Dear friends, welcome to FACETS of Faith! We pray you are blessed with a word from God each time you visit. We pray you hear His heart for you as you read. We also pray for prompt obedience if He places something on your heart. We have much to be thankful for even when we don’t always see it. I pray we see what God has done and is doing in our lives and that we take action on His instruction each time He asks. Let the lives we lead be a fragrant aroma to Him that smells sweeter and more savory than any Thanksgiving meal we will ever partake in. In Jesus’ name, amen!
Imagine travelling for months to an unknown, but hopeful destination. You made the bold decision to pick up your roots and reestablish yourself elsewhere. Now that the world wasn’t flat, you were flat out ready for an adventure. The decision felt right, so you moved forward. However, you didn’t fully calculate the cost.
Oh, you knew how much the trip across the ocean cost financially. You just hadn’t counted on weather and disease wreaking havoc the way it did along the way. You didn’t anticipate the stormy weather driving rain and cold to the center of your core. Once cold there aren’t enough socks and blankets to soak the chill from the marrow of your bones.
Right about now is when you start to doubt your decision-making ability. What was I thinking? Was I crazy to embark on this adventure? What might I lose because I followed my heart into this thing? I thought I heard from God. Was I wrong?
This is very likely what many of the settlers felt who crossed an ocean to see what God had in store for them. Many of them came for religious freedom. Some came for adventure. Others came for a fresh, new start.
Sacrifice may have been a bigger piece of the equation than any of them planned for. How could they really understand the magnitude of what this journey would cost? They’d never done it before. They were risk takers. They were courageous. But they couldn’t see into the future, even as they tried to plan for it. Even if they weren’t naïve, it would have been impossible for them to anticipate every obstacle ahead.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’─Luke 14:28-30 NIV
Have you ever been there? Where you forgot to count the cost? Or you thought you had, but you needed to count a little longer and a lot higher? I’m with you, sister. I’ve done it too! Even when I thought I weighed my decisions, prayed on them, sought after God’s heart, will, and ways I underestimated what would be needed. Somehow things cost a lot more heart, time, energy, and stamina than we expected.
Truth be told, I think sometimes God doesn’t let us see all it will cost. Heck, none of us would get up off the couch and do anything good for God if He told us, So and so is going to be extremely rude when you are trying to help them. Or This one will slander you, but be nice to them anyhow. Or perhaps you’ll be called to walk alongside a prickly, unloving person. Maybe God will literally ask you to give a financial gift stretching you outside your comfort zone.
You get the point. If God’s intention is to grow us (hint: it is!), He might keep a bit of the struggle out of our sight while we’re stepping into His plan for our lives.
I have absolutely been here. I know I heard from God. He told me it was going to be hard (He just didn’t say HOW HARD!)
So why on earth would we step into something we KNOW is going to be a challenge? We’ve calculated the cost, and we’ve even budgeted for things to cost more than we think, because that would be the wise order of things.
Why? What’s the motivation?
Those settlers who embarked upon their life’s most difficult adventure didn’t know their situation was going to get just a bit more challenging once they anchored close to shore.
They were in unfamiliar territory. And the weather was just about to change. Winter. None of us likes winter. At all. Oh, I’m not talking about the weather now. I’m talking about those seasons where we wonder, where are You God?
The people nearly starved to death. Some did.
Life can be extremely harsh at times. Winter seasons are difficult to weather well. Spiritually, we need to prepare ourselves for that. In our vibrant, blooming seasons it’s important we store those experiences in our hearts and minds as encouragement for the future.
Even when life is hard, never forget God’s got victory just around the corner. Some choose defeat, not knowing God has deliverance around the next bend. Let’s take heart and tune into what God tells us in His Word so we weather the storm well.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”─John 16:33 NIV (emphasis mine)
There will be trouble this side of heaven.
But the optimist in me says, sometimes it will also be extravagantly beautiful. Full of hope. Vitality. Life to the full! The Scripture above reminds us God has overcome the world. We know that, but in times of trouble, it’s powerful to speak this Scripture out loud with the full authority you’ve been given as a daughter of Christ.
Write it on the tablet of your heart. Literally, write it down on an index card and carry it with you. Remind yourself that you are made for VICTORY!
Jesus overcame the world (John 13:33b). In His name, you can too!
Again, Jesus tells us a thing or two about what this life is to look like.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”─John 10:10b NIV (emphasis mine)
TO THE FULL. He died so we could live the fullest life possible. I’m not talking about travelling around the world and doing whatever we want, when we want. There’s nothing the matter with travelling. There’s nothing the matter with taking time for ourselves to refresh our spirit. (Even Jesus did that, and He commands us to rest as well.)
What I am saying is He also calls us to serve sacrificially. He led by example. God still leads by example.
We love Him because He first loved us.─1 John 4:19 NKJV
We don’t love Him because we are so awesome. We love Him because He showed us how. (But you are awesome, by the way. You’re fearfully and wonderfully made. But you get my point. We wouldn’t even know what love IS if He hadn’t given us experiences of His love in the first place.)
Remember those early settlers of the States? How did God love them? They’d sacrificed much and experienced great loss.
God sent them practical help from the people who already lived there. The Indians knew how to survive on this land that we call home. They shared ideas and taught the pilgrims how to make it through harsh conditions. And when all was said and done, they celebrated the harvest. Together. (Sadly, we know this camaraderie and unity didn’t last, but that’s for a different piece.)
For now, let’s talk about the harvest. It’s one of my favorite biblical principles, because we all want to know we make a difference somehow. If I’m investing time, money, gifts and attention to something, I definitely hope and pray there will be a harvest. I know we don’t always get to see the harvest, but sometimes we do. That is such an encouragement. Our sacrifice was not in vain. God wrung every ounce of good out of it to bring life to the full for those He asked us to help. And maybe we are a gift He is giving to someone else because someone invested in us first.
I think about my friend who invited me to church and kept inviting me. Because she included me in her life and invited me into her world, I now know the love of Jesus. And because I know the love of Jesus, I can now love others. I get to. But that wouldn’t have happened (at least when it did) if my friend hadn’t invited me to walk through the doors of the church reassuring me the building wouldn’t collapse around me because, man, was I a s-i-n-n-e-r! I didn’t know back then that we are all s-i-n-n-e-r-s in need of God’s grace. Every one of us!
What does all this have to do with serving God out of thankfulness? Let’s hear from Jesus again as He talks to Simon…and to us.
“Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
“Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker cancelled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”─Luke 7:40-47 MSG
What if we were women so grateful to God for all He has given us that we served others like she served Jesus? What if we’re really serving Jesus when we do?
She was emotionally invested and used whatever she had to sacrificially serve the Lord. She celebrated Him! She was glad He was in her life and her actions showed it!
What would our world look life if we stopped trying to impress others and instead impressed God?
What would happen in your heart if you overheard the Lord talking about you in this fashion?
Look at her. Look at what she’s doing for the kingdom. Look at what she’s doing for Me, because she knows what love looks like. She is a student of Love. Look at how well she receives my love and serves out of the overflow. She hasn’t forgotten what I did for her. She remembers what life was like before she surrendered to Me. Impressive isn’t it? Many will forget and move on with life. However, she took to heart all I taught her. I’ll keep interceding on her behalf so she can continue. Even when it’s hard.
God made you for impressive things, beautiful one. Are you doing them? Not in some striving, slaving fashion. Rather, out of the overflow of His love and grace, glistening from the glow of His anointing.
Shine!
Out of thankfulness we serve. We serve with our whole heart. We serve because we were shown how. We serve because that’s why we’re here. Otherwise, God would have taken us to heaven already. For now, He needs us. He needs us to remember all He has done for us. He needs us to respond, to roll up our sleeves and say, “Yes, Lord. Send me.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”─Isaiah 6:8 NIV
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Excellent Tracy!