Isaiah 53: 5-6 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
While listening to the radio, I was struck by a line in a song that said “why are you trying to earn grace?” In my heart I know that God loves me no matter what, but in that moment I became aware of my human tendency to try and earn God’s love or favor. We can do this without really noticing, and seeking God in order to earn His love actually led me to criticizing myself on how well I was seeking Him- ultimately causing me to feel “not good enough”. This is what I want us to grasp today: feeling “not good enough” for God is a lie. It wants to make us think that there is a separation between us and Him, and it makes pleasing God something that is too hard to grasp or attain. In reality, “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39). Let’s cling to this promise today. The beautiful thing about this promise is that Jesus did the hard work for us. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” We can’t earn a free gift; we are “enough” now and forever because what Jesus did for us was enough. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14 What Jesus did on earth proved His love for us then, now and forever. “Now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” Colossians 1:22. This message that Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness isn’t a call to sit back and be idle Christians now. This message means that we get to seek Him and know Him NOW; we get to approach our Father confidently knowing that we are completely loved. We get to live from a place of overflow instead of a place of insecurity. Being set free from critiquing ourselves is a call to keep seeking Him- hungry for more of Him. “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Romans 12:11. Fan into flame this truth. Let it set you on fire for Him! I pray that it would draw you into the Father’s arms. Approach your Father in freedom today. :)
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"I feel really far from God."
"I'm just feeling kind of dry." "I haven't really found what I'm looking for." "I'm just so lost right now." I can't even count the amount of times I have said these things or heard them from other people. Why is it that we can feel so far from God so fast? Is it because we don't think we are good, clean, or "Christian" enough? All day I have felt a dryness, disconnect, and a lost feeling that I cannot explain. So, naturally, I skipped church and kept myself "busy" by unnecessary cleaning. I had already decided against reading scripture today, but somehow I was prompted to bring my bible up to the top of my bunk and start reading. I ended up in the book of Isaiah. Still feeling lost, I was prompted to stop when I read: "A voice cries, 'In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make strait in the desert a highway for our God.'" (Isaiah 40:3) I sure feel like that wilderness. Like a desert. I'm just dry, I thought. Immediately, it was as if God whispered to that thought: "I love going to the wilderness. To the dry places. To the dead places. I am always there." HUH? As I kept reading, it was as if a highlighter pen had been drawn over every verse about wilderness and dry places. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, I will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." (Isaiah 41:17-18, emphasis added) Psh, that's just a coincidence. "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass. Like willows by flowing streams. This one will say 'I am the LORD's'"... ..."And the other will write on his hand, 'The LORD's.'" (Isaiah 43:18-19, 44: 3-5, emphasis added) OKAY I GET IT. And then I remembered, as soon as Jesus was baptized- before he started his ministry- before he performed any miracles- he went strait to the wilderness for 40 days. What?? Then I thought, If Isaiah was telling us to "prepare the way" and "make a highway for our God" in the driest of places, that must mean that God is going to enter those places. And when God walks into the room, everything changes. Thirsts are quenched. Dead things come to life. It's funny what happens when we finally say "yes" to seeking Jesus when we feel far from Him. He led right to where I needed to go. Wait, was that just.. a WAY in my WILDERNESS? Again God, I get it. Thank you. The truth is, we don't need to feel far from God- too lost, too dry, or too anything. Actually, scriptures encourages us who feel this way to take heart because: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.", "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household", (Ephesians 2: 13,19, emphasis added) God truly does make a way when we are lost. He truly does pour His living water in our dry places. When we are weak, He is strong. When we draw near to him, He draws near to us. When we realize this, we can say with confidence that we are not too far. We are not too dry. We are not too lost. Like Isaiah 44, we can say "I AM THE LORD'S." Today I am thankful for a God who draws near to us in our distance and dryness. // H E B R E W S 1 2 : 1 - 3 // "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Strange.
It's a strange thing thinking about how God looks down on us. He sees E V E R Y T H I N G , and He knows everything about us. Every mistake. Every sin. Every. little. detail. Yet He loves us anyway. Truth. God Himself chose to leave heaven, dwell among us, and seek and save us. I always believed the lie that everyone at church was better than me, and that I was too "dirty" for a holy God to actually see me and love me. But all throughout Jesus' time on earth, the most unlikely of people- even drunks and prostitutes- were coming to know Jesus and being transformed by His truth and love. I sometimes feel like that unlikely person. Saved by grace. Grace. Grace is a common "churchy" word that we are always hearing, but grace really means: getting what we do not deserve. Jesus took credit for our sin, so we get credit for His righteousness. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21, emphasis added). Dang. That's some grace right there. We BECOME the RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD when we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts. We are no longer carrying our sins... Jesus carried them up to Calvary's Hill, nailed them to the cross, and was buried with them. We are made new. Reborn, washed clean, and sealed with the Holy Spirit- which is God Himself dwelling inside of us. But we are sinful... and God is Holy. "For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14) Darkness and light (or sinfulness and holiness) do not coexist, but we are always screwing up and falling into sin. If these two opposites do not get along, and we are consistently sinful, why would God let Himself dwell inside of us? If God looked at us and saw us by our sin, it absolutely would not be possible for God to give us His Holy Spirit. Think about it. If you were house shopping, and you walked in to a dirty, nasty house, you would turn the heck around and get out of there! The amazing truth about that is: when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He walks right in, cleanses us from EVERYTHING, and His Holy Spirit dwells inside of us- making His home in our hearts. He transforms us from the inside out. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17, emphasis added). We were made alive and new IN CHRIST. The old has passed, and the new has come. Therefore, God does not look at us and see sin: He looks at us, sees the radiance of Jesus Christ on our faces, and says "you were worth it." As you may have read in my former "lessons from Lazarus" post, God can teach you a million different things every time you read His word- even in the same passage! I was recently lead back to John 11, the story of the death of Lazarus. Completely forgetting that I had written an entire blog post on how this passage inspired me to share my faith more openly, I read back over it. This time, God spoke to me about my own junk through a different aspect of the passage when Jesus had just gotten to Lazarus' tomb (four days after he died) :
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Gosh. This story is incredible. When we think about our sin, guilt, and brokenness in our lives, sometimes our natural response is to bury it deep down inside- as if there were graves in our own hearts. Without Jesus, we're dead in our sin. In the pit. inside the tomb. And there's a big ole stone right at the doorway. However, when we invite Jesus in, while naturally we think that our sin and shame is too bad, old, gross, or even "odorous", (verse 39) Jesus says "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" And they take away the stone. Jesus doesn't care about the "odor" of Lazarus' body because He loves him and wants him to live. Jesus doesn't care about the "odor" or stench of our sin because He wants US to live and participate in His resurrection glory. On of my favorite pastors, Jason Epperson, once said "There's no situation that you're going to have that God can't handle. He took the hurting, the broken, the blind, the persecuted, and He changed their situation. HE WENT TO A CROSS to change our situation. They put his cold, dead body in a tomb...And guess what? The stone was rolled away, and it changed all of our situations!" There is nothing as freeing as when Jesus breaks our chains and says “Unbind him, and let him go” (verse 44).There is nothing as glorious as being raised from death to life by the power of the cross. Lazarus was raised from the dead- and so are we. Because we are loved by a Savior who is in the business of rolling our stones away. Matthew 11: "28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” As a sophomore, when people ask me what my major is, anxiety sometimes creeps in when I have to respond: "I still haven't decided. I actually have no idea." Sometimes the fear of the future can stress a girl out- fear of never deciding on a major, not getting a job, never getting married, or even fear of what could happen if I don't get an "A" on the next exam. The world sometimes loves to throw anxieties in our face, and I think that is why God speaks so much about anxiety throughout scripture. My favorite passage that God brought back to my mind comes from Matthew 6:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." If God cares deeply enough about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, how much more deeply will does care for us- His beloved children?! As I read this verse, God's peace washes over me every time. Philippians 4:6-7 "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Time OUT: anxiety is something that is hard to pray for and understand. I think this is why God loves to give us His peace and show us scripture- that God Himself has breathed out- to minister to us personally. There is a difference in hearing someone say "God has a plan for you" and reading it from God Himself. He knows that anxiety is something hard to give comfort about, so He decides to be our minister and give us His peace through reading His word! That's pretty cool. God is our minister). That's some pretty amazing grace. Time IN: John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” God not only ministers to us and comforts us- He also fights for us. Like all the time. As I said before, stress/ anxiety through tribulation is something that is difficult to pray for, but I am in awe of the fact that "the spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." (Romans 8:26) "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son." (Romans 8: 28-29) WHAT? The Holy Spirit is rooting for us and prays on our behalf our needs too deep for words? He is working through our tribulation, and ALL of our days were made for us to know Him and to conform us to His image. He is sovereign, and He is in this boat with us. Matthew 8 comes to mind when thinking of looking to Jesus instead of looking at the winds and the waves around us: 24And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” God flooded my heart with scriptures relating to this. I think it is so sweet that He speaks so much about tribulation, stress, and anxiety because He knows that the world can give it to us. BUT He is our comforter, our minister, and our advocate who fights for us. What a loving Father! Keep asking God to show you what He says about WHATEVER storm is happening in your life. Sometimes I even pray: "God, teach me about ____" or "Holy Spirit, I need you to intercede for me, because I literally don't have words for this." This week I am thankful for a loving Father who sees and hears me. If you haven't read the story of the death of Lazarus, read it here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2011
I have read this story a few times, but God is cool and highlights different things to us each time we read His word. Today I was reading, and the passage in John 12 jumped right off the page. It reads: "The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. THE REASON THAT THE CROWD WENT TO MEET HIM WAS THAT THEY HAD HEARD HE HAD DONE THIS SIGN" (John 12: 17-18). While reading these two verses, God highlighted that the REASON that they went to see Jesus was that THEY HEARD. As I seek Jesus daily, He shows me really cool things! He shows us His love for us, His presence, His power, and aspects of His character. While we get to experience these amazing blessings, WHY would we just keep them to ourselves? We are called to tell others about what He has done, and invite them experience with us! God Immediately reminded me: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5: 14-16) WOW! We are the light of the world because God literally lives inside of us through His Holy Spirit. During this reading today, God told me to start this blog so that I could share with you all what He is doing in my life. He wants to do WAY more in us than we can even imagine- let's say YES to Him and let Him shine through us! Okay I admit... I haven't gotten my hair cut in (I'm not going to admit how many) months. As I woke up this morning to my bed head, I brushed my hair out and thought "WOW, my split ends are ridiculous. They are clearly visible from the healthy parts of my hair, and they are stopping my hair from growing!" Immediately God put a passage from John 15 in my head: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." What an accurate example of what God does in our hearts when we have sin that stops us from growing closer to Him! He convicts us of our veils that block us from knowing Him and reflecting His love. Just like I cut off my split ends for my hair to grow, God cuts off my guilt, earthly desires, and anything else that keeps me from Him! Isn't that wild that the creator of the universe WANTS me to grow in knowing Him personally? "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 corinthians 3:18) Did God just speak to me through my split ends? Time to get a haircut!!
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