. We probably should move on it.”
He remembered the words of our friend, “Kelly, is it a green light or an orange light?”
Umm…
Well…
Hmm…
How often do we push into something God hasn’t called us to because we are over things? Because it is easier not to contend with that issue anymore? Because faith is hard?
When I saw the reality of it, that place was orangey-red.
“See belief all the way through.”
Where do you need to see belief all the way through?
“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” Jo. 2:29
After talking with my husband, I redirected my thoughts, my heart and my will to believe. I committed to see things through. And I did. I write now from the comfort of a green light home without mold. Our family loves it.
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