Author Archives: Karla Jo Wasion

I love Jesus and His Church. His Word is Truth, His heart is good, and His return is sure.

Truth: Day 3—Alone Is Not Good

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.“

Genesis 2:18

Two were created because man alone was the very first thing God declared to be not good. So He made a woman.

{And a woman alone is also not good. That’s implied, don’t you think?}

Humans were not created for isolation or aloneness. We were made for togetherness.

It is a truth to declare because otherwise we will fall for the lie that we are better off on our own.

That being an introvert means my desire to be alone is God given.

When what is actually God given the most is a need for others.

I don’t think He meant that times of being alone are not good. Those, I think we can all agree, are absolutely necessary for our mental health. And the health of the others. At least my others.

He meant a life alone. An existence spent isolated. Separated.

Not just a life without people around, but a life disconnected.

We can be in a room full of others but still have a heart that keeps itself alone.

That is part of the not good.

We can be surrounded, but still insist on doing it ourself. Not asking for help. Needing no one. Being the strong one so that we don’t look like the weak one. Or the one who imposes on others. Bothersome. Needy.

And I am prone to the not good. I am drawn to that which is not good because I prefer alone, where the expectations are really quite low. Alone feels safe to me.

But I was not made to be that kind of safe. I was designed for the risk. Literally designed to make what was not good, good. To end the aloneness of someone else, and keep me from what is not good for me.

So I must declare truth because it reminds me to live truth. To let others in. To press past what feels safe, and into the risk. To move toward when I want to step away. To open my heart even when it wishes to be left alone.

To embrace the truth that it is not good be alone.

Truth: Day 2—New Life

I have a new life

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:4

So I don’t have to live the old life.

I don’t have to do things just because that’s the way we’ve always done them.

I don’t have to live according to what anyone spoke over me when I was young.

I don’t have to live according to what the world’s culture says about me.

I don’t have to live holding onto old wounds.

I don’t have to live with generational issues and sins.

I don’t have to continue going the way I’ve always gone, thinking the way I’ve always thought, believing what I’ve always believed.

Because Jesus died and rose from the grave and I now get to live new life. His way, not mine, not theirs. His.

I can live in new freedom. New ways of thinking and believing and seeing.

I can live a new life.

Thank You, Jesus.

Truth: Day 1—I Am His Friend

I am His friend

I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 

John 15:15

I have a best (human) friend. I can tell her anything, trust her with any secret. When I need to laugh or cry or vent about the way people drive or the growing shadow of evil in our land, she’s there for it. I never feel the need to impress her, because I know she loves me at both my best and my worst. It’s an easy relationship she and I have together. Friendships like that aren’t all that common, and I am thankful to have her.

It’s harder to be friends with Jesus.

He is God. Holy. Perfect in every way. I know He sees me at my worst and still loves me, but that doesn’t make me feel comfortable, it just makes me want to hide my worst parts. I only want Him to see me in my most put togetherness (which means He would hardly ever see me). And I know that He knows all the secrets, but still, I don’t speak of them with Him. I just know that He knows and He knows that I know He knows, so we leave it at that. I leave it at that. This silliness is not a “we” thing with me and God. It’s all me.

But I would like to be done with all of that now, and start declaring the truth. When I am tempted to hold back. When I want to turn away because I feel ugly on the inside. When I start to relax in the shallows of faith, rather than push through the resistence of going deeper, because going deeper means more expsoure of what I don’t want to see, or be seen. When I fall back on performing for Him instead of just sitting with Him.

I am His friend, and He is mine.

Think about it—

What a friend we have in Jesus! Do you believe that? Do you experience it? What does it look like for you to be a friend of Jesus? What does it look like to receive His friendship with you?

confessions of a rebellious soul

This is a repost of a previously published blog post. I’ve dusted it off, added and deleted and tweaked, and now I’m reposting. Because I’m still going through this thing, and I needed to feel the weight of that. I also needed to encourage myself with the fact that I’m still in the fight. That I still want, and believe, that I can walk free from bondage. 

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True confession:  I’ve always hated the word ‘obey’. In all of its forms. In any kind of sentence.  Obey seemed oppressive. Controlling. Demeaning. Surely there was a softer way to put it. A gentler call to do what God wanted.

Surely it isn’t rebellion that feeds these thoughts. Surely. 

The change began a few years ago. That’s when I stopped arm wrestling my bondage to food and admitted that it was stronger than me. Much stronger. Overwhelmingly stronger. And I wept and wept because dammit I was tired. Tired of needing to be free of yet another thing and wondering when the last shackle will fall from my soul and thinking this one will be with me to the end.

Then I read  this book. Really, you should read it.

Turns out, it was step one. I had to stop pretending that I didn’t have an idol. Seriously, how can you be this overweight, this miserable, this unhealthy and think idolatry isn’t your deal?  I say you but don’t be offended. We all know I’m pointing at me. I just like saying you more than I like saying I. I think a lot of us are like that. I think it’s a thing we do. But I digress.

Another confession: I have an idol. Actually, my idol has me. Ha Ha. Get it? Yeah, I know, but if I don’t laugh I’m gonna cry and no one wants to see that. Trust me.

I saw the idol. Admitted what it was. Wished I could just wrestle it to the ground and then kill it. But that’s never going to happen. I don’t know about your idol, but I didn’t pick a weak one. No sir. This thing is the Incredible Hulk of idols.

Anyway. Then, I read about Abraham.

{Did you really think I would tell you a story that didn’t include some reference to the Old Testament? You’re new here, I can tell. It’s ok.}

“The Lord said to Abram:  Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” {Genesis 12:1-3}

Blessing flows through obedience. From one generation to another it flows through people who obey God. 

Next confession:  While I avoided the word obey, I’ve always known that obedience was a good thing. Something a Christian is supposed to do. And I did. I obeyed the easy parts. But if you’ve been following Jesus for more than an hour, you know there are hard things and mostly I just turned my head from those and pretended to be busy doing something else. Can I get a witness? It’s ok. Don’t raise your hand. This is about me and as much as I want company right now, I think you’d just distract me. Sooth something in me that shouldn’t be soothed. Excuse something I can’t keep excusing. But thanks for offering.

We’ll just move on to the next step in a process that has actually been harder than it sounds. And not nearly as glamorous.

“For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” {Romans 5:19}

Adam so disobeyed and I so disobeyed, but God so loved the world and Jesus so obeyed His Father and now I am saved. Because of obedience that comes from love.

Love and obedience are holding hands and they can’t be separated and salvation flowed through obedience. From a cross made bloody by a Son who loved  and obeyed His Father, it flowed to me.

Confession number (what number are we on?): I’ve had a number of bondages, but none of them were my fault.  That’s not the confession. The confession is that I believed that lie because it was so much easier than the truth.

Every bondage I’ve had came through disobedience. Not through generational blood lines. Not through curses or entrapment or some kind of disorder. I wasn’t born that way. It is true that food addiction, and addiction in general, runs wild and free in my family line, but that fact does not remove my ability to choose differently. I became addicted to things because I didn’t say no to them. I had a stronghold of anger in me because I disobeyed the scriptures on forgiveness and dying to self. I let the sun go down on my anger for years. Seriously. Years. 

I believe it is not generational sins that caused my bondage to food, it is the fact that I have gone to something other than God to find comfort and solace.

Disobedience brings bondage. And the truth will set us free.

“I will always obey Your instruction, forever and ever.   I will walk freely in an open place because I seek Your precepts.” {Psalm 119:44-45}

Freedom flows through obedience and that’s the truth.

And finally, we come to this…

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.” {Matthew 4:1}

You know the story. We all know that Jesus overcame temptation by speaking the word of God to Satan. Except He didn’t.

Let’s be honest. It’s just us here, so why not? It is not a lack of knowledge of the Word of God that keeps us circling the drain of defeat. It’s our lack of actually doing what that Word says. Disobedience, not ignorance, is our issue, wouldn’t you say, just between you and me?

Jesus overcame temptation and defeated Satan not just through speaking the Word of God, but by obeying it. By refusing to make bread when He was –no food for 40 days– hungry.

(I would have made the bread. I would have made bread out of every rock I could find. I would have surrounded myself with rock biscuits.)

Power and victory flow through obedience.

And that’s where He got me. Because apparently, dying from a bondage to food wasn’t enough motivation. But if you tell me that obedience is warfare that will break the back of the enemy, I’m in. Well, I’m interested in being in. I’ve long ago learned that I tend to over commit.

Confession # whatever: Here I go again. Choosing steps of obedience. I will fall and flail about while doing it, because I know me and I know this thing that is gripping me. I will not beat my idol. The only way to be free is to walk away. To obediently walk away from self-soothing and self comfort. From feeding my emotions. From trying to escape by way of the fork in my hand. (I have no idea what I’m even trying to escape, but if you know my story at all, you know that escape was my very first addiction, and that horse is very much still in the race.) I know from experience that it is harder than it sounds on paper. But I also know Jesus, and that alone gives me the advantage.

So if you think of it, pray for me. However God leads you, pray.

When the Process is Painful

Because it isn’t if the process is painful. It will always be when, and that should change how we pray.

When we pray make me holy. Make my spouse holy. Make my children holy – then we must be willing to go through the pain of how God puts holy into us. But the hard part isn’t our pain, it’s watching those we love go through the painful process of God answering our prayers for His will be done in our family as it is in heaven.

Because for God’s will to be done, ours can’t be, and a human will in the process of dying is hard to watch.

Asking God to bring a prodigal to their senses.

Praying that those we love would walk free from fear and anxiety.

Asking God for more of His presence.

We know it isn’t a magic wand that brings the answers to our prayers. It is a powerful God and a good Father, who is committed to the process of forming Christ in us.

Which means unholy things get confronted.

Prodigals land at the end of themselves and the end of self is a painful place.

Fear and anxiety aren’t vanquished, they are faced, because trust is a choice we make in the face of something that feels more familiar.

The things we surround ourselves with must be removed, by us, to make room for more of His presence.

Wounds get opened so they can be cleansed so that the healing we prayed for can come.

Can deliverance and freedom come instantly by the hand of God? Absolutely.

But staying free is a process that involves our will and that process can be hard, because our flesh has to die in order for us to stay free, and man, that hurts.

I said all that to say this –

We pray for the outcome. God chooses the process. We cannot control it, and it will do no good to pray for God to skip the painful parts.

He loves us too much to say yes to that.

One last thing…

Not all answers to prayer are painful. God is so good, so gracious, and so merciful it’s ridiculous. But when we ask Him to do a work in us, or in the people we love, that makes us more like Jesus, you can bet something will have to die with the answer to that prayer.

A painful process is an indicator that God is doing something good. Keep praying!

My Beloved

“How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women?“

Song of Songs 5:9

How indeed.

My Beloved has a love like no other.

I have never known a love like His. So consistent, so willing to remain no matter what. A love that I have never had to earn, or fear losing. His is a love that heals and binds and pursues and protects and holds on and persists beyond the boundaries of my understanding. All other loves have broken me, but not His. His made me whole.

My Beloved is truer than any other.

His love is wrapped in mercy and grace and compassion that is not of this place. He has no flaw, no hidden agenda, no selfish motives. He will never show a dark side or prove to be someone other than who He has always been. And if I searched a million days and a million ways I would find no lie in Him, and He has never, not one time, gone back on His word. 

My Beloved is more faithful than any other.

He will never tire of me. Ever. He chose me and has no regret, no wondering if He made the right choice, no question, no moment of wishing He had chosen differently. I’ve never seen His back, even when He has seen mine. He has never let me down, left me disappointed, never made me feel used or too much or not enough. Every day He wants my presence, wants to hear my voice, wants to hold my heart.

My Beloved is more powerful than any other.

His power is unmatched in heaven or on earth. He makes darkness run and hide just by showing up. He makes mountains melt and is an impenetrable shield around me. He can calm any storm, split any sea, heal any disease, rend any veil, move any stone, and change any heart.

Jesus, You are better than any other, in more ways than I can count. I long to bow before You, throw down every crown, and give You endless praise. You are my first love, my King, my Savior, and my home.

The above was today’s devotional piece for Word of God Speak, my weekly email devotional, and this is my shameless pitch for you to subscribe to it. If you want. No pressure. Actually, you know what? Forget I said anything. Who needs another email? Seriously. Unless of course, you want to. Like, you’ve been wishing you could open an email on Fridays at 10 a.m. that would give you a little bite to eat, just a morsel to hold you over for a wee bit. I mean, if that’s the case then, by all means, you should totally hit the subscribe button below and fill out the very, very short form thingy. But only if you want to.

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Genesis 40—The Story God is Telling vs The Story We’re Reading

 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” 40:14-15

Loved by his father.

Given dreams by God.

Bought by Potipher, an officer of the King of Egypt. Elevated to be the overseer of his house.

Given dream interpretations by God, for two officials of the King of Egypt’s court, while in prison.

Hated by his brothers.

Sold into slavery by his brothers.

Falsely accused of rape by Potipher’s wife, and thrown into prison.

When those officials were released, Joseph was forgotten by them.

I don’t know what kind of emotional state Joseph was in by the time we come to the “forgotten in prison” chapter of his life. Was he angry? Confused? Depressed? We aren’t told, so I can only assume that Joseph’s emotional state is not a central issue. And that’s the eye-opener.

Because if most of us read Joseph’s story the way we read our own, his story is about the feelings of his life more than the purpose of his life.

{anyone else besides me get hit by that one?}

We would focus on the injustice and the wounding he experienced and what he did to get past all that and our lesson would be that even through his difficulties, he continued to serve God. It’s a good story and it’s a true story, but I don’t think it’s the story God is telling.

Joseph was hated by his brothers, which is why he got sold into slavery in Egypt. And Joseph was needed in Egypt.

Bought by Potipher, he became a trusted overseer in his master’s house. But then he was falsely accused, trust was broken, and he went to prison. Because prison is where God needed him to be.

In prison, he met two of the king’s officials who each had a dream, which Joseph interpreted. They were then let out of prison and, true to his interpretations, the baker was killed, and the cupbearer was restored to his position. Because God needed someone near the king to know that Joseph could interpret dreams.

And while Joseph had hoped to be released right away, the cupbearer forgot him, and it would be two years before he would remember the man in prison who could interpret dreams. Because in two years, the King of Egypt would have a disturbing dream, and lo and behold, not a single magician or wise man could interpret it. But that’s a part of the story for another time. Today, this is what I saw:

Joseph’s story wasn’t about his pain and suffering, but about his positioning. His pain and suffering led to Israel coming into Egypt to escape the famine, where they became quite numerous, which eventually made Egypt nervous, so they enslaved Israel.

“Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” Genesis 15:13-14

And somewhere in Israel, there would be a 17-year-old boy who was going to endure much pain and injustice, and it would position him to open the door for God’s words to Abraham to come to pass.

How have you been reading your story so far?