Leaving the Comforts of Preparation...

Suzanne gave me an article toward the end of this summer that is now hanging on my mirror...it's a constant reminder of
A.) How big our God is
B.) What He's called me to.

And I wanted to share it! :) It's from Beth Moore's A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place

"Have you found yourself on the brink of the place for which God has long been preparing you?...Something for which you sense He has been preparing you for a long time? Now that you see God fulfilling His promise to use you and have gone through excruciating preparation toward that end, are you filled with fear? An overwhelming sense of unreadiness? A sudden emotion that this may not be what you wanted? A little sorry you volunteered to go wherever and do whatever? Do you feel like a grasshopper beside the task?
God will deal with those feelings and will bring them to a place of dismissal if you confess them to Him and invite Him to give the courage to accept His personalized plan for you.
If only the Israelites had cried to God like the struggling father, "Help me overcome my unbelief" (Mark 9:24), their carcasses would never have fallen in the wilderness. How God must grieve over two common approaches to His unfolding plan; those who want position without preparation and those who refuse to leave the comforts of preparation to take the position. If the truth were known, Joshua may have suffered a few butterflies himself. Remember, he saw the giants in Canaan with his own eyes! There was one major difference between Joshua and Caleb and the other spies: their God was bigger than their obstacles.
Is yours?
God banished Joshua's fears with the words of Joshua 1:1-9. His encouragement for one precious man who stood at the crossroads between preparation and position, promise and possession.
Take the land, beloved."


How relevant this is coming here from 8 months of preparation and seeing the Lord open up opportunities for me to "take the land." I feel the fear she speaks of...but I have left the comforts of preparation through His strength and guidance, and am simply striving for the obedience that He calls me to. Our God is bigger than our obstacles! Thank goodness. :)

Do Your Best - 2 Timothy 2:15

I always have this underlying fear when I go to share something I've seen (an observation, an interpretation, etc) in scripture for fear that it might be "wrong". An irrational fear, to be sure, seeing that it is simply that...an observation, interpretation, opinion. So...here we go :)

2 Timothy 2:15

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth."

That word "approved"...a footnote here say "one approved after being tested".
I think Paul says to "do your best" on purpose, because he knows it will be a struggle to do so. He doesn't say "do this and this will happen" -- but instead he says to try, to do your best to do this.

I mean, it's not like Paul is scared to tell you to do hard things, or even things that may seem impossible to actually do. The first thing that came to mind was 1 Thess 5:16 when he tells us to "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances". Really? Think about that! Pray without ceasing?? He doesn't say "do your best to do these things"...he simply says to do it--commands us to, if you will.

So. Why does he say it here? I think it's a look into the very soul of Paul, the very soul of us all as fallen man. He knows what it is to feel ashamed, to not want to present yourself before God as one who's been approved after testing because of that little piece of you that doubts you are worthy of that approval at all. We all feel it--if you have truly grasped the weight of the Gospel of Christ and the amazing responsibility that lies with those called to share it...you know what he's talking about.

It's part of being fallen man-no matter how often or how much He promises to deliver us and equip us and save us-it's always a constant choice to have to believe it, to let go of your desire to be the one who delivers yourself, equips yourself, save yourself.

And then comes the fear.

The knowledge that you're not worthy and you can't equip yourself and you are a sinner...and yet He's still entrusted you with the Gospel of His Son. How do you think Paul felt everytime he went to preach the Gospel of the same Christ he'd denied in life to the same people who knew the blood of believers on his hands, maybe who'd even seen the death of Stephen?

Unworthy? Inadequate? Fake? Probably.

And yet he did it. He made the choice to believe the Gospel he'd been trusted to share, he chose to fight the lies that tried to combat the truth that we are who He says we are, and that is all that matters.

So, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth"...even when your flesh is screaming at you that you're not.

Pleased to Meet You :)

I could never justify in my mind why I would need/want a blog. Then I read Matt's, and Kevin's, and Jenn's, and Chris' and I realized that I was learning from them. They were sharing what the Lord was teaching them with whoever was interested in "listening", and it was helping me. I feel like the Lord reveals lessons to all of us and gives us all stories that we are meant to TELL to others...and this is a place for mine to begin. My hope is that through this blog I am able to process lessons the Lord reveals to me or stories He blesses me with, and in turn you are able to learn something from them too.

So--with that being said, hello! My name is Lindsey. I have been redeemed by an all powerful, all merciful and all-sacrificing Father who calls me His own and who calls me holy. I am here to pursue that holiness through faith and obedience to my Christ, knowing that it is only through His sacrifice that I will one day be reunited with my Father in His Kingdom. I am humbled daily that my Lord would choose, pursue, equip and redeem one such as me, but I stand boldly in the knowledge that He has called me out of darkness into His wonderful light for a purpose, and that my life is dedicated to sharing the saving gospel of Christ and the life He has to offer.

Pleased to meet you. :)