Living Life for Christ Alone

"What do I do?" I wondered as we drove home. The sun was setting far below the horizon, and streetlights flickered in the onset of darkness. I tried confessing whatever sin I knew to confess in silent prayer, but it didn't fix what was actually bothering me: I felt like such a huge mess.  My emotions had been all over the place.  I felt so much shame, fear, doubt... How had I gotten here? I wasn't sure... Besides, what good would it do to know? I couldn't fix it. I had spent many hours trying. It seemed that the more I tried, the messier it got. And it felt as though the very fabric of who I was had been torn apart. The Spirit within me nudged me to bring the mess to God.  "God, here is my mess... I bring it to You. Can you fix it?" I prayed silently, looking out the window into the dark night. Suddenly, I saw in my mind's eye the nail-pierced hands of Jesus. "I already did," His answer broke through my doubts and fears.  And then He looked...

Discouragement often comes on the heels of high emotions and great encouragement.  Ever noticed that?  I recently heard mentioned in a podcast the saying: "What goes up must come down," and  I was struck by the fact that this very much can be referring to spiritual, emotional and physical highs.  A busy and fun weekend is often followed by a dull Monday.  A good day with little ones full of laughs and good behavior is quickly followed by another one with way less of both.  An exciting, energetic trip is often followed by an exhausted crash and sleepy, grumpy days to follow. A spiritual high can quickly be followed by spiritual lows, clarity by fog, joy by sorrow, confidence by faltering.  We so easily get discouraged once that high is replaced with a low simply because we secretly hoped the high would keep going on forever.  I experience this way too often, but I hadn't thought to expect it and even prepare for it.  If we are riding on the hi...

Have you ever noticed that new seasons of life seem to bring on new failures?  I feel like motherhood and ministry are two places where God has called me to that involve constant change, as well as constant disappointment. "Disappointment in what?" you might be asking. Disappointment in, well, myself.  The older I get (which I'm aware I'm not very old yet), the more I find myself in the stages of life I once dreamed about. And the more I find myself in these stages I once dreamed about, the more I find that it is nowhere near as easy or perfect as I had pictured.  You know that thought you had a long time ago before you were in the season you are in now? The thought that said, "I will do better than they  are doing"?  Yet now, what have those thoughts done for us but point afresh at our imperfections and inability to execute any ideas we had about life perfectly?  Maybe it's not as picture-perfect as you thought.  Maybe you are messing up at every turn...

"For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities..." (Heb. 4:15) When I do not understand myself, Jesus  still  understands me.

As I sit here, getting ready to share with you the biggest thing God has been doing in my life lately, I must start by being real. It is so easy to sit back on a morning when I feel no battles, no struggles and just live like I don't think I need God. Other days its so easy to worry about life and think about every detail of everything and wonder if it's going to be ok. Still other days, I find myself listening to Satan’s lies and believing him even though I know they aren’t true. Do you find yourself doing those things too? Why does Satan lie to us? Why is it that life seems"easy" one day, and then the next is the hardest ever? Let me help you out with this…