Making the Most of Every Opportunity

I've been thinking a lot about God's gifts lately. We've been praying for a friend battling cancer. We've been asking God for healing, asking (at her request) that He help her to see this season as beautiful in it's time, and asking that in her living and preparing for death (whenever that may be) that He will be glorified. God spoke to me through this passage: "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! ”- Luke 11:11-13  We've been asking Him for gifts for our friend. And He reminded me that He is giving her (and us) THE gift. Himself. He doesn't just just give healing, but The Healer. Not just finances, but The Provider. Not just wisdom, but The Spirit, who is wisdom, to live in us and walk thro...

I have SO many resources that I love, but I want to share a few gems that I hope will hit your reading list, too. 1) the Daily Walk Bible - Though it's not super insightful, it's special to me because it's the Bible I first used to read through God's Word from Genesis to Revelation. That time impacted me and began a habit of reading through the Word. I have grown to know God in such deeper ways and even know His Word so much better because of the habit started by this Bible format. Really, I would just encourage you to pick a Bible and reading plan that best fit you and read it. This has impacted my life more than ANY other thing I've ever done. 2) Don't Waste Your Life , John Piper- I remember bawling on a plane in Panama when I read a page where he spoke as a father pleased with us for seeking God. My dad loves me (a lot), but that is something he doesn't understand about me and to hear a father encourage me that my life is unwasted when Christ is the ...

I LOVE the post Dane Ortlund wrote showing grace throughout the Bible. I think we tend to miss how grace-filled His Word is (we especially miss it in the Old Testament). Go read the full list of every book  and be encouraged at how unified (not uniform) the Bible is! Here are some highlights... Genesis shows God’s grace to a universally wicked world as he enters into relationship with a sinful family line (Abraham) and promises to bless the world through him. Exodus shows God’s grace to his enslaved people in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage. Leviticus shows God’s grace in providing his people with a sacrificial system to atone for their sins. Numbers shows God’s grace in patiently sustaining his grumbling people in the wilderness and bringing them to the border of the promised land not because of them but in spite of them.... Esther shows God’s grace in protecting his people from a Persian plot to eradicate them through a string of 'fortuitous' events. Job ...

Some thoughts on Job 1:20-22 as I read it: Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head - Job just received the heartbreaking news that all his animals and even his children are dead. All of them. And he responds by mourning. I'm thankful his pretty words of faith are accompanied by pain and sorrow. What a reminder to me that grief is right and good and it is ok to mourn loss. ... and fell on the ground and worshiped. - Wow. In His grief, He immediately seeks God and worships. What  an example. This has not always been my first response, yet I pray God may give me the grace in seasons of great loss to remember His goodness and worship Him, the TRUE gift and Giver. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away ; blessed be the name of the LORD.” - I'm SO thankful for this chunk and learning from Job. He got it. He knew that everything not only came from God but was STILL His to take away as ...

God is so good to answer when we seek Him. I'm learning that even in my time alone with Him I tend to hold back or do some things traditionally. He's so gently opening my heart to experience Him in new ways through His Word and prayer. This quote just fit so perfectly with where I'm longing for my heart towards Him to stay always: Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart. - Luther Praying for you as you seek Him as well. May He open our hearts to Him and radically change our lives to live fully in Him, excitedly meeting with Him and sharing Him with all as we look forward to seeing Him face to face for eternity!

Have you ever read a passage and suddenly it makes SO much sense? I'm pretty positive I've heard sermons on John 9 that brought out the same things, but as I read through the story of the blind man's healing, I was struck by God's purpose in His blindness. Here's the aha verse: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life ." -John 9:2-3 He did nothing wrong, yet he was blind. It reminded me of Job, who was actually praised for his fear of God and upright lifestyle and then chosen to suffer deep loss to show faithfulness to God (Job1-2). I'm reminded that God is purposeful. I'm not saying I think God chooses to harm us and punish. I'm saying that I believe the truth that God is purposeful in all He does. He is glorified in our suffering and it is for our good (Romans 8:28)...

Let me share today, the rest of nancy Guthrie's quote from my previous post. Her take away from the call in Scripture to submit under God in all circumstances is SO encouraging: For me, submission has meant a quiet, though sorrowful, acceptance of God's plan and God's timing. It has meant giving up the plans I had for my daughter, for my family, for my life, and bringing them all under submission to him. Now what I wish is that it had been a one-time decision, a one-time sacrifice. But throughout Hope's life, as her condition deteriorated her, the call to submission hasn't stopped, and it hasn't gotten easier. Every day, as I let go of my dreams and my desires, as I see little girls the age Hope would be bringing a smile to the face of their moms and dads, as I plan for another child who will only be with us a short time, I'm once again called upon to submit. Some days I do better than others...   Shouldn't we cry out to God with boldness and passion ...

I was encouraged through Nancy Guthrie as I read through her pain and loss (of 2 children) and yet see her desire to submit under God and grow in Him in strength. I want to share a few excerpts from her book, Holding Out Hope that have impacted me. Here's the first: "God seemed to speak to me clearly — though not in an audible voice. I've never heard that. He spoke to me the way he always does: through Scripture.   In my Bible study a couple of weeks after Hope was born, we looked at the story of Hagar who had run away from Abram and Sarah due to Sarah's harsh treatment. She wanted to escape her difficult situation, but God spoke to her in the desert, telling her to "return and submit." The lecturer asked, "What is God calling you to submit to?" And I knew God was calling me to submit to the journey we were facing with Hope, not to fight it or cry out to him to change it, but to submit to his plan and his purposes.   At the same time, we were tal...

Recently, I identified a struggle God is lovingly freeing me from: a desire for my kids to love God and walk with Him all their days. It may not sound like a struggle, but it is. I struggle, because there are many dry seasons with no fruit. In it, I'm painfully aware that I cannot do that work in them! I can (and should) point them to Christ, love them tangibly, and pray with them. But I can't change their hearts. Only God can and He does. He is freeing my heart to find great comfort in that truth. This overwhelming desire can turn to fear and lack of trust in the Lord. It also reveals in me my own selfish desire to succeed. If I fail as a parent, my kids are no better or worse than if I "succeed" in my desire to raise them in a way that points them to our hope and joy: Jesus. He brings fruit in them, not me. And He is well pleased as I step out in faith in this huge task that is clearly waaay beyond me. God reminded me sweetly that He delights in my love for our ch...

I recently read a powerful blog post by Mike Anderson on the Resurgence blog. He spoke very candidly about his daughter who was born mostly blind at birth and all that God has been teaching him about Himself in 11 weeks since she's been alive. 1. The God of the universe grieves-  He shares how much it hurt to know his daughter can't see him and how he realized how much God grieves when we are spiritually blind and don't see Him. 2. The God of the universe comforts his kids  He is learning firsthand that God doesn't leave us in our suffering, but sends His comforter, His Spirit. 3. The God of the universe is Holy—he makes great things come from situations of suffering-  He quotes John 9:1-7 to show how the man's blindness was not because of sin but for God's glory to be shown greater. 4. The God of the universe heals-  He understands the length God went through to heal our spiritual blindness and restore us, because there is no obstacle (money, time, etc.)...

GREAT post on CJ Mahaney's Cheap Seats blog by David Powlison on small talk. He shares that every word we say matters and even our small talk is a way to honor God in relationships. " In God's view there is never an inconsequential word that anybody ever says. Every word counts. We are not always aware of that. Jesus says you will be judged for every careless word you utter ( Matthew 12:36 ). That means that when you climb into anything a person ever says you find profound things revealed about what they are about: what they are after, what their intentions are, what their worldview is. Even in small talk there is a revelation of the heart that God is searching out, and he weighs the intentionality of small talk. Small talk: it is either a way for me to say, “I don't want to know you and I don't want you to know you and so I am going to keep it light and make it as quick as possible and see you later.” Or small talk is a way to say, “I care about you. I would ...

" it is my eager expectation and hope   that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full   courage now as always Christ   will be honored in my body,   whether by life or by death.   For to me   to live is Christ, and to die is gain." -  Philippians 1:20-21 I battle sometimes wondering if I'm missing it. I love Jesus and yet I enjoy comfort and security. I rest in them. In full honesty, I usually rest there instead of in God Himself, my true rest and refuge. We encounter the persecuted church a lot through our job (from afar) and I feel a thrill to serve them in any way and yet a sadness at the reminder of how my daily life doesn't always show Christ as my Supreme treasure. I believe God has shown me this to encourage me, not discourage me. In His grace, I think He is lovingly and gently reminding me that all the earth and everything in it is His. The gifts I daily receive are great gifts from a loving Father, but THE gift is always Him. And ...

"this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit  and trembles at my word " -Isaiah 66:2 Oh how I want to be the one He looks upon!!! 1) To be humble-  I'm terrible at this. Even when I clean the toilet, I refuse to use it until Andy comes home, just to be sure he'll notice how clean the room smells and looks and be impressed by how great a homemaker I am. Seriously? I even have a pride battle in how well clean my bathroom? That's awful. I LONG to joyfully see my absolute need for Jesus (real humility) and rejoice in him fully because of that. Only humility allows the right and good picture of Him. 2) To be fully repentant and disgusted by my sin (contrite in spirit). Not just "guilty feelings" because that is really just a pretty term we put on our sinful desire to stay in our sin and not repent and turn away. 3) and to tremble  at His Word . His Word is key. With a word, God created out of nothing (Gen. 1). With a w...