Women aren’t blazing a trail apart from our Guide, we are responding to the gentle but urgent tug of our Savior.
Category: Devotions
The problem with a closed fist is that though little can escape, nothing can come in.
Timothy’s personal history and personal sacrifice paved the way for an effective ministry.
Remember, the prodigal’s father is a description of Father God. He’s the One pacing the proverbial front porch, waiting for any sign on the horizon of wayward kids coming home. He runs out to meet us with forgiveness and restoration in hand: ready and willing to clothe us in righteousness and receive us again as beloved members of his household.
The Israelite priests had crafted Sabbath into a burden by legislation and should-nots but maybe the heart of Sabbath is less about legalities and more about fellowship? Maybe it looks like changing our pace for twenty-four hours and being loved on as God’s kids?
Flourishing, truly growing up into the image of God, will take many seasons. Thank the Maker that He gives us time. Most of us have full decades to come to terms with the gospel and reckon our flesh with it’s uncomfortable truth. If it’s fast and easy, then we are weeds. If it’s frustratingly slow and strenuous, then we can trust that God is growing something enduring in us.
I wonder, have you ever found yourself in a pit? Like Joseph with his brothers, we can be wrongfully cast into deep, dark places by others, but sometimes we find ourselves at the bottom of a cistern of our own accord. Both pit scenarios prove equally impossible to climb out unassisted.
Our weaknesses aren’t a surprise or even a disappointment to God. They are a reality that God has already factored into His perfect equation for the whole of humankind. He has accounted for our frailties. In His sovereignty, He has already made allowances and provisions and somehow incorporated our shortfalls into His larger, perfect story.
Friend, fortresses don’t do us a bit of good unless we climb inside them. The world is warring but we find peace to be a Person who has invited us into Himself amidst this mess of humanity.