sweetly surprised

The Lord is so good. He knows our heart. We are fully known to Him! Praise His name!

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12

I am in such awe of His goodness, of how God loves me. He delights in bringing joy through the smallest things. There are three things that particularly stand out.

1. Free massage and stay at the conference center. Days before I had thought, I cannot wait until after camp to get a massage and later, that it would be fun to stay off camp during session break [sleep in, have air conditioner, a real bed, etc.] I knew it probably wouldn't happen, but it was a nice thought. At the end of a session, it was announced that a camper's mom wanted to bless us with free massages. All I could do was laugh in thanks. That Friday, a sweet friend offered a room for some of us to stay at the conference center. These things were so unexpected, but He constantly showed that He knows even tiniest things of my heart.

2. Blueberries. This is the best one. One afternoon I was sitting on the bear trap porch in a rocking chair watching kids play 4-square. I randomly thought of picking fruit, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, anything. I had never done that before and thought, ''Oh it would be nice to do that''. Low and behold, 4 days later I was at Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell picking blueberries and blackberries. I was in the mountains with three great friends and was sweetly surprised and reminded of God's enormous and the fact that He knows the depths of my heart.
This wasn't something I prayed about, "Daddy, it sure would be great to be able to go blueberry picking. Could I please?" Nope, it was just a passing thought. Praise God!

3. Chapstick. This is so silly, but it proves again how we are fully known. I lost my chapstick somewhere in between North Carolina and Texas. I've been meaning to buy more and kept putting it off. Tonight, after a joy-filled day, I went to my first Midnight Yell. As I was walking in with my camp, people were there handing out free Texas A&M- compliments of Pepsi chapstick. haha. Thank you, Jesus, for the sweet surprise. Even funnier, I was getting it out of my purse and thought, "I hope this isn't Pepsi flavored chapstick." You know those Dr. Pepper or other crazy soda flavors? I'm not a huge fan, so I quietly hope it was clear chapstick. Yup, it was. Thanks again!

These were all things I didn't pray for. I didn't submit them to the Lord. He just knew. It is such a big deal! That is, how much He knows us and desires for us to know Him. The idea of being known fully and fully known this summer was so graciously pressed into my heart, and there is no doubt that He knows us. He is faithful and delights in us. He takes delight in YOU. Our Father takes delight in bringing His children favor, making His love known, and surprising us at the moment we least expect. My prayer is that you come to know Him fully, are sweetly surprised this weekend, and really find hope and joy in the One, the holder of our hearts. Be blessed!


Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 30:9-10

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139: 23-24

However God does it for you means it is GOOD for YOU!

Reading the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, I realized something I never had before from this passage. It made me think about us as Mercy girls walking in our freedom but sometimes falling to distractions. A lot of times that distraction is comparison, which only leads to death.

So in Matthew 20, the landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He hired some in the morning to work for the day and also went out a couple of times later to give them "whatever is right" at the end of the day. Evening came and he began to call the workers in to give them their pay. The last to be hired were given one denarius as were the ones who were hired in the early morning. "They began to complain to the landowner, 'These last put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the burning heat!'" The land owner later replied, "Are you jealous because I am generous?"

We could easily read it and get the message that the last shall be first and the first, last. So much more was revealed.
The workers began complaining, and in that, they walked straight into comparison.

Comparison can only lead to death for us. I can look at another sister and see the freedom she is walking in--what I think is her freedom, and I fall into condemnation for the great amount of freedom she has and I don't. She could have been struggling with whatever issue for multiple years or only one or two. No matter how long or short of a time she was in bondage or even how long she has walked in freedom, the quiet, or rather, not so quiet lie sneaks in saying, "You should be walking in the great freedom that she is," which then becomes a belief in a lie yielding only death. "You don't have the freedom that she shows and that must mean you're not there and a failure." Those are straight lies from the enemy meant to distract us from our pursuit of Christ! We are good enough. We are loved even if our freedom doesn't look like we THINK it should. I'm longing for progress, not perfection.

And I think I've touched on this before, but it's come back up in conversation two or three times lately:

Becoming free is a very slow progress for some of us, and that is OKAY!
That gives even greater reason to include a lot of accountability and support.
That also means choosing not to believe those lies or hesitating to call out to those who are FOR us to help us.

Freedom and victory might come little by little like in Deuteronomy 7:22,

The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.

keep reading that passage,

but basically victory came by enduring. God's plans are bigger, which means He may not move as fast as we would like Him to. He probably won't give it all to us at once either. There are WAY too many lessons to learn in the process of finding greater freedom.

So I leave you with this...

Keep trusting. However God does it for you means it is GOOD for YOU!

joy and peace

"How do you know if you're abiding in Him?" was a question I ask a few weeks ago.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5

Abide means continue, stay, and remain. And one great thing I've come to love REST. Resting in His peace and joy.

After waiting and wondering if I am abiding, I learned I have to look at the fruit in my life. Two of those right now are joy and peace. If I'm filled with His joy and peace, it's a pretty clear indicator to my heart that I'm abiding.

Through learning that, I also learned how joy and peace are coupled together. If you have one, you should really have the other. After looking back on last semester, I saw I wasn't abiding. There was peace, but very little joy. I couldn't muster it up if I wanted. He's come in and rocked my world this semester. There have been many changes, but what sticks out most is the presence of joy in my life.

Here are a couple of passages showing how joy and peace complement each other. Dive into them. Be encouraged.

Peace and Joy
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

This is probably my favorite:
"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of the briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD'S renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." Isaiah 55:12-13

"Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Romans 14:17-18

Be blessed to overflowing with His peace and joy.

Invitations

I have recently been learning about receiving invitations from God. After reading 1 Kings 1 this afternoon, I saw how the Lord works this out. King David was old and dying; Israel would need a new king pretty soon. Adonijah "put himself forward and said, 'I will be king.'" He didn't receive any direction or invitation from God on this one. He wasn't released to be king. He just ran after his own desire for power but never gained it. This chapter really stuck out to me when I read it, because I was just asked to step into a leadership role and really needed confirming Scripture. I remember thinking early last semester that I would want to lead in such a way some day, but I didn't think that would be within the next year. Now, I'm in awe to see how He put that desire in my heart months ago but is now inviting me to step into it with Him.

I've learned this to be true: " So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn]." John 5:19

I feel like so often I see something I want to do and just go after it--wanting to work at camp last summer, being a part of great ministries, or even trying to run a half-marathon. Those are not necessarily bad things if my desires are from Him, but if I do it out of the Lord's leading and without invitation, I get frustrated and disappointed. With camp, I tried to manipulate everything around me to be able to be there. I put up fleeces...if so-and-so calls me to work, I will... I never got those calls. I fought with God so much until He showed me I need to learn to be comfortable at home with my family and receive love from them. With ministry, I wanted to be a part of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, go on a mission trip to Panama, and lead a freshman family group. None of those things ever came close to happening. With running a half, my motives were not pure. I had injury after injury, and my heart was not functioning well. Looking at those, they are all "good" things, but when done without invitation or to look good, we aren't satisfied or successful.

Here is something I read this week:
"True success in any endeavor can only come when the Father has initiated the activity and invited our participation." Priscilla Shirer, Discerning the Voice of God

For me, this is a greater invitation to pray and really have my ears tuned to hear His voice. I pray that as the semester begins, this is a time for us all to open our ears and hear each and every little thing God wants or doesn't want us to do.

"I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne." Revelation 3:21