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I hold a tension in my feelings for this new spring season. While I love the whole idea of things blooming and more time to enjoy the sunshine, I don't like the effect the pollen and emerging nature have on my sinuses. Spring allergies make it hard to enjoy all the good things I see. The simple act of mowing the lawn can send my family into asthmatic wheezing -- no fun at all!
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And yet, I am ready for winter to end. I am ready for the brown grass and dead leaves to be full of chlorophyll once again. The beautiful spring flowers are a welcome sight! I have been walking for miles every day and loving it! There are so many good things about this spring season, but it's not perfect. No earthly season ever is. It requires me to embrace both the good and bad parts of it -- to live in gratitude and joy while praying for allergy relief through the arrival of summer.
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Like me, do you ever feel like you are incapable of being fully satisfied? It's so hard to hold two truths, isn't it? That both anticipation and contentment can be experienced simultaneously?
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The danger is that we can live in a perpetual state of deep dissatisfaction with the lives God has given us if we don't live in the grace of this tension. Gospel grace says that there is a day coming when I will be able to enjoy flowers, trees, and freshly mown grass without itchy eyes, sneezing, or wheezing involved. His grace allows us to also praise God for giving mankind knowledge of how to block the pollen through allergy medications. I am so thankful for that! Embracing grace means that while I don't like allergies, my displeasure of them won't override the truth of who God is - the Creator and Sustainer of all things, including me. I will guard my heart against bitterness.
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My mental tug-of-war is a picture of the Christian life. We have the natural tendency to be unhappy unless everything looks the way we want it to -- we want "quiet times" with immediate results, we want quick answers to prayers in our will, and we don't want to be touched by the realities of earthly life. Without verbalizing it, we want only "good" things from the hand of God (good in our estimation of what that looks like, because He is by nature holy and good). In this, a perpetual discontent fills our souls and guides our daily behaviors, leaving us weary and wounded.
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What is the cure for Christians to live in satisfaction and peace? First, we acknowledge the existence of both truths - of contentment and longing - as strangers of earth and citizens of heaven. Then, we look to Scripture on how to live in the tension of these truths. To avoid this being too long, if you want to read through these biblical truths, view the article here.
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God could have left us in our sin, as we deserved, without hope. But, mercifully, He didn't. In a similar way that God took the Israelites on a guided tour of the wilderness until it was time to enter the promised land, so He leads us through this life toward our permanent home. Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, God made a way for all of us to move from lost people to those guided through this life by the very Spirit of God! We are not aimless wanderers without purpose; we are strangers in a world not yet redeemed. We have a set destination. That destination is so desirous, friends, but we forget this and cling so tightly to this life. Or we begin to detest the hard this world often holds, looking to escape until the promise arrives. Neither of these extremes is the gospel truth. We have a whole world to share the good news of Christ with - and we have much maturing to do as His people. Does it take some wrestling in our hearts and minds to keep persevering in hope while we do the work here He has for us? YES!
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If we want contentment and peace while also holding a realistic view of human life and the next chapter for us as believers, we have to come daily - moment by moment - to the source of life and freedom. He is waiting to quench our thirst, friends.
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I hope that the time we spend together here each month is a way to encourage you to live fully in the grace and truth of who we are and who God is. He alone can satisfy, fill us with hopeful vision, and sustain us for the journey.
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This is a 114 page full-color book of prayers and teaching designed to draw you into praying Scripture as a means to drawing closer to Christ. If you would like to purchase a copy, you can visit Amazon, or if you are local, you can ask me for a $15 copy since there are no shipping costs/packaging! Let me know, and I will set a discounted copy aside for you. If you purchased a copy, would you consider leaving a review so it can be seen in the pesky algorithms? :) Just a sentence or two on what you like about it is great! If you don't know how, email me, and I will walk you through it. Thank you, again! Enjoy this issue and don't miss the freebies.
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Encouraging Read:
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Former missionary to India, Erica Barthalow, shares her personal experience of crippling doubt after taking her two young children to India and facing countless situations where all she could do was trust God. She shares her internal wrestling that led her to rest in the truth of who God is -- but first she had to know His truth and believe it. Last I checked it was $3.99 on Kindle!
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Encouraging Music:
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I have been going through something hard and this album has been on repeat. Whether prayers or songs, sometimes you just need the words to verbalize your heart. And beautiful words and lyrics can minister deeply to our hurting places. I can hear the thunder at times, but I am okay, because God is with me, Jesus intercedes for me, and the Spirit assures and teaches me. And He leads me from okay to a place of peace and joy. Here are some of my favorite lyrics this week:
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"Give me peace when I am tossed and frightened, lost among the waves
Give me hope when I'm in doubt and fears are clouding up my faith
Would You come and move the mountains, 'Cause I'm too weak to climb,
Promise that You're with me in this fight
I can hear the thunder but I'm okay
'Cause You're with me". God is good! Listen to this song here.
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Free Download!
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Click here to download your copy!
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Encouraging Podcast:
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In this episode of the Made For This Podcast, Jackie Hill Perry talks about the holiness of God in a beautiful, understandable way. Great quotes:
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"If He is morally pure and transcendent, how does that change us? What does that do for us? Well, for one, it shows us that in His moral purity, God cannot sin against you." "I think that when you don't really latch on to the fact that God is sinless, you tend to treat Him like He has the potential to sin against you. So, when He says to submit - when He says to repent -- you don't think He is safe enough for you to obey. So you don't."
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We look to God to define it and we look to God to help us walk it and be in it. It's not something to be afraid of. It makes God beautiful." So good!!
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Moments of Grace:
- Genuine forgiveness witnessed and given.
- I surpassed my book goal. I probably set it low, but I am thankful for each one purchased and valued! Thank you!
- God speaking to me through music. Praise brings such peace.
- Being published in a devotional by Proverbs 31 ministries in September 2022. I signed a contract! :)
- Holding a newborn baby!
- Every one of you! I pray for you and hope I am serving you well as a sister in Christ.
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Kindle version is $14.99 if preferred over paperback.
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On the Blog:
- Read the story behind my book, Consider, here!
- A Devotion on Forgiveness.
- A personal story and lesson on stepping out of our comfort zone!
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Encouraging Good Work in the World:
Two ways to help people displaced from their homes in Ukraine:
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- Convoy of Hope is assembling hygiene kits for displaced Ukranians. Donate funds here!
- Samaritan's Purse has set up field hospitals and needs financial donations.
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Links to Good Resources:
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If you missed any previous newsletters and want to check them out, you can go to the member archive and view past issues. If you find anything here that you think would encourage someone else, please consider sharing and inviting them to subscribe. If you read an article on the blog you want to share, just click the social media icons on the right-hand corner! This is a great way to support me and hopefully help others!
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A final note of encouragement:
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"For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
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If you need prayer, please send me a message, and I will be more than happy to intercede on your behalf.
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