Return and Remember

 

 Return and Remember

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24:7

Jeremiah was a prophet God sent out on mission. All along God wanted a relationship with his people and they chose false identities and false gods putting that above what he desired. Our heart has always been the way that God captures us and what I give my heart over will determine if I depend on myself or depending on God alone. 

As I took a break from writing and sharing as God prepared my heart for camp I began to recognize how much I was relying on my understanding. Knowing that He had taken me though camp before still left me questioning how He would do it again. I noticed as I took a break it started to become more apparent something else was getting me off course. Even as I knew God was asking me to rest with writing and sharing I hadn’t broken away from the underlying issue that was continuing to stir restlessness within my mind. I then began to recognize Social Media had become a trap once again for me and this rest was the perfect opportunity to break away from all of it. No sharing devotionals meant no need to go on Social Media. "But how Lord?" How do I do this knowing I will not know what is going on with my friends? At first it was a feeling of freedom not needing to see what everyone was doing but soon after I realized how connected I felt just scrolling a few minutes a day. A week in I started to detect something different that was occurring in my thoughts. I wasn't taking on this false identity that I thought I needed to. I wasn't looking in on everyone else's life and comparing myself. I wasn't listening to those other voices that were telling me I wasn't good enough or that what God had asked me to do couldn’t be accomplished. He was asking for my full heart and my full devotion. Clearing away those distractions and going into camp showed me that I didn't need to be concerned about what I couldn’t do but that I could again trust that I could depend on Him alone. I began to slow down enough to stop listening to all the other voices that were grabbing at my heart to forget but God had to get me to slow down before I could recognize the distractions. 

Jeremiah was surrounded by distractions yet he knew God chose him to speak in ways to people to return and remember to worship God alone. Slowing down has reminded me in a way of creating that barrier between the voices that can pull against my heart and cause me to forget. So moving forward that is my prayer, “Father, show me what it looks like to move forward in this understanding of what you have shown me.”

So what if you asked God to reveal what that distraction is for you? He wants to plant His truth in my heart but it is up to me to return and remember. A daily invitation to invite the Holy Spirit to show me what is causing my heart to forget. 

Father,

Continue to show me those things that prevent me from giving you my whole heart. Forgive me when I put those same things before you. I return and remember you are the only one I belong to. Move me towards you more each day to remember that heart posture or surrender of giving that back over to you Jesus. 

Amen

  

 

Strong in Weaknesses

 

Strong in Weaknesses

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

The Bible talks about how Paul had something that was going on but never tells us what that was. A thorn in his flesh so that he would never boast in his strength. I have often wondered what that was. 

What is that for you? 

I really wasn’t surprised going into camp this time how challenging it would be. I wasn't even surprised at the lack of sleep I would get but I was surprised when I was once again left with no sleep. That first night I again was left with those anxious thoughts that had me laying in my bed to once again start praying and sticking my earbuds back in my ear and listening to Scripture. All the uncomfortable things were meeting me once again. So as I got up after no sleep I told the Lord, “I am really not happy about this.” It was then God reminded me last year at camp I got no sleep before leaving and this year I did. I felt God reminding me that he was what I needed and that he would give me what I lacked. Allowing God to meet me because I didn’t have it was what he was once again asking me. Would I trust God once again to provide? 

As I went to have my morning quiet time I still wasn’t going to let this one go. I told God, “ I really wanted that sleep.” Going back to my room I could already feel the effects of no sleep. I knew this day ahead of me was going to come with challenges and I knew I was going to be showing my weaknesses. Not just the physical ones but the emotional ones, the ones I am learning need to be shown. 

Going back to camp was going back to knowing that people would see me in a way that would reflect my disease. But as I was met with the challenges that day I started noticing something else. Eyes all around me. Students I have served alongside and middle schoolers watching me in a way they could see those weaknesses. Leaders that were watching over me in a way to allow those very things I fight not jumping in but knowing that they were there. God was meeting in a new way showing me that what I lacked he was providing while still allowing me to be weak. 

So what if in what we lacked was the very place God waited to meet us?

Satisfied in Christ

On a recent trip home my dad showed me this. One single flower because of seed that  dropped from a feeder. That flower was placed by there, grown there, and bloomed in a way that stood in a way that caused me to take this picture. The leaves look like the sun has gotten to them yet that flower stands in a way of no matter what it will flourish. 

      Satisfaction in Christ

“I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content whether well fed or hungry, whether abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4: 11-13

Where does discontentment start for you?   

"Haven't you heard fifty is the new thirty?”Words someone had said recently to me as I shared the discomfort of being the oldest in the room at a Bible study I am in with girls that are in high school and their young leaders. A book we are doing together, “Who are you following?” is about the world we live in and how we can guard our heart and mind from messages we don’t need. Little did I know in that room God was going to be revealing to me about what voice I had been listening to lately. At the beginning an icebreaker question was presented to our small group. This is a question that can break silence but this particular question seemed to hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting. The question was harmless. What is your favorite Karaoke song and how old or what grade are you in?  I sat and listened to the songs mentioned none I was familiar with wanting to come up with something as I watched the reactions to the ones mentioned and realizing once again I was way out of my comfort zone.  Being a part of student ministry has stretched me in ways that pushes past the comfort I am expecting and knowing I am there to be a source of encouragement for them. I was asked to take part in this small group knowing that comfort wasn’t going to be at the front of it or the middle and showing up meant allowing God to do what He wanted to do within this time together.  It came my turn to answer, “Well I don’t know of a song and I am turning fifty in August.” It was then the leader who sat next to me who I have grown to love and is pregnant with her first child asked me, “When is your birthday in August I am due mid August. I could hear myself say something along the lines of, “That is much better having a baby than turning fifty.”  

That little thought of dissatisfaction wasn’t dealt with at that moment. I left that afternoon and came home to text my sister. It wasn’t a look at how God has allowed me to be a part of this small group and sharing what I was  learning from them it said, “Great, the leader is having a baby that will be zero and I will be fifty.” Of course it was followed by a laughing emoji making light of it but it was that very thing that began to plant a seed of doubt. The enemy of my mind loves to play that game with me, the one that begins to become discontent in what I have been given, the one that begins to doubt the hand of God. It is in the restlessness I can begin to recognize that I am once again trusting myself instead of relying upon the strength of His hand. I can recognize that I have been doing this more lately because of what He has entrusted me with. That is what happens when we step out and trust God. Trusting Jesus that what I lack will be supplied is a daily thing.  That has become another practice for me when all the doubts begin to surface.  Picturing all those things that keep me from trusting in my hands, my hands opened up in surrender, getting down on my knees, placing them at the feet of Jesus and standing back up knowing He will supply all my needs. 

Being satisfied in Christ is knowing that he will meet all my needs. It was during the second half of that time together we read Scripture together about what we had just discussed and I could hear the similarities of our lives of following Jesus.  The same things that were shared around that circle were the same things I could identify in my life of growing more in my relationship with Jesus. We sat and invited Holy Spirit into our hearts and minds to call out those things we were finding that didn’t satisfy us. It was nothing about our ages, differences, or grades but all about the Living Spirit in us and acknowledging those things that we’re getting in the way of being content in Christ. 

So what is it for you? Ask Him. What seed of discontentment could you be planting?