A Little While Longer

One of the most unique healing stories in The Bible is the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. For twelve years, she followed the law, protecting others from her uncleanness but the isolation pressed her down. She stood on the sidelines of life, hearing laughter and joy in others. She wondered when her friends stopped sympathizing with her in their conversations and started talking about how they needed to avoid her. She missed pounding out the bread dough, preparing meals, and sitting around the fire on cool nights, soaking up the beauty of the skies and just belonging. She missed the community. At first, she worked hard to avoid touching others when she ventured out, but now she kept her head down, calling out the word “unclean”, knowing she needed to avoid contaminating anyone. Warned, her neighbors gave her a wide walkway. She felt purposeless. The return of joy had slipped away a long time ago.

I have been reflecting the last eight months yes, we should pray, and sometimes it is necessary to wait for God’s timing. But many times we can find ourselves waiting and praying when it may be time to start moving in faith. That is what the woman with the issue of blood did. In the end, Jesus said to her “your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:25-34).

The word for “well” can be interpreted in two ways, “Your faith has made you well” or “Your faith has saved you”. She experienced physical and spiritual healing. While others avoided her, Jesus calls her daughter. With these few words, Jesus makes it clear she belongs, she is safe with Him and her faith in Him healed her.

Most of us will not get through life without experiencing deep loss and sometimes those losses put us on a downward spiral whose destination is total despair. Sometimes we experience shame for our sin or insecurity because something about us causes others to avoid contact. Jesus knows our sorrows. Sometimes we might conclude we don’t measure up to God’s standards. We don’t understand Scripture the way others do. This story reminds me that God isn’t looking for healthy, wise, and smart people, but rather he just wants our trust.

I see myself in this woman carrying around the wounds of my illness, ailments, or life struggles. I find myself sick of the pain so I kind of just stay there. Recently, God has been asking me to put my faith into action by trusting that he has me in every form and to hold on a little bit longer. There is a level of endurance and patience that he wants to envelop me in during this season. There is patience and endurance that we see in this woman with the issue of blood. Yes her days were hard but it didn't keep her from reaching for Jesus.

What do you need to reach out to Jesus for? Feeling restless in this season with where you desire to be? Your faith is making way for you to reach for Jesus to heal whatever aches your broken heart. He has not forgotten about you or your precious story. Keep walking with your head up because he is about to use your story in abundance.

God,

We thank you that you come to the right places and the right time in our lives. That there is love and care that you have for your children that is unmatched and wrapped in an abundance of love. Help us to keep faith and hope alive in our hearts and at the appropriate time to match it with action by fully trusting you with our pain. Help our posture to be one that is fully aligned with what you have already promised us. We believe that if we hold out a little while longer in faith that we will be met with your grace and your mercy.

Amen.

Worth the Wait

I have a tough time waiting. I find myself at traffic lights looking at the opposite light to see how long before I get a green light. In my personal life, I’m always defining success based on where I think I should be. It could be anything from my career to singleness. There’s a problem that I have with waiting. I’m not going to bother asking my parents if this has always been a problem of mine because God has been exposing it all on his own.

Recently, I’ve been pretty obsessed with trees. How they stay big and rooted into the earth over time, and how it takes a lot to physically derail them. Trees like that don’t just pop up overnight. There’s a process that starts with a seed, then roots form, and life forms from those roots.

Isn’t God so dope?! He takes something small and over time something majestic is formed that covers and protects. You see there’s a development that can’t be rushed that must take place before the purpose is revealed.

It’s worth the wait.

Do you know what happens when you rush a process? Mistakes happen, injuries happen, and sometimes even heartbreak happens. Good things, or rather God things take time and we have to remain patient in the waiting while he’s cultivating us and preparing us to carry our blessings.

Do you want to be married? But you haven’t even been a good steward of your singleness and trusted God with that. Oh, you want a house? You haven’t honored your studio apartment as you should. Patience is key but also enjoying the blessing that you currently have keeps you rooted for when you grow into what is next.

I never want to be so wrapped up in desiring what’s next that I forget to enjoy the now, the waiting part is the best part. You get to see the transformation, or better yet you get to experience God transforming you. Even in the pain and the struggle, it’s still good. So challenge yourself to take a deep breath, lean into the Father, and remember that you are worth the wait.

God,

We thank you for having to wait. We are grateful for the patience and joy that is established when we wait on you. Help us to remember that there is beauty in growing and not to force where you don’t have us yet. Remind us that in your will and in your way is where our hearts should desire to be. There’s no fun in trying to take over our journeys when you have already beautifully written our stories. Help us to remember that the transitions and transformations are all a part of us becoming who you want us to be.

Signed,

Worth the Wait

Becoming... Refined

Burn me beatiful.

Burn me lovely.

Burn me righteous.

Burn me holy.

In 2020, I went through a low time and found myself struggling in several areas of my life. As pressures mounted, I did what I am prone to do. I began to focus on how to change my circumstances. My brain began to be filled with ideas, plans and schemes designed to get me to a more comfortable place. And, as usually happens when I try to manipulate my circumstances, I just got more frustrated and less content.

1st Peter 1:7 says, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Christ Jesus is revealed to the whole world.”

Sometimes we expect God to simply zap the junk out of our lives when we enter into relationship with Him. But that is not the refining process -- not for gold, and not for us. God loves us too much to leave us as we are because our impure selves cannot reflect clearly all of who he is, and our fullest joy is realized in the growing brilliance of our reflection of him in our lives. The refining process is hot. To refine gold, heat must be applied to force the impurities to the surface. As the impurities rise, they are removed and more heat is applied. This process continues and continues, heat is applied and re-applied, until the gold is pure. The refiner knows the gold is pure when he looks into the gold and sees his clear reflection.

God works a similar process in us. Our lives are a process of God applying heat and exposing our weaknesses, our faults, our struggles, and our impurities. Heat is hot and uncomfortable, but if we submit to the heat, we are day by day transformed into His likeness. The process ends when we meet Jesus face to face, and he looks into our faces and sees his clear reflection.

So often we seek to place blame on someone or something for the difficult issues in our lives. But things we attribute to evil may well be heat applied by the refiner of our souls -- heat full of purpose and heat that ultimately will result in purity and joy. Illness may be designed to bring fear to the surface so God can build trust. Financial difficulty may raise materialism to the surface. Loneliness may raise idolatry to the surface. Relational struggles may raise bitterness or unforgiveness to the surface. Disappointment at work may raise pride to the surface. The heat and trials of our lives are not evidence God is cruel or has left you, but ultimately are evidence of how much God values you and his desire for you to be all he designed you to be. He values us as he finds us but he loves us too much to leave us as he finds us.

When life gets hot and difficult, human tendency is to run from the heat. When a molten substance is removed from the heat, it hardens. When we run from the heat, our lives and hearts harden, our impurities set and we simply stagnate. God tells us in Hebrews 12 it will seem difficult for the moment, but it always yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. If most of us were honest, we would trade much in our life for a sense of true peace. Peace does not primarily mean we have peaceful circumstances. Peace is realizing God is in control of all of the pieces of our lives, and even the difficult pieces have an important place in the bigger picture of God's plan for us. It is in peace we find rest. There is joy -- and peace -- and rest -- in the refining process.

As God changes your perspective, you will begin to see less of what is wrong and more of what evidences God's refining work in your life -- God bringing weaknesses to the surface so you ultimately will be stronger, more like him and more reflective of him. God's plan is not to make you more independent or more self-sufficient. His plan is to make you holy and dependent servants of the refiner who desires to give us lives far beyond what we ever could imagine. In the heat, we see his power displayed and we become vessels for his glory and reflectors of his image to the world -- and that is a life worth living, no matter your circumstances!

So what are you trusting God to refine you through in 2021? Whatever it is I pray that you would remember that it takes time and that you lean and trust Him along the way. He is for you, full and always. He has not forgotten about what you long for, he is simply burning away everything that is not like him.

God,

Thank you for every trial and test that 2020 brought. Thank you for making it hard. Thank you for taking away the things that you took way and exchanging them for a life and identity that is fully connected to you. I know that we absolutely hate the unknown, we want to be in control of our lives, and we want to be certain of what you are doing. God help us to head into 2021 with a heart that is longing to be aligned with yours. That we would remember that even in the refinement that your end product is better than ours. Thank you for burning the beautiful things into us.

Signed,

Becoming Refined