Mark 16:6-7

And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

Mark 16:6-7

The disciples were so lost in their grief because Jesus had been crucified that they forgot the times He told them that He would die, but He would also live again. Their sorrow outweighed His promises for the future at this moment.

There are times when God will give us a promise while things are going well. Suddenly darkness seems to consume us, and it is easy to forget those promises and not be able to find hope for what we thought our lives would look like. We forget in the dark what He told us in the light. In those moments, we must remind ourselves, like the disciples did, what Jesus has promised! He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He has promised us new life.

Jesus has promised us that there is a place beyond this realm that we live in. Jesus has promised to make all things new! Do not be afraid but rejoice; Jesus is alive! Because He lives, we have hope for tomorrow!

What promises has God given you that seem like they are dead and buried in a tomb?

How can you remind yourself at this moment that He makes all things new, and because He lives, you have hope for tomorrow no matter what the circumstances?

Perfect Peace

You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26:3

Perfect peace.  The word perfect means “having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.” There are not too many things in our world today that can be said to be perfect.  When we fix our eyes on our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we keep our thoughts immersed in Him and His Word, He promises us perfect peace.

 So many are searching for peace in a broken world, but it cannot be found, and we just keep searching and searching.  I think the more we search the further away that peace seems to be. The only sure place that I can find perfect peace is in the only perfect person who has ever walked this earth. Jesus Christ.  Our bank accounts cannot give us peace, as we have seen in so many disasters recently, our material things cannot give us peace because they can be swept away, burned down or lost in a matter of minutes.  Our relationships cannot give us peace because we live in a broken world, full of broken people who are all trying themselves to find healing.  Jesus is our steadfast foundation.  He is our only true Prince of peace.  Even in the worst of circumstances He can guard your heart and mind with perfect peace.  Fix your eyes on Him. Allow Him into every part of your life.  Invite Him into the nook and crannies of your brokenness. Take a deep breath and breathe in His perfect peace.  Allow yourself to settle and rest in Him.

 Prayer:

Lord, I know I tend to look everywhere but to you sometimes for my peace.  Help me to fix my eyes on you.  Lord, in those moments when everything seems to be swirling around me and I can’t stop the thoughts, help me to stop and turn my thoughts toward you.  Help me to believe that you are with me and love me more than anything I can imagine.  Thank you, Lord, that you are trustworthy in everything even when it doesn’t look good. Thank you, Jesus, for perfect peace that guards my heart and my mind in you.

Butterflies

Butterflies
They are ugly little caterpillars until they go into their chrysalis and stay there for a period of time, protected and away from everything and everyone else. When the time is right, it emerges a beautiful butterfly. From the outside it looked as if nothing was happening, but on the inside change was taking place. What then looks like a sudden transformation to something beautiful, actually was taking place all along while the caterpillar was tucked away.

So it is with us when we pull ourselves away from the world for a time to spend time with God. What looks to everyone else like a sudden transformation to something beautiful, was actually taking place all along in the secret place of God's presence. God was changing things on the inside as we sat with Him.

Spring is Coming

I am praying today for those who feel broken, and you feel like winter will never be over. I pray that you will feel the love of Jesus wrap around you like a warm summer’s day. I pray you will allow Him take your broken and jagged edges and make something beautiful from them. 1 Peter 5:6-7 says if we will humble ourselves under His mighty hands in due time He will exalt us. It tells us to cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us. He cares for you! You are precious and valuable to Him. He wants to heal you, just believe that He can. I believe your spring is coming and new life is bursting forth. He takes brokenness and makes a masterpiece! He is waiting for you to just pour out your heart and ask Him to help you! Just like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 who had tried everything and only grew worse, some of us have tried everything and all we need is Jesus! Run to Him today!

The Holy Spirit

I woke up this morning with the Holy Spirit on my mind. Jesus said He had to go so that the Holy Spirit could come. Sometimes people get scared when talking about the Holy Spirit because it can bring up weird and mystical thoughts. I believe in the Gifts of the Spirit and that they are alive today, but today I am talking about the Holy Spirit as comforter, advocate, counselor, wisdom & peace. If we will completely surrender our lives to Him, He will direct every step we take. We save ourselves a lot of heartache and chaos when we are completely surrendered, when we include Him in every moment of our lives. I am learning to let Him in. I am learning that control is an illusion, and if I will step to the side and allow Him to lead me I can live with a lot more peace, and rest.

The last few days I have also had to learn how to allow Him to be my comforter. I think I have a tendency to grieve on my own, and I forget to ask the Holy Spirit to comfort me in my grief. We had some things happen recently that broke my heart and I really didn’t know in the moment how I would get through it. I felt like I wanted to go to bed and never leave. My heart had been shattered into a million pieces, but then I took it to Jesus. I sat with Him and told Him that He was going to have to take my hand and walk me through this and give me strength to breathe each day. I promise you, He did. I have a peace about the situation now and I was able to surrender it to God and allow the Holy Spirit to comfort me.

Every day of my life I need Him. I need the Father, Son, & the Holy Spirit. I cannot live without Him, especially because I struggle with anxiety so much. My heart aches for those who go through life without the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So many times I have felt lost and He gave me wisdom. He gave me peace. He gave me comfort. If you are hurting today, don’t be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit to comfort you. He will not fail you!

He is the Author and Finisher

I have been feeling chaotic lately in my life and my mind. We have had a lot of changes and just trying to figure out what things look like next for us in ministry and in life. We have begun our new adventure on our little hobby farm with goats and cows and dogs. We planted a nice small garden this year and have just been busy in general. This year my youngest son was accepted to a master’s program in another city, and my mother has been dealing with a lot of health issues and the diagnoses of dementia. Life has not been friendly sometimes.

I cycle through days of depression and anxiety trying to figure out who I am now. Looking for purpose and meaning to my life. I distract myself most days because I don’t want to sit down and get quiet with my own thoughts. I am scared of the silence. Scared that I will hear God’s voice and scared that I won’t hear God’s voice. Wondering if these thoughts I have are really mine or are they from somewhere else. I grasp for things to fulfill this aching in my heart that I feel most days of the week. What have I done with my life? Have I made a difference in the lives of those around me? Thoughts that I know come from my enemy, like, would anyone miss me if I were gone? Would anyone even know or care that I ever existed? I wonder if this is what God meant for my life to look like or if I have really screwed it up. As I look back on things that seem like failures in my life, they seem to add up to more than the victories. Was I a good mom? Am I a good wife? On and on these thoughts go.

As I finally allow myself to get quiet and wait for these thoughts to shut up, I hear a voice that whispers, “I am proud of you. You are never out of my sight. I have a plan for you”. I hear that He has a purpose for my life and He knows exactly where I am in this moment. He has seen my failures and my scars, and He loves me through them all. I hear Him say to me to remember that He is the Author and the Finisher of my faith. When I take my eyes off of Him and I begin to look to things in this world to heal me, and fulfill me, that is when things seem chaotic, that is when the enemy begins his tirade of accusations and reminders of my failures and shortcomings. It is in those times that I am vulnerable to the depression and anxiety.

I have to remember Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” When I fix my eyes on Him, everything gets put into the place it should be. The things around me are no longer things to fulfill me or heal me, those are just gifts and blessings to enjoy. He becomes my One thing. As I gaze upon Him, my peace returns, my thoughts shift, and joy comes back. I see the next step and the next. The path ahead leads to Him. He is the destination on this journey. He will direct every stop along the way. Whether that be careers, or ministry, or what animals to buy next :). He was the Author of the beginning and He is the Finisher of my end. He has already written a beautiful story for the in between. It is in Christ that I find out who I am and why I am here! It is in Christ that my life is fulfilled!

He Will Show You Where to Go

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

Trust in God. He knows exactly what He is doing. You do not need to figure it all out. Don’t think that you know it all. Let go of having to be in control of everything. God loves you. He knows what is best for you. He will make perfect decisions for your life. Every single decision God makes for you is made from His heart of love for you. Seek His face. Seek His will, and He will show you which paths you should take. He will show you which doors you should walk through. He will bring the right people into your life to walk alongside you in specific seasons. Do not let yourself fret and worry when you cannot see a way out because God already knows the way out. He has already gone before you and prepared the way for you. Trust in Him because He loves you.

God Is Your Help.

I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

Psalm 121:1-4 NLT

When life seems to be shaking around you, and the darkness is closing in on you, look up! God is your help. No man can take care of you the way that He can. He created everything in heaven and on earth, and He will take care of you. Nothing is impossible for God. He has access to everything He needs to help you. He can create something out of nothing if He needs to. He can change molecular structures if He needs to. Trust your life in His hands. He will keep a firm grip on you. He never closes His eyes to sleep because His eyes are always watching out for you.  

God Will Rescue You From Darkness

God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

Colossians 1:13-14 MSG

Jesus steps into the darkest dungeons and the deepest pits with you, and He pulls you out. He pulls you out of the darkness and sets you into His glorious light through His sacrifice. He rescues you from your sins and puts your feet on solid ground. There is no dungeon too dark, no pit too deep, no place too far, that Jesus cannot find you and rescue you. Sometimes you are in a pit because of something you have done yourself. Sometimes because of something someone else has done, but no matter what got you there, He will never leave you there. He will never give up on you. You will never wear out His love or His patience for you.

God Sees You Even In The Dark

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.

Psalm 139:11-12 NLT

There is not one place you can hide that God is not there with you, watching over you. Even when darkness surrounds you, it is still light to God. He is Light and Life. There are times that you feel shame and run from Him, but He will still pursue you. God’s love will never stop chasing you. He will never abandon you or fail you. Run to Him, do not run away from Him. When you feel unworthy, God still wants to comfort you. He still wants you to run to Him. Let His light shine in your darkness. Know that you could never do anything that would turn His face from you.  He stands with open arms no matter what you have done or where you have been.

God Will Fight For You

But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch, and you will see the wonderful way the Lord will rescue you today. The Egyptians you are looking at—you will never see them again. The Lord will fight for you, and you won’t need to lift a finger!”

Exodus 14:13-14 TLB

Do not spend all your time striving and trying to figure everything out. The enemy wants to distract you and throw up smokescreens, getting you to fight battles that have no meaning. Jesus has already defeated the powers of darkness.  He has rescued you and made you whole. Don’t let the enemy distract you from the most important thing by chasing rabbit trails.  Look at the finished work of Jesus, it is your victory!  When the enemy comes roaring like a lion in your ears, resist Him, by trusting in God, focusing on God, and resting in God. The enemy has no power to harm you.  Don’t let the fear overwhelm you. Fear likes to be loud and make you think he can harm you, but fear is a liar. God is Greater, and He is with you and in you. You have absolutely nothing to fear.

Approach God With Confidence

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV

Hold firmly to what you believe about God. Do not let anyone talk you out of it. Do not be discouraged when you face troubles or temptations because Jesus faced them too. He knows your weaknesses and understands the fight that you fight, He fought with the same temptations to go beyond the boundaries. Temptations to quit. Temptations to let what people think matter more than what God thinks. And yet, He did not give in to these. Because He did not give in and He faced the cross, you can come with boldness and confidence straight into the Holy Place. You can approach Him and receive His mercy and grace freely. Ask Him for help when you need it. The veil was torn, and nothing separates you from Him. God loves having this time with you. Place all your trust in Him and approach Him, believing He loves you and wants to help you. Come boldly and with confidence today and bring all your needs to Him.

God Knew You

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart

and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5 NLT

Before your parents ever thought of you, long before you were even formed in the womb, God knew you. God knew everything about you before you were ever born. He knew every decision you would make, the color of your hair and your personality. He knew you intimately. He knew your likes and your dislikes. He knew every single detail about you down to the tiniest one, and yet God loved you. He loves every part of you. Before you were ever born, He set you apart. He had a plan for your life before you were even conceived. A plan you could never comprehend or imagine in your wildest dreams. God has chosen you. You are His!

God is Your Shelter

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High, will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. Psalm 91:1-2 NLT

God is your shelter. Run to Him and find rest under the shadow of His wings. He will be your place of safety and protection whenever you need Him. He is trustworthy and true. He will be faithful to fulfill His promises to you. You can count on Him. He will hide you in His secret place when everything is raging around you. You can call on Him, and He will answer you. He will be with you. He will never abandon you in your time of need. God alone is your God. He alone will be your refuge in the time of trouble. He loves you, and He will watch over you. He will hide you and protect you. Run to God today when you feel overwhelmed and like everything is falling apart. He loves you. He will wrap His love around you like a warm blanket.

God Calls You and Preserves You

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.

Isaiah 49:1-2 ESV

God has a purpose for you. A plan that is greater than you could ever imagine. Before you were even born, He knew that purpose. Before your mother knew your name, He had already named you. He called you beloved, chosen, royal priest, a precious masterpiece. You are His prized possession. God has you hidden away and protected under His mighty hand until He knows the timing is perfect for releasing you into what He has called you to. During that time, God is preparing you for what He already has prepared for you. He has gone ahead of you and made the way. He already knows what doors need to be opened and when to open them. Rest in who He says you are and in His perfect timing. Nothing is wasted in your life. God will use it all. Stay where He has you until the time is right, and He will bring you out of hiding.

You Are Abundantly Free

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either, abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Ephesians 1:7-10 MSG

Jesus poured out His blood on the cross because of the Father’s great love for you. With that blood, He purchased your freedom and set you, not just a little free, but abundantly free! You are no longer punished for your sins when you become God’s child because Jesus took the punishment for you on the cross. He provided at that moment for absolutely everything you would ever need. He took delight in making plans for you. He is delighted in you, He smiles over you, and you are so loved. As you go about your day today, remember that you have everything you need in Jesus to live the life God has put before you to live. As you live that life, remember it gave God delight to plan it for you.

Be Refreshed

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.

Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV

Jesus satisfies your hunger and your thirst with His refreshing water. You don’t have to be rich or important to drink this water. Greater than the finest of foods and the finest of drink, Jesus pours out Himself for you. Greater than any material thing is a relationship with Him. He does not turn away anyone. He accepts any race, color, and economic status. He wants to refresh you and love you. He feeds more than your body; He feeds your soul, the very core of who you are. He invites you to drink deeply of this water and enjoy the feast of who He is. Start your day with a long drink of the finest water you will ever find. Take a bite of the richest food you could ever taste. Taste and see that He is good. Take a long, long drink and savor Him

God is Coming

With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees. Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.”

Isaiah 35:3-4 NLT

Be strong and do not fear. Fear can be paralyzing. It can make you think you will never make it. Fear wants to blind you to God’s love and care for you. It is easy to say do not fear, but it is harder to follow through. Understanding who God is and how much He loves you gives you the courage to face whatever may come your way. When your hands feel tired and your knees feel weak, look up to God. He is coming to save you and to destroy the enemy of fear in your life. Let His love cause you to look fear in the eye and move forward in whatever it is He ask you to do today

God Thinks About You

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

Psalm 139:17-18 NLT

God is thinking about you every single moment of every single day. You are the focus of His mind, and He cherishes you. He has nothing but good and kind desires toward you. If you could count the grains of sand on every shore, which is impossible, His thoughts for you even outnumber those. He is consistently thinking of ways to pour His love on you, to care for you, to show Himself faithful to you. God wants you to know Him in a real and tangible way. Before you open your eyes in the morning, He is already there thinking about you. Before you close your eyes at night, and while you are sleeping His thoughts are towards you. Today do not allow feelings of insignificance to overwhelm you because you are on His mind. He is the Creator of the Universe, and He is madly in love with you.

Come Away with Me

My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
    and come away,

Song of Songs 2:10 ESV

When you call to God, He hears your voice.  Even the tiniest whisper gets His attention.  He leans forward to press in to listen to you. He calls you to come away with Him.  He wants you to rest in Me. Spend time with Him.  He loves these moments with you. He draws you close to His chest and whispers His love into your ear. He calls you, His beloved. His treasure. He loves to pour out His blessings on you. Now is the time! There is no need to wait until you think you have it all together or until you feel like you can come before Him without shame. Now, every moment of every day is the time. He is always attentive to your cries; your voice sounds beautiful to His ears. He calls you His beautiful one. His prized possession. Take the time to lean into His chest and let Him love you today.  You will walk away from those moments refreshed like never before.  You are His beloved!