Out Of The Wilderness

In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge. Proverbs 14:26   There is strong confidence in fearing God because we see Him. I don’t think I truly understand His entirety. But as we see His greatness. We see how mighty He is. And we stand afraid. But as we draw close in fear of God, we know we don’t have to be afraid. Because He is God. And He loves us. So as we draw near in that fear, we are confident because we know who our God is. And in Him is our refuge. How crazy is that? We have a mighty God, who is our strong tower. Our place of refuge. I can run to Him in my time of need. And I can fight from victory. There is a lot of fear for me at times that I struggle with. Fearing so many different things. But the most beautiful thing I have been learning is of the choice I get to make. In the moment will I choose to continue in my fear or because I am being perfected in love choose Him? Will I choose to run to my strong tower,

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. I Corinthians 10:23-24 You will be known by your love. (John 13:35) It’s crazy to me how easily I live for myself. My wants, desires, satisfactions. It’s something that should be so different. How crazy different would my testimony for Christ be if I sought to love my brothers and sisters more than myself?  It’s very easy to feel entitled to my own “rights” as I go through my days. Yet how many of my “rights” truly glorify my Father? How many of them are me walking in love? How many of them are stumbling my family and causing confusion? As a new creation, as a daughter of the most high should my life not look radically different than that of the world? So if they go on and at times live lives caring more so of how they love others shouldn’t that convict me? I want to be above reproach. And truly

A man is not established by wickedness, But the root of the righteous cannot be moved. Proverbs 12:3 The root of the righteous cannot be moved. If the righteous are rooted in Christ that makes sense. But what hit me when I read this was how we can deceive ourselves. We can think that we are so deeply rooted. So firm, then life happens. We go through things that aren’t easy and we are uprooted. But I want to be firmly planted. As my time goes on in Costa, I see how much we need His word to grow. We need to grow deeper in our love and understanding of His word. It changes everything. I know Him more. I love Him more. I also see my sin more. I see how much I lack and how much my sin should separate me from Him. But I also so how He desires to draw me near and make me more like Him. And at the beginning of this year, I realized how shallow my roots were. How long I deceived myself into thinking I was firmly rooted, when really my roots were barely in the ground. He desires for u

You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:4-6 Faith working through love, in Christ, is what avails. It is what counts. Because we cannot justify ourselves. Yet so often it is what we aim to do. We think if we just work hard enough, if outwardly we do the right amount of primping and polishing and we put on the right face we will be good. That’s a place I understand. Something that the Lord did in training was restoring me to the joy of my salvation. I was restored to Him. For almost a year and a half I had been asleep, in my walk and the ministry He has called me to. I hadn’t been doing anything for Him, it was all for me. For my glory. I was trying to do the right amount that would justify me. The right amount that

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 I have been redeemed.  This has been a hard truth I have realized I didn’t fully believe. There was a lot of life that was lived before I became a Christian. A lot of mistakes made and a lot of things that one could only wish that they could take back. All of it was hard to live and it is hard to remember now. Because it no longer has to do with the new life in Christ. It’s sad really. How far I had to run and how hard I had to fall, but through it all God gave me a testimony of His goodness, His love, and how He so consistently and constantly pursues us.  He has been showing me how I don’t live in the newness. I keep walking in condemnation over past sins. I keep walking in shame and guilt. I’m walking in bondage even though I’ve been set free and been made new. I never realized that. I  had been talking about grace and new life and all these thi