Selfish

Galatians 6:1-2

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ

I sin almost everyday in that I am a selfish person. But not selfish in the way most people would imagine when they think of the word selfish. I am selfish with my burdens. So often I am afraid of inconveniencing people with my burdens, thinking the load I carry is too impossibly big to share with any other person, even God. I have an innate desire to hold in all of my oppressions, all of my brokenness and fix it all myself. I tell myself that I am strong, that I can handle it on my own and that I can come out of these battles victorious. But the truth is that I can't. I am not strong- my being is composed merely of dust and a soul. I cannot handle my burdens on my own, nor was I designed to, and the more I hold it in the more my poorly built foundation cracks and bends beneath me. Slowly but surely I am learning everyday to completely lay my burdens at the feet of Christ and leave it in his hands. I am learning that Christ's power is made perfect in my weakness. I am learning that He is the cornerstone of all life, the unshakable foundation and unbreakable rock on which I stand. And I am learning that the Lord will fight for me, that I need only be still and surrender to His perfect will. He humbles me to release my greed of hoarding all my burdens and to freely give it all to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than anything I could ever ask or imagine. He shows me that He has provided me with people wiser than I am, who have walked this mile before and in whom I can confide all my deepest anxieties. Peace is found when we surrender all of our burdens to Christ, and share our burdens with those He has placed in our lives to love and care for us, who desire to carry our burdens and give us rest. And peace is found when we seek out those who are burdened and share with them the perfect peace and restoration that comes in laying our worries at the foot of the cross.

Come to God in this moment and lay down at His feet anything that is pressing on your heart- your fears, your worries, your insecurities, your sins. His heart breaks for you when you carry it all on your own, and He desires to alleviate your load. He is the God of restoration, and He will bring you through whatever storm and whatever battle you may be facing right now. Humble yourself and let Him into your heart so that He may carry your burdens for you. And pray that He would reveal to you someone with whom you can share your burdens, someone who will gladly carry your burdens and offer you wisdom to encourage you and bring you peace. Ask that He would also open your eyes to those burdened around you, that you may show them the peace and restoration that is found in Christ. Let His peace and truth settle in your soul today and bring you rest.

Madelynn

Unexpected

Matthew 28: 5-9 (NIV)

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them.“Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

 

When the women came expecting to find Jesus' broken body wrapped in the tomb, they trembled in holy reverence at the angel they saw and also out of fear that Jesus was not where they expected Him.  I can imagine their hearts stopping as they were afraid that someone had stolen His body or that something terrible had happened. There were struck by the unexpectedness of the situation, and frozen in fear. And then they received a message sent to them by God, alleviating their fears and instilling in them the confidence that their savior had risen and conquered death. I feel like so often are like the women at the tomb. We search for God in the places we expect to find in Him, in the places we want to find him and we are stricken with fear when we find the places in which we expected Him to be only empty tombs that could not contain Him. God is not a mundane God that He should be contained within the comfortable facets of the human imagination. No, rather he exceeds the limits of our Earthly expectations. He can only be found when we break  our comfortable cycles and embrace His reckless love that we cannot even begin to wrap our minds around. He is found when we recklessly run to Him despite our fears and fall at His feet to worship Him in desperate adoration. And as we come to abide in the sweet presence of our Savior, fear no longer has a grip on us because we are finally in the presence of perfect love, and perfect love casts out all fear.

 Lay down at the feet of Christ whatever fears may be paralyzing you in this moment, and embrace Him with reckless abandon. Know that He is not found in the expected and comfortable places of this world, but He is found in your brokenness and humility, when you break down the walls around your soul and let His perfect love come flooding in. Let this truth bring you peace, that you have a risen savior who has conquered your sins, conquered death, and reigns victorious.

Let Him in, and know that you are loved.

Stand Firm

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his spirit in our heart as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

When it seems the world is shaking all around you and nothing is certain, when you feel as though all that you built up in your life is crumbling alongside your dreams, and when the ground is ripped from beneath your feet and you are found on your knees in desperation, there is hope. As we come to God in whatever overwhelming circumstance we may face, he lifts us from the ground, out from our desperation and onto the solid cornerstone that is Christ. As we stand firm on the unshakable foundation that is Christ, God anoints us, setting our spirits apart to serve Him with abandon. You are His beloved, His precious child and prized portion. Before you even came to be, He wrote out all your days and prepared for you an incredible purpose to fulfill. His spirit abides in His beloved and promises to never leave you, to never forsake you and to give you a hope and a future as you live out the life story He has written for you.

Let this soak into your soul. That God has lifted you up. That He is your strong foundation. That Has anointed you, His beloved. His Spirit is alive and at work in you, and is guiding you along the path that God has paved for your life. Open your heart to Him today, and rest in this truth that when all seems to crumble and fall around, God will lift you up to solid ground in Christ.

 

You are loved. Live out that truth today :)

 

Madelynn

Medicine for the Over Thinker's Soul

Psalms 94:19

 

In the multitude of my inward thoughts, your comforts delight my soul.

To call me an over thinker would be an understatement. When it comes to the important decisions I make everyday, my mind automatically inclines to analyzing every last detail of the situation at hand. It seems daily that I fight against a current of a multitude of thoughts, often times unnecessary ones that only make me anxious and stressed. Even if you can't exactly relate to how I think, I feel like everyone encounters situations that push us into a cycle of over thinking and worrying that only digs a deeper hole in pit in which we were already stuck. It's tiring to over think, and it's incredibly taxing to be consumed by worry. Sometime I feel as if my mind never stops, like it's a machine whose gears keep turning and increasing in speed, burning out at the end of each day. My soul craves rest. My heart desires peace. And physically and spiritually all of my being is hungry for a comfort beyond the fleeting pleasures of this world.

When the gears race in my mind, and my soul is flooded with anxiety, God is peace. Purely and simply. Peace.

Sometimes my human heart forgets that God has already planned my life out. That He has written every page in my story and knows what lies in the future that I spend so much time worrying about. And sometimes I forget that God is peace, that He is joy and His comforts are meant to sustain my soul. He has an incredible purpose ahead for each of us. If only we'd stop playing tug-of-war with God over our futures and let Him be the medicine that cures our over thinking souls, we would know a deep and all too unfamiliar peace that stress has robbed from so many of us.

God is good. He is peace. He is joy. He is comfort. But ultimately He is God, the creator of your heart and the lover of your soul. Let Him in today, and let His peace settle in your weary soul.

Unchained

This past Thursday, a victory was won. Hearts had great reason to rejoice. And a step was taken by our nation to end the enslavement of thousands in our country. This past Thursday, Congress passed the renewal of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which expired in September 2011. This act aids in the prosecution of traffickers, imposing stiff penalties, and offers vital services for helping victims rebuild their lives. The issue had been put off in Congress for too long, and action against the growing issue of slavery in our country had been long over due. So when the act was passed, there was much reason to rejoice and celebrate the progress made by our Government in this movement to end modern day slavery. The bondage of the thousands in our country and the millions across the globe is a critical issue. It demands our awareness. It demands our attention. And it demands our action. The step taken by Congress is tremendous and wonderful. But it cannot stop there. Each and every one of us in every sphere of influence is called to act on bringing justice and freedom to the enslaved. And each and every of us is able to if we only step up and sacrifice for the enslaved.

We can be apart of bringing freedom to the 27 million that are physically in bondage today. But freedom can also be brought to us as well.

All of us have been or are in bondage to some oppressing force in our life. Whether it be our decisions, our addictions, our circumstances or our daily battles, we all know what it is for our hearts to be chaffed by the chains of this world. To be enslaved and in bondage to something is one of the heaviest burdens to bear, and is one that too many bear on their own, that too many carry to the point of breaking. Day in and day out, the chains grow heavier, and fresh wounds are made as we are worn. It's so easy to feel hopeless, to believe the lie that freedom is an infeasible thing in the shadow of our oppressions.

But there is a very really hope for you. There is restoration for you. And there is freedom for your soul. No matter how great the chains. No matter how deep the wounds. There is healing. And there is freedom.

"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir....It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 4:4-7 & 5:1)

Let this word soak into your soul. Open up your heart to Christ and let Him bring healing to your wounds and freedom from your chains. Let His mercy cover you and bring you peace. Let this truth of His freedom sustain you. And walk confident, not in yourself, but in God, and delight in your identity as a child and an heir of God. There is sweet joy in the victory that comes in finding freedom for our souls in Christ.

I hope this brings you freedom, joy and a sustaining peace throughout your day :)

And if you want to find out more about how you can bring freedom and justice to those enslaved in human trafficking, below are some organizations you can explore that will show you how to be a voice and a catalyst in the fight to end slavery.

http://www.love146.org/

http://www.ijm.org/

http://www.polarisproject.org/

http://www.freedomplaceus.org/

http://www.thea21campaign.org/

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx

Madelynn

Dependency

John 15:5 (NIV)

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

We live in a world that prides itself off of self-sufficiency and success. There is so much pressure weighing on every individual to be a self-made man or woman, to be independent and successful by the world's terms. It's so easy to get pulled into the mindset that we have to carry the weight of the world on our own, that we have to build ourselves up and provide for ourselves our own strength, our own prosperity. We crave that feeling of independence and accomplishment so that we can take pride in ourselves and what we've done. But God calls us to do something radically different. He calls us to live in a state of complete dependency on Him, to live with a humbled Spirit that is desperate for His presence. Jesus boldly states in His word that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We cannot thrive. We cannot prosper. We cannot grasp the purpose we are meant to fulfill in our lives without Christ being central. Only when we remain in Christ and allow the presence of His Holy Spirit to abide in us will we be fruitful and prosperous according God's will. And God's will is unfathomably greater than any of the world's standards to which we used to be enslaved. There is freedom and prosperity in being submerged in the presence of God. There is a deep and fulfilling purpose to be cultivated in a life in Christ if we would only come and abide in the Father's presence and open our hearts for God to come and abide in us as well.

Bring to God any way in which you are struggling to provide for yourself. There are so many things that can burden us with a sense of urgency to act on our own and preserve ourselves. My prayer for you is that whatever urgency you may feel to be self sufficient would be replaced with a deep dependency on God, knowing that He will provide for you, He will make you prosperous according to His will, and He will unfailingly fill your life with purpose. I pray that you would come to the Father today and know what it is to have your desperation satisfied with His presence.

I pray that this word would deepen your hunger for God today and your dependency on Him. I hope you all have an amazing day! :)

Madelynn

Immersed

Ephesians 6:16 (NIV)

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

 

I love the comfort and sense of security that comes with reading about the armor of God in His word, especially the shield of faith. So often I feel like things are out of my control, like I'm being attacked from every side, and my only source of protection is my faith in God. My soul rejoices in knowing that in Christ we are more than conquerors against the forces that threaten us everyday. However, as I was reading this, I struggled to understand one word: extinguish. How can a shield extinguish a fire? Doesn't a shield merely deflect whatever hits it? As I began to study more into the armor of God and how it parallels with the actual armor of Roman soldiers at that time, I found that Romans soldiers used shields that were covered in leather and often soaked in water so that it would extinguish the flame-tipped arrows the enemy would fire at them in battle. And then God pressed on my heart why this random historical fact that I had stumbled upon was spiritually significant. Just as the Roman shield was soaked in water so that it would extinguish the fiery arrows of the enemy, so our faith that shields us should be so fully immersed in the Living Water that is Christ so that when the devil wages war on our souls, his flaming arrows that are designed to seer and scar our hearts will not only be deflected but extinguished and rendered useless so that the his detrimental fire cannot spread elsewhere. God knows that we are going to be attacked, and He knows that we are not strong enough on our own to defeat the forces that are pressed against our hearts daily. That is why He equips us with a steadfast faith in Christ, who is the life water for our souls, who not only satisfies us and nourishes our hearts but also unfailingly guards our hearts from all of the attacks of the enemy. It is when we completely immerse our souls in the true living water that is Christ that we are more than conquerors against the enemy. It is then that we will not be shaken but rather empowered and emboldened to go throughout the battles we face everyday with confidence that our hearts are guarded with this impenetrable shield of faith.

 

Open up to God about how you feel you are being attacked and the daily battles you face, and bring to Him whatever burdens are pressing on your heart in this moment. If you feel God stirring in your heart, commit yourself to being fully immersed in He who is the Living Water, and ask God to come into your heart and guard your soul with this steadfast faith He has equipped you with. Let your spirit be emboldened by the security that comes with being submerged in Christ and the ultimate protection that He brings.

 

My prayer for you is that today your faith would be completely submerged in the Living Water that is Christ and that you would have confidence in the protection God provides. I hope you all have an amazing day :)

Madelynn