{Cut | Day 30 of 31}

Ready? Go.

Confession: I don't come close to having it all together. I struggle to get all my chores done. Sometimes, I fuss at the kids way too much. My faith is too often flimsy. Every single day I mess up in one way or another. Were it not for God's life-giving grace! It fills in the gaps between my feeble attempts at righteous living and God's standard for righteousness.
But I do try. I do work at it. There is too much noise. Too many voices. All I want is His voice. All that matters is His truth. All I want is to love Him with all that I am. I can't do that without asking for His help. That's it.

In Old Testament scripture, circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham. Scripture also speaks of a circumcision of the heart in Deuteronomy 30:6. Here's what it says: The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.  So, my prayer lately has been simple.

God, cut away everything in my heart that is not of You.

There's something wildly beautiful about placing your heart in the hands of the Almighty and asking Him to do whatever He needs to do so that you can love Him with all your heart and soul. It implies trust. It means being vulnerable. It requires saying, I never will get it right without His help.

Stop.

{Five Minute Friday | Eat}

It's Five Minute Friday. That means unplanned, unedited, straight-from-the-heart-to-the-paper writing. Yep, you just write whatever comes out based on a word you're given. If you have five minutes, you should give it a try!  Find out how here.

This week the prompt is {EAT}. This is also Day 28 of the 31 Day Writing Challenge! WOO!

Ready? GO.

"You give them something to eat." -Jesus

I like to imagine their mouths hanging wide open in astonishment when He gave them this answer. Can you imagine it? Thousands of people followed them to a remote place. They had come there with Jesus for a rest. It was hot. It was late. They hadn't even had a chance to eat themselves. "Send the crowd away so that they can go. . .and find food," they said. And this was His reply! No. Way. Never mind feeding all these people would cost eight months' wages. Impossible? By their estimation, yes; but, Jesus has a way of taking an impossible situation and doing something amazing. That's what He did here. He used five loaves and two fish to feed 5000 people. And, they didn't just have a nibble. Scripture says they all ate and were satisfied. And, Jesus didn't offer just enough. He provided more than was needed. There were twelve baskets of food left after everyone had eaten. Wow.

I love the truths we can uncover in this scene.

1. Rest is important. Jesus had taken this twelve disciples away to a remote place to do just that.
2. Interruptions can provide an opportunity for a God-moment. People followed them. They didn't get to rest much if at all. Instead, they witnessed a miracle.
3. We often measure what's in front of us by taking account of what's missing, what we don't have. Our lack of resource limits our vision. But, Jesus sees what we do have and loads of potential in even the smallest things.
4. Jesus cares about our physical needs and our spiritual needs. He spent the day teaching the crowd, feeding them spiritually. And when they grew hungry, He met that need as well. His compassion was on display.
5. The disciples were invited to participate in the miracle. They did what they could, and then God did what only He could do.

Yes. I love it when God does something that only He can. In those moments, His infinite power and goodness are undeniable.

What seemingly impossible thing has God asked of you? Have no doubt, if He's asked it of you, then He's fully prepared to take what you have in hand and blow impossible right out of the water. Ask Him. Then, watch Him go to work.

Stop.

{Bouquet | Day 27 of 31}

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One of my favorite things is a bouquet of wildflowers. I love that I live in a city where there are fields of them in a few local parks. Julia and I love to stroll down the gravel path counting butterflies. It winds back through the field, and there are wildflowers as far as the eye can see. On a breezy day, the flowers rustle in the wind, bending this way and swaying that way. It makes me smile. Sometimes, I stare, captivated by the beauty.

It reminds me of Matthew 6. This entire chapter of Scripture is beautiful and straight from the mouth of Jesus. I would love to leave the whole of it here for you to read, but I will let you grab your scriptures and read it there. Let's just settle on this:

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." (Matthew 6:30-33, The Message)

We don't have to worry. We don't have to fuss. We don't have to strive. God is making beautiful things out of us and doing wonderful things for us. Perhaps, we can take our cue from the wildflowers, bending this way and swaying that way as He sings over us with His perfect love and never-ending grace.

Stop.

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{Sky | Day 12 of 31}

Ready? GO.

I love looking up at the sky. The clouds. The sun. The stunning shades of blue. And, the night sky is equally as beautiful. Sunset is my favorite, though. I traveled down to the St. Simon’s Island area this summer and went down to the beach several nights to watch the sunset. It was breathtaking, truly. Just as sure as I was that it couldn’t get more beautiful, the clouds would shift as the sun dipped a bit lower and the most beautiful shade of something painted the horizon. Just wow. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever looked up at the sky during sunset and thought what color IS that?  I’d go back night after night, and without fail, the sky was gorgeous. Always. Then it struck me, that it’s always beautiful but it’s never the same. That says something to me about our Creator. About the depth of His beauty and the grandeur of His majesty. There is no end to Him. We could spend all the days of our life seeking after Him knowing there is no limit to His goodness, faithfulness, love, and power. His glory knows no limit. I love that.  

The psalmist put it this way: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1)

And this: For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 57:10)

May I encourage you today if the world is weighing heavy on your shoulders, look up. He’s there. Full of infinite power and faithfulness. And, He’s SO much bigger than we can begin to fathom. He loves you so. Rest in that. 

STOP. 

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{Unknown | Day 10 of 31}

Ready? GO.

Have you ever felt overlooked? Invisible? Misunderstood? Unknown? Yeah, me too. Relationships are hard and messy, sometimes even unhealthy. People are often quick to assume they know what you’re thinking when, in reality, they don’t know you well enough to make those kind of assumptions. But, it’s what we do. I can’t say that I much care for that. I don’t like to be misunderstood or misjudged. But, I can’t get stuck there. Because, there is One who knows me like no other, and loves me with an unfailing, unshakeable, and unconditional love. And, my identity is wrapped around what He says about me. Take a look at this beautiful truth. 

O, Lord, you have search me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem in in — behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain . . . For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your words are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed boy. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18)

Here’s the thing: I’ve never been unknown or overlooked or invisible. And neither have you. We were all seen and known by God before any of us existed. Let that sink in. It’s good for the soul.

STOP.

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